If the OP ever returns to tell us what kind of shop did the oil change, we’ll have a better guess on this.
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So far, I have no reason to believe the engine oil level sensor is inaccurate
The talk about letting the engine idle, and then re-checking the level has one big problem: there is no dipstick! The mechanic could well have not noticed this until the somewhat unknown amount of oil had been added.
I am particularly cautious because I do not enjoy buying $5000 engines.
This car has a very modern dipstick. In fact you operate it from the warmth and convenience of the driver’s seat. No need to get a rag or get your hands dirty.
You know, on this forum we regularly chide people for not performing the simple (to us) task of checking the oil once a week. Technology has caught up and now makes it possible to find out if the engine needs oil without even opening the hood. And we find ways to complain about that.
The oil level has been verified as being a quart low, the message on the dash says so. When my low fuel light comes on I don’t drain the gas tank to see how much is left, I go to the gas station and fill up.
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you don’t need a dipstick . . .
there’s a way for the owner to check the fluid level without a dipstick
you don’t need the scanner to check the level
If the mechanic doesn’t know how much oil he’s adding . . . he’s an idiot who should find a new job
I always know exactly how much engine oil I’m adding
you just enjoy being a sourpuss, don’t you . . . ?!
are you what would be described as “cantankerous” . . . ?!
or is “miserable old cuss” more appropriate . . . ?!
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Oil level monitors have been operating just fine for the last 20 years, now that there is no dipstick some people get nervous.
15 years ago the lube guys at work were goofing the oil changes on the Sprinter vans, the customers would return the next day with an “oil level too high” message, the engine was 1 quart over-filled. If an old cargo van can notify the driver if the engine is low by 1 or 2 quarts or overfilled why can’t we trust the oil monitor on a luxury vehicle?
The dipstick is an entry way for dirt and lint from rags, also a possible vent for hydrocarbon emissions. Since so few people use the dipstick why include it?
$50,000 car with no dipstick. Not uncommon on German cars.
My Audi, with the same engine has no dipstick but had a dipstick TUBE. So I installed a dipstick
Why include a dipstick, because if I change the oil and it shows the proper level on the dipstick, I know I can trust the dipstick. If the fancy monitor goes bad, how will I know?
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This type of concern represents 1 % of the new car market. Very few vehicle owners raise the hood.
Some people expect the vehicle to alert them before the engine runs low on oil causing damage, that capability was available 30 years ago.
Now that is subjective . . .
That’s actually not a common scenario
Everybody in my extended family checks the oil. I don’t know what the basis for your 1% figure is. Of coursem nobody in my extended family buys luxury cars and most of us change out own oil because we are tired of other people screwing it up. I don’t claim to be a typical car owner and I don’t thing most people on this site are either. I also don’t think all our kitchen and laundry appliances have to match, I don’t think that snowblowers and lawnmowers should last only a few years and I do my own taxes. It is not a high salary that give you money in the bank, it is spending less than you make. I knew somwone who leased a Ford Explorer form their wife to get to her 4 hour a day 3 day a week job in a grocery store 50 miles away from where they lived in Binghahton NY because she needed a reliable 4 wheel drive car to get to work. Her job did not even pay for the car and they had to buy it at the end of the lease because they were so over on the mileage.
Just be sure to write me when your complex oil-level system fails.
You can call me cantankerous, but all I am advocating for is the KISS principal. If the mechanic is filling your system from a large tank of oil, and gets interrupted by another customer, or has read the wrong spec for filling your car, or many other scenarios that add up to the good instructions to idle the car and re-check…then the mechanic has no way of doing it.
This whole thread started with someone who lost faith in the “automatic” system, and is really left with no good answer about what to do next other than to drain all the oil out and start over…and then to buy and calibrate a dipstick.
Using the language of Quality Control, the correct reason for having both the automatic system and the dipstick is that you now have an independent second check. The car that has both (cost = 25 cents) will avoid the 32 opinions on this thread about whether or not you should add a quart of oil to a car that just had its oil changed.
I worked in the hospital and constantly had to add independent second checks to systems that appeared to be working just fine, only because if they weren’t, someone could be killed. (Maybe that is what made me cantankerous!)
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Lol, the last part of this answer is perfect! I’m pretty young, but I would imagine similar conversations were had back when fuel gauges first came out.
Dipsticks aren’t infallible.
Carmakers have been known to put the wrong length dipsticks on engines.
Toyota changed the dipstick on their 1zzfe engine, in the late '90s IIRC.
They decided the engine would be happier with an additional 1/2 qt of oil.
To each their own but I will not drive my car around with the motor oil level down by 15 to 20%. The remaining oil is just having to work that much harder. And I’ve had this discussion with 2 oil company chemists; one being a long time friend’s father who worked for a regional refinery and the other being the owner of a SAAB I used to service regularly and who worked for Conoco.
The last thing I want is to be near the western end of the OK Panhandle (a.k.a. No Man’s Land…) on the way to CO and have a “Low Oil” message appear with the nearest auto parts store or Wal Mart being 60 to 80 miles away.
I do agree the sensors are reliable. None of them have ever failed on my cars or family members cars but I prefer that oil level to be at the FULL level all of the time. Just like I prefer my blood remaining at the FULL mark… 
As for Low Fuel warnings; those can be iffy. With my Sonoma when the LF lamp came on I had 8 miles of driving before having to walk. Recently the fuel pump died and after replacing the pump module I now have 5+ gallons remaining when the LF lamp illuminates…
Sure the mechanic has a way of checking it. Turn the key on, select the oil level screen on the menu and it will show you where the level is and how far from full.
To the discussion… my Ford has a low oil level switch and a dipstick. If the oil gets too low, the engine won’t start.
Obviously, the Ford system is a fail-safe system for the drivers who are completely baffled about the purpose of the dipstick. I wonder whether having the truck not start after two or three times of running it very low on oil…do they then decide to learn the ins and outs of correct dipstick usage?
I am also curious exactly how low the oil must be before the fail-safe is triggered.
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In terms of a mechanic check at the time of an oil change. Remember that this whole discussion involves a oil-level system that the OP does not trust. If I am the driver and I don’t want to trust the system, I also don’t want my mechanic to trust it.
There are really only two choices for the OP, as shown by many answers.
Choice #1 is to pretend that the system is right, and add a qt of oil, fingers crossed.
Choice #2 is to assume that the system is wrong, and make the independent checks to re-certify its operation.
If the car had a dipstick, everybody who has responded would take Choice #2. Thus my complaint about no dipstick.
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I can just see that on Monday, there is going to be a huge demand not only for the vaccine, as could have been predicted, but also on Audi dipsticks.
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