Measuring Engine Oil Level | Continuously Fails at 21%

[Branflakes123]

It makes no sense to me and is a big reason why I decided to not bring the car back to that specific dealer. I will be taking the car to Cedar Park Toyota under many recommendations. I have chosen not to address oil consumption with them, rather only specifically target this senor's issues. I understand driving like I do causes some level of oil consumption, and I don't care about the extra quart of oil in my glovebox, but I don't want to blow my engine because I had no idea I was below minimum.

So for now I am using Bimmerlink to view raw sensor data. Can anyone tell me what the minimum level in mm is for this oil level? It is my understanding that the car tells you to add 1L of oil when it's only 500ml low on oil. But this sensor just spit out a value in mm telling you what it sees in the oil pan.

The full level according to my sensor immediately after oil change is between 94-95mm.

I see the low message come on at around 78mm. Adding a quart brings the oil level up 9-11mm. So Honestly I'm gonna start adding oil at 83mm. The low alert does not seem to appear until the oil level is down 1.5 quarts.

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[32bitsofGil]

I’m gonna drop in an update:

I took my car to Cedar Park Toyota and they opted to replace both the oil pump and the oil level sensor. Once both of these replaced I can measure perfectly my oil level every time. I actually also consume less oil than before but I also crossed that magic 10k mile mark where that supposedly is going to happen anyway. Two quarts of oil since the 3k miles I put on the car since last service.
Seems everything is to spec now.

 

[mkv_ppf]

The full level according to my sensor immediately after oil change is between 94-95mm.

I see the low message come on at around 78mm. Adding a quart brings the oil level up 9-11mm. So Honestly I'm gonna start adding oil at 83mm. The low alert does not seem to appear until the oil level is down 1.5 quarts.

Yeah but if the sensor malfunctions how do you know it’s correct

 

[32bitsofGil]

Yeah but if the sensor malfunctions how do you know it’s correct

You don’t. Very dangerous situation. When I had mine replaced it was seized completely so any reading would be false.

you Can go to the bimmerlink dashboard and add a gauge for “raw oil level” and “min recognized level” that should show you these results

 

[mkv_ppf]

You don’t. Very dangerous situation. When I had mine replaced it was seized completely so any reading would be false.

you Can go to the bimmerlink dashboard and add a gauge for “raw oil level” and “min recognized level” that should show you these results

But again, because the sensor sometimes work and sometimes don’t work you can’t really count on the raw data and the min recognized level right? Or is that a different sensor?

 

[32bitsofGil]

But again, because the sensor sometimes work and sometimes don’t work you can’t really count on the raw data and the min recognized level right? Or is that a different sensor?

Same sensor, that is why it is dangerous. At least you get SOME reading.

It can also have to do with the oil pump, which was replaced for me as well. Once they replaced the sensor it wasn't working again until the oil pump got replaced as well.

 

[mkv_ppf]

Same sensor, that is why it is dangerous. At least you get SOME reading.

It can also have to do with the oil pump, which was replaced for me as well. Once they replaced the sensor it wasn't working again until the oil pump got replaced as well.

That’s so weird, because when I do logs it seems pretty accurate haha

 

[Branflakes123]

I'm not entirely sure that the oil sensor is that unreliable. At least my personal experience is that I cannot use the iDrive oil level check when the oil temp is above a certain value. This would lead you to think that the oil sensor is not working properly. But on the other hand, I've continued to manually read the raw data via bimmerlink and it has not shown anything unusual (I have 25k miles worth of data to reference).

My car still consumes the same amount of oil at 40k miles as it did at 10k miles. I'm able to confirm this every time I change the oil and measure what comes out. So my sensor is still working, but it seems the oil pump is what prevents the iDrive check from working properly. Maybe I'll try to change the pump next season.

 

[32bitsofGil]

I'm not entirely sure that the oil sensor is that unreliable. At least my personal experience is that I cannot use the iDrive oil level check when the oil temp is above a certain value. This would lead you to think that the oil sensor is not working properly. But on the other hand, I've continued to manually read the raw data via bimmerlink and it has not shown anything unusual (I have 25k miles worth of data to reference).

My car still consumes the same amount of oil at 40k miles as it did at 10k miles. I'm able to confirm this every time I change the oil and measure what comes out. So my sensor is still working, but it seems the oil pump is what prevents the iDrive check from working properly. Maybe I'll try to change the pump next season.

Don’t do this yourself if you can help it. Requires steering rack to be dropped and there is two torque-to-yield bolts in there you will need to order new ones.

had my dealership do it under warranty.

 

[zrk]

Don’t do this yourself if you can help it. Requires steering rack to be dropped and there is two torque-to-yield bolts in there you will need to order new ones.

had my dealership do it under warranty.

Replacing the steering rack is a one hour job with a friend. Not a big deal.

 

[32bitsofGil]

Replacing the steering rack is a one hour job with a friend. Not a big deal.

I do what I want ?

 

[HAL 9000]

I replaced an oil pump recently for this issue. I had to drop the whole front subframe and support the engine with poll jacks. Really wasn’t that bad to do being my first time.

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