Chris Mac

Cant reset my oil service indicator on my 06 550i. When I first bought the car a couple years ago I took it in to the stealership for a oil change (last time I did that, change my own oil now). When I came to pick it up they told me they couldn’t reset the oil service indicator, and said it was the oil level sensor on the bottom of oil pan. They gave me a quote for $500 so I just left it as is, knowing I had just changed oil. I left it like that till I got tired of the car telling me to change the oil every time I started the car. I ordered a new oil level sensor from fcp euro and waited till I needed another oil change. well that was today.
I installed new sensor and changed oil. Went to reset oil service indicator and........still won’t work.
On the reset screen it just goes to 0 miles and doesn’t reset. Has anyone every heard or had this happen?
Any help would be very appreciated
06 550i 55k miles N62 engine

scottalexander

Ideas:

- look at the pins in the electrical wire harness. Are they bent? Are they covered with oil?
- Follow the sensor wire. Is it shorting out upstream (somehow) on a piece of metal?
- maybe your new oil level sensor is DOA?
- what else is on that bus? Are those components working?

Chris Mac

All good ideas.
When I changed the oil level sensor I checked all wires and harness and everything looked good. I traced the wires as far as I could and couldn’t find any damage. No exposed wires or cuts, nicks that I could see.
After further research I found out that if the sensor was bad or wiring messed up I would have gotten a code saying oil level sensor failure. Didn’t have that before or after I changed it. So I am starting to think it’s not the sensor or wiring but something else.
What that is I have no idea.

JeremyR

Once I swapped out my oil level sensor because of a similar problem. It did not give any readings.

When I got the part, somehow I received the wrong part. It looked identically the same,(I think just the cover plate was a different color) but it did not give any readings.

Purchased one from a next supplier and that work that looked 100% like my original one, and that worked.

cmyachtie

Did you reset the fault code first?
if not do or now and see what happens after driving it for awhile.

Chris Mac

i didn’t have any fault codes. Just won’t let me reset my oil service.

scottalexander

I'm guessing the electrical harness connecting to the oil sensor is not hot.

Take a second and get the multi-meter out. Is there:

- voltage at the pins on the harness?
- continuity test at the pins?

cmyachtie

based on current info here I would be willing to bet that you now have two perfectly good sensors, because if the sensor was the problem there must have been a faultcode so my guess is that the fault lies more with messaging
to the instrument cluster.

scottalexander

Is there a way to rig (retrofit) a manual dip stick on an e60?

Chris Mac

Ok, I stand corrected. Although I don’t have a fault code on the scanner for a faulty oil level sensor, I do have a oil level sensor malfunction alert on the service requirement screen in the car.
I don’t recall seeing this before I switched out the new sensor.
The mystery deepens, but I’m leaning more toward the wiring harnesses or a short somewhere along the line.
When I have time I’ll get under and check it.