Odd. My wife's 2004 X5 with the M52 3.0 has a low oil warning that turns the oil light on yellow. It will first start coming on just afer shutting the car off. If the level goes low enough, the light stays on yellow. At that point it's down about 1.5L, just about off the dipstick. For reference, low oil pressure turns the light on red instead of yellow.

Do you have the Owners Manual for your 2004 545i? If not, BMW, at least in the USA, has on line, for PDF file download the manuals by model and year. As audiophool has stated above, there should be a message displayed in the CIC if the engine oil is down by 1.5 liters. Only realized this feature existed by looking at my Owners manual this morning. Never had a low oil situation on my m54...

I have the manual for the n62 equipped 2005 545 and it does not mention anything about any messages being displayed for low oil level. Perhaps that is for the m54 engine.

I would have thought if the lowly 6 has a warning system along with a dipstick, the N62 would. I'll check with my buddy with an X5/N62 today - he's an oilburner.

Well I am curious to see what you come up with.

Perhaps BMW started that system with the N62tu 4.8 version. I am certainly not going to allow the oil to drop to off the dipstick just to find out if there is a "yellow" low level alarm!

BTW, I don't think of the 6 cylinders as lowly.

I have my manual silly me never accured for me to look to see if there is a warning light

Buddy has the 2006 X5 4.4. It tells him "CHECK ENGINE OIL" when it's low. Message comes up on the instrument panel under tach/speedo. No idea if it's implemented on the pre-LCI iDrive.

My lowly 400hp (modded) N54 has no dipstick and does it all through iDrive. I'd rather have a dipstick.

PS: the M54 in an X5 qualifies for lowly.

So, it appears that the pre-LCI n62 does not have the low oil level indicator feature. At least mine doesn't.

Does your buddy's manual note that he has this? If not, then perhaps this is one of those "hidden" features not mentioned in my manual.

no warning light in the manual. I today put half ltr more in
the engine still no sign of oil. I know I might sound
like a dipstick but is it conceivable that the dipstick in my
car is to short