abcsworld

On my 530XD E61 march06 2006 the engine oil low level warning pops up after 60 to 90 km drives at legal speed limit on motorway(Uk an france) ( about 130km/hr, in the 2000rpm range or below in 6 gear). If I switch off the engine, and restart immediatly (to not let things cool down) message disappears...well it can take another 40 to 60km before warning comes up again, but ultimately it will come back. Luckily cars has a dipstick ...and dipstick level always shows engine oil level is fine. No sign of oil leak anywhere.
Gave the car to the dealer who confirmed oil is fine. just in case. they changed the oil and filter putted back nice LL04 oil and changed the oil temperature sensor (as in fact BMW doe not measure the level but the temperature)...Yet problem persist. . Well car is under 2 years guaranty still... so at least BMW cares.

has anybody observed such problem? Any suggestions? Let say dealer is nicely trying and keep apologizing but has been quite clueless this far.

Other than that car runs great (even with panoramic roof and run flat tyres in all conditions (snows in the alpes or rainy wales, or Icy champagne). just that damned oil warning...Any way to get an idea of oil temperature? or cooling water temp (although that looks fine too)? Thanks for help in advance from me litle newBe.

e60scotland

Hi abc

Could it simply be an early warning? I know at 12k mls i had the warning light, I checked and all seemed well but when checked at the dealer i needed 2ltrs of top up.

I take it the dealer let your car stand still for 20 mins prior to the dip check ?

Other than that it could be a faulty sensor/wiring.

Sorry if you know this already, on a flat surface when engine cool is the best place/time to check your oil level.

Good luck.

JStraw

abcsworld:

I have a similar thing, but not quite the same, so it may not be the same issue....

Over the past few weeks, I have noticed that couple times when I let the car warm up for 10 mins or so before driving off, I get a "Engine Oil level at minimim" warning. If I shut the car off, and re-start, warning goes away. If I don't let the car warm up, and drive off after about 2 to 3 mins, I do not get the warning.

Weather has been bone chilling here in the Chicago area, but don't know what is causing this error.

I am almost ready for an oil-change anyway (It's been almost a year since my last one), so will take it to the dealer soon.

Cheers.

abcsworld

Thanks for your answer.

i do not usually let the engine warm up (and I do check oil level as per BMW manual, meaning warm engine but 10 minutes off after warm up, on flat parking). yet it does seems to me that the problem is coming faster when ... outside temperature is colder (specially below 10 deg Celcius). So I am certain oil level is proper (in fact at max) and so did confirm my BMW dealer.

I cannot think of a reason except, maybe the engine cooling not regulating properly.
By cold weather if the water cooling is 'limited' so as to keep the engine 'warmer' (specially large diesel direct injection engines are slow to pick up on temperature), it might keep running engine slightly too warm, or warm enough to trigger the oil temp. I am not pretending to be expert of any kind there. just that I can see thermal budget of the engine not being proper maybe.

Second hypothesis might be just electronic goofing up. This is why I was asking if there would be a trick that would allow me to access any maintenance software on idrive to read oil temp or engine cooling water temp...

I speak german too so I can read BMW menu in Goethe mother tongue. just have no clue on how to access it.... If anybody has a hint on this .

Anyhow thanks to all for your answer and your time reading these lines. Merci.

abcsworld

Would anybody know a way to get oil temp or engine cooling water temp from idrive? [on a 530XD E61 2006].

abcsworld

Gave car back to dealer today for them to check again why I keep having this oil low level warning (although all runs fine, dipstick show oil level = max and car runs great). Now that I made 3000 km since last oil change the frequency at which this lights up is simple: it take between 25 and 27km at 120km/hr on the freeway. Driving slower or faster does not seems to impact.

They say they will check wiring, as well as possibly change sensor again....Anyhow, under warranty. Negotiated free control check with it..

Does anybody knows where this oil temp / level sensor is on E61 530XD apr2006? ? Any picture welcome.
Also the sensor ..is just a sensor. Thus somewhere the car must have a voltmeter that translate the sensor reading. And where would that be? CCC?

Any input welcome. Thanks.

TX Buzzard

Interesting, to say the least! I have an '08 550i with less than 5,500 miles and at 3,600 miles the oil sensor was telling me the oil level was too high. I took it into the dealer, they replaced the oil and changed out the sensor... a week later the same thing. It has been at the dealer again now for over a week and they cannot figure it out... nor can BMW. The 550i still has a dipstick so it is easily confirmed the oil level is not actually too high... it must be a software or wiring problem.

The real concern here is without oil pressure or water temp. gauges you have to be able to rely on the information and warning systems through iDrive. Yet if this "overly-enginered" technology is not dependable you are screwed! I guess if the cooling system ever fails and the software is not functioning properly you will not know about it until it is too late. Personally I find this very concerning and unacceptable!

Anyone know of any after-market gauges available for the E60?

jes0331

I saw a post (cant remember where) showing the design of the sensor used to measure oil level, temp, quality, etc. Pretty ingenious.

As oil level rises and falls, the level of oil between two plates changes the capacitance. The software reads the capacitance and determines if you have too much or too little oil. It measures electrical flow throught he oil to determine condition of the oil as well.

Its all electronic magic (or hokus pokus). Seems like if the sensor is not calibrated properly, it could easily give false readings. The software probably just reads the levels coming off the sensor, and given certain ranges decides to issue a visual warning or not.

abcsworld

I did extensive search in the forum with all kind of keywords, and did find many things but nothing that explains how the thing work...

yet I had talk with the mechanics at the dealer, and as I am electronic background I do not mind details...yet they do. In short on diesel engines the oil level is measure through...the oil temperature and rate at which oil temperature varies. So the oil sensor is just a thermocouple of some kind. Meaning somewhere the car has a voltmeter to translate that signal into any meaning, and somewhere the soft must have a high and low limits.

If I had schematics I would read through it easily. But i could not get that. Somewhere there must be a reference voltage and that would be obtained through a converter and some kind of Zener diode some where. So it could be a simple component on a board that dies...try to explain this to a mechanics...

Interesting thing though is when oil was changed, (using LL04 Castrol 0W30) it was taking about 100 to 120km before the warning of min level would go on. So it does mean that as engine runs something is changing thermal behavior or capacitance behavior of the oil. It could be metallic particle and such. i am just waiting to see what dealer come up with...and will do oil analysis to see what it says on the engine. Also noticed something strange. If I switch off the engine, and restart right away message is gone...and it takes another 20~25km to come back. I asked BMW on frequency of temperature measurement (I doubt it is continuous) and they could not comment. I asked how pressure was influencing the measurement as oil pressure at fixed volume should mean oil flow rate and if flow rate is insufficient temperature will definitely rise....Thus my question few weeks ago if anybody would know how to acces these two key parameters through i-drive: oil temp and oil pressure. A bit of a shame that for a car in that price range it is not easily available... even Fiat does better. My old one of 30 years ago when I was student had it...vorsprung durch technics . Vielleicht nicht ! Rein gar nichts! or ultimate driving machine. Tout cela est tres desolant...

jes0331

I did search around and finally came upon the post and document I referred to before. Here it is. Its not terribly technical, but gives some info on how the sensor works. It says the diagram applies to the N52 engine. So may not be applicable in your case. But I assume BMW would use a common design across their various engines. I hope you (and others) find it useful.