Please advise...Last night I got a low oil message. My Q is....

[EricV]

Hey there. Been a while since I've been back here- you guys have always been great. THE source of knowledge on e34's! I have a '93 525 5 spd with 97K on it that has been pretty much trouble free (oh yeah, the shimmies, radiators, coils, and all that, but that comes with these cars!) I barely lose oil, at least very slowly during my changes (just a couple of millimeters down the dipstick during an interval.) Last night I get home and turn the car off and I see the scrolling "Low engine oil- check owners manual" message. Ugh! Like any good e34'er, I immediately tell the wife and child I am unavailable to them owing to nothing short of a BMW EMERGENCY and immediately climb under to start looking for any obvious leaks or such. Went over it all w/ a toothcomb, nothing doing (some old seepage, but nothing obvious going on.) Check the oil, the level was about 1/3 of the way down the dipstick from full. I also (last weekend) checked the valve cover gasket I replaced about a year ago and all looked fine. SO, is this the usual level at which the Warning is set off or is there the possibility that the electronics are Fu#*ing w/ me? :) My fear, now, is that my rings and such are in the early stages of giving up the ghost and I'm (gasp) burning/losing appreciable amounts of black gold, albeit synthetic gold. When cold, I do see some smoke but that goes way. Advice on how to approach this?

My sincere thanks- so sorry to go long!

Eric

[Dave M]

my 525im has @490,000km on the bottom end. It seems that my low oil indicator sounds at about the same level as yours (1/3 form the top to bottom marks). There is a bit of burning going on, especially under vacuum conditions. Cylinder head is fresh, not sure if its ring related, haven't had a leak down test done, but the comp test hasn't shown a marked reduction in any particular cylinder. May also be PCV related. In a nutshell, I'm not too concerned as the vehicle runs great and a wee bit of oil every few thousand kms is a small price.
Anyhow, probably haven't helped, but let us know your oil change intervals and oil specs and someone here may help.

Good luck,

Dave M

[Dick Schneiders]

is in between the two marks. I assume from your description that it was in between the marks and closer to the full mark. This is either a problem with some wiring or connection to the sensor, or a faulty sensor. The sensor is bolted to the bottom of the oil pan, somewhat in the middle. I had the same problem in one of my 1991 525i's. It started happening infrequently when I shut the engine off. It gradually got worse so that it was happening most of the times when I shut the engine off. I don't recall it ever coming on when I was driving the car, though. This car uses no oil and the level was always in the normal range. I replaced the sensor and the problem went away.

Dick Schneiders


Hey there. Been a while since I've been back here- you guys have always been great. THE source of knowledge on e34's! I have a '93 525 5 spd with 97K on it that has been pretty much trouble free (oh yeah, the shimmies, radiators, coils, and all that, but that comes with these cars!) I barely lose oil, at least very slowly during my changes (just a couple of millimeters down the dipstick during an interval.) Last night I get home and turn the car off and I see the scrolling "Low engine oil- check owners manual" message. Ugh! Like any good e34'er, I immediately tell the wife and child I am unavailable to them owing to nothing short of a BMW EMERGENCY and immediately climb under to start looking for any obvious leaks or such. Went over it all w/ a toothcomb, nothing doing (some old seepage, but nothing obvious going on.) Check the oil, the level was about 1/3 of the way down the dipstick from full. I also (last weekend) checked the valve cover gasket I replaced about a year ago and all looked fine. SO, is this the usual level at which the Warning is set off or is there the possibility that the electronics are Fu#*ing w/ me? :) My fear, now, is that my rings and such are in the early stages of giving up the ghost and I'm (gasp) burning/losing appreciable amounts of black gold, albeit synthetic gold. When cold, I do see some smoke but that goes way. Advice on how to approach this?

My sincere thanks- so sorry to go long!

Eric

[henryw525i]

I had the problem and took my sensor out and flushed it out with fuel becasue it was gunked up and now it works fine:)

[EricV]

Hey there. Been a while since I've been back here- you guys have always been great. THE source of knowledge on e34's! I have a '93 525 5 spd with 97K on it that has been pretty much trouble free (oh yeah, the shimmies, radiators, coils, and all that, but that comes with these cars!) I barely lose oil, at least very slowly during my changes (just a couple of millimeters down the dipstick during an interval.) Last night I get home and turn the car off and I see the scrolling "Low engine oil- check owners manual" message. Ugh! Like any good e34'er, I immediately tell the wife and child I am unavailable to them owing to nothing short of a BMW EMERGENCY and immediately climb under to start looking for any obvious leaks or such. Went over it all w/ a toothcomb, nothing doing (some old seepage, but nothing obvious going on.) Check the oil, the level was about 1/3 of the way down the dipstick from full. I also (last weekend) checked the valve cover gasket I replaced about a year ago and all looked fine. SO, is this the usual level at which the Warning is set off or is there the possibility that the electronics are Fu#*ing w/ me? :) My fear, now, is that my rings and such are in the early stages of giving up the ghost and I'm (gasp) burning/losing appreciable amounts of black gold, albeit synthetic gold. When cold, I do see some smoke but that goes way. Advice on how to approach this?

My sincere thanks- so sorry to go long!

Eric