Oil warning solved

[Krockit1]

Just had my oil change for spring, new filter and 9 fresh quarts in. Picked the car up and when the oil indicator finally came on it showed exactly a quart low. Drove the car under 3,000 rpm for a couple days and did 6 or 7 resets, with the same result. Called the shop and they had me bring it in without an appointment, added 1/4 of a quart and when the oil came up to temperature again the indicator showed exactly full to the top arrow. Can't say if you will get the same result, but as many of us have experienced this same frustration with BMW's electronic dipstick, thought I would pass my experience along. You might imagine my relief!

Want to give a shout out to Eurotech in New Brighton, MN. Having recently moved to the Twin Cities, it was my first experience with these guys and they were just terrific servicing after the sale to solve this. They are German auto fans to the core and provided excellent service and knowhow. Also- Had a daytime running lamp out and they replaced it for a nominal cost. Glad I decided against bright white and stayed with the OEM look!

[Ximian]

The bottles of oil from BMW, Castrol, Liqui Moly, Shell, etc should be in liters, not quarts. If only 9 quarts were added, you're almost half a liter short. About 9.2 liters is what you add to get it to the top of the fill line if the oil filter housing had the used oil drained from it (I use a turkey baster).

I know EuroTech uses Liqui Moly and they probably have a big drum of it, so it's easy to miss a few tenths of a liter.

Also check out the BMW CCA "Sommer Schnell Driving School @ BIR" which happens in a couple of weeks. It's a great time and I bring spares of pretty much everything if you happen to need it and techs from Motorwerks BMW attend as well to help out with any mechanical issues. https://www.motorsportreg.com/events...bmw-cca-645427

[DavidZ]

Originally Posted by Krockit1

Picked the car up and when the oil indicator finally came on it showed exactly a quart low.

Could you be a little more specific? Was it the "+1L" message?

[Scharbag]

8.8L = 9.3qt. I find adding 8.8L gets me to the exact middle of the little bar graph. Most cars can handle being down a qt of oil without any worries. And most cars do not have such a large oil capacity.

Happy your story ended well.

Cheers,

[Richbot]

lol

my oil was low and I added a little and now it's showing it's not low anymore

sweet

FWIW, my car takes exactly 9 quarts of Redline 5w50 every time, it's very repeatable, but I've still been burned so many times by the readout that I always leave half a quart in a can and drive it for a couple days until the level levels off, then add if it's still asking for more. Since I started using Redline about 40k ago, it's never not needed that extra half quart to get to the "full" reading, but, habits

[roastbeef]

for those that get the occasional "overfilled" message- i slightly overfilled my car last month. i used my mityvac fluid extractor to suck the oil out of the oil filter housing and replaced the filter (filter holds a little oil, and might as well replace it while you're in there).
i sucked almost 1/4 quart of oil just out of the housing. with what stays in the filter, it was probably a full 1/4 quart. just a psa for the guys that read the form myth that it is possible to "just drain a little" out of the oil pan.