what does message mean?

[DeFran50]

hey everyone! kind of new to thw forum but love everything about it and have already gotten some good advice by just reading..but i have come across a problem and want to see if any other members have ever experience it..I have an 03 4.6 and i live in CT...so it is cold this time of yr..but I started the X a couple weeks ago and across the screen it read"STOP!ENGINE OIL PRESS"....I was like what is this and shut the engine off..as the engine turned off it then read CHECK ENGINE OIL LEVEL....now i do my own bmw synthetic oil changes with new filters every 7k to7,500k...and had just recently done one about 2k before this happened...so i checked the oil level and it was down a lil so i added a quart and it was then where it was suppose to be...I just never really new until a few days ago that the X's do burn quite a bit of oil..and I am hoping that it was all it was and now I know that I haved to check it more in between changes and will prob have to add a quart or two..but what was with the STOP!ENGINE OIL PRESS message? it makes me nervous..also I noticed that since that happened that morning and most of that day until I added the quart that my engine oil temp gauge under my speedometer was reading on the low side..and I am told that it should normally read in the middle..please if anyone has had any of these messages?, know how much oil is avg to burn every 7500 miles?, how much oil is avg to add in quarts?and also where that oil temp gauge should read? I would greatly appreciate some feedback....thanks in advance to anyone who has any info or suggestions

[JCL]

Adding a quart in 2000 miles is not unusual. Check it every so often so that you can develop a sense of how much it is burning. I wouldn't worry at that consumption level.

The oil pressure warning could be a sensor malfunction. If it happens again, get it checked out.

[princemoe2m]

i dont think u have any oil pressure, do u have any oil leak?
mines did that once due to the bad oil filter housing that goes in the middle of the oil filter ( its kinna plastic rod)the tooth of it was chewed up where it sets in the oil flter and they dont sell that part by its self so i had to buy the whole oil filter housing to replace it, and since thn no message came one ( knock on wood ) :S

[TheGodfather]

Well my current situation tells me I would rather pay BMW $200 to definitively diagnose this problem instead of ending up needing a new engine.

The chances that your symptoms are gonna lead to catastrophic engine failure are slim to none...but why risk it?

Anyways that's my very biased opinion.

[JCL]

DeFran:

As I understand it, your stop engine/low oil pressure light came on once, and then when you shut the engine off (which was the right thing to do) it reset, and didn't come back on. You did have a low oil level warning, which you resolved by adding one quart of oil, which brought it to the correct level.

There are different sensors for oil level, and for oil pressure. If your oil level gets low enough, the oil pump will suck air and you will have no oil pressure. However, that takes a significantly lower oil level, not just one quart. You can be several quarts down without risking low oil pressure. If it was only one quart down, the two are not directly related IMO.

If the low oil pressure light stayed on, then I would suspect either a failing oil pump, or engine bearings worn to the point that there is low oil pressure at idle, resolving itself at higher engine speeds. Since it was a one-time occurence, the most likely problem is the oil pressure sensor itself. It is located near the oil filter housing, from memory. The diagnosis is to check the actual oil pressure with a gauge, and make sure that is in spec first. Then, if the light is still on, the switch can be confirmed to be working correctly or not. Since the light is out now, it may be difficult to diagnose the switch. You could get the actual engine oil pressure checked anyway, as suggested above, but you appear to have driven it since it happened, and if you aren't hearing any new noises from the engine you can assume you have oil pressure.

If the light comes back, check oil level, see if the light goes off above idle, and if it stays on, get it checked out before driving it.

There are multiple posts on this sensor failing if you do a search.

Good luck.