Oil warning light flashing?
 

Hello all,

Ever since I did an oil change a week ago i noticed that the oil warning light would trickle or just briefly flash when idle on traffic light. I checked the oil level, it is spot on. Oil used is the same as it was before. They sucked the old oil out and poured 7 liters of new one along with the filter change. Only difference is that I was not there the whole time so I don't know if they messed something up and they did pressure wash the engine with water once done. I inspected the oil filter housing and engine and everything seems fine.

What to do next?

Doesn't this car take 8qts?

7 liters brings it in the middle of low and max mark in my case, that's what really matters I guess. I can bring it to the max mark I guess, but after the last change it was 7l as well and no problems for 15000 kms...

sounds like you are underfilling it and the oil light comes on under certain circumstances. BMW's drink oil, you're always better filling it to max. I cant remember if its 8 or 8.5qt on a m54. I think its 8.5 and I fill with 9 on a oil change with filter.

Otherwise, it could be your oil level sensor going bad. Either way, as long as your not running 84K mi OCI, you should be fine.

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...0.jpg~original

that VR6 engine suffer a lot. i had that experience with a old Merk 320E i think it was and another was a X5 3.0 E70,that was when i used to work in a Euro mechanic shop.

What is confusing is that just before the oil change the level was close to low and this did not happen. I agree, It definitely doesn't hurt to add more oil. I was just wondering why it started happening while the circumstances didn't really change. Oh well...

Could always change the oil level sensor and see if it goes away.

Everything works until it breaks...

The oil level sensors do go bad on these, I've changed 2 or 3 on M54 engines to eliminate intermittent flashing of the oil can light. All were at around 120k miles or more I think...

What an awesome photo...
I received an email last year in error, from a local Toyota dealer in regard to a troublesome Camry owned by a local business with a similar sounding name to ours (thus they sent the email to us by mistake). It had several photos attached of the motor stripped down, with resultant sludge and gunk in oil valleys. The service dept manager of the local Toyota dealer suggested to this business owner (in their email) that they should bring their vehicle in for servicing a bit more regularly than once every 100,000 kms... The quote for repairs (new engine) was $7000 plus labour on a vehicle that was probably worth much less... Some people just don't get it eh!
Surprisingly, I saw this Camry back on the road a month later... go figure!

Maybe this is why BMW changed the oil change interval from 15,000 miles.

Sort of ditto what Trader4 said..WHAT oil warning light do you have illuminated...a pic is worth a thousand words? There are different ones for different reasons...plus it depends on which instrument cluster you have as well as when the warning light illuminates.

The high cluster gives a text warning for both low oil level & oil pressure along with a yellow or red warning light. The low cluster only has different warning lights.

If the oil warning light illuminates in RED and the high cluster gives the message "STOP! ENGINE OIL PRESS"...then the issue is OIL PRESSURE...not OIL LEVEL:

http://bimmerboard.com/members/q/ori...Warning%20.jpg

And depending on if the OIL WARNING light illuminates in yellow while driving along or when the engine is turned off...it could be extremely low oil level or just time to top off the oil with a quart/liter:

http://bimmerboard.com/members/q/ori...g%20Lights.jpg

^Yes, sorry I was assuming he meant the yellow oil can illumination which would indicate level. If it's red, then it's pressure. Sorry should have clarified.

Also agreed on the connection/short if the sensor hasn't failed. I've had to replace 3 sensors on M54's in various chassis. Definitely not an actual oil level issue as you mention.

Were you there to see what oil they used?