Engine Oil Level Sensor 2002 X5 3.0
 

Has anyone had their oil level sensor fail? My light does not come on at all anymore. No warning light, no error light, no check engine light. Luckily I do check my oil. Got back from a 600 mile drive and needed to add 1.5 quarts and the oil light never came on. It use to come whenever I was a quart low. Not anymore. Any ideas?

Thanks.

Yes those sensors do fail.

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While they can fail, they don't generally fail to report a level, they cause other electrical faults.

Easy to check. Drain two quarts out and see if it is on. Put the oil back in and see if the light goes off. You have to drain the oil to change the sensor, so may as well make sure before starting that job.

I've been wondering about this too since mine never comes on any more.

Does anyone have a DIY for replacing the sensor?

Very easy to do:

1. remove splash guard covering oil pan
2. drain oil
3. disconnect the wire to the oil level sensor. The sensor is at the opposite end of the oil pan from the drain. You'll see it clearly when you remove the splash guard.
4. remove the oil level sensor. It is held on by three small nuts.
5. replace with new sensor and O-ring.
6. connect wire to sensor.
7. replace splash guard
8. refill oil

That's all there is to it. Good luck.

Thank you very much! :thumbup:

thanks for that guys! yes my oil is consistently burning off and Im topping off 1-2 quarts every 800 miles or so. Itd be great to have a low oil indicator let me know rather than pulling out the dipstick and theres no oil at all on it!

I will buy this sensor and replace

Yep, very easy to do. My oil light just stopped coming on, so I would check my oil every time I gas up. I think the sensor was around $60. I thought that if the sensor failed, the check oil level light would always stay, but mine did not. It just never came on anymore.

My local BMW dealer wants $170.62 for the oil level sensor. Hella makes it, as well as Meyle. The Meyle is $60, the Hella is about $93. Standard Ignition also makes it. L26001 I cant find a price for it. From what I can tell, Hella is the oem supplier for the sensor.