Question for fellow board members....

[leebro1]

this morning before i got into the car, i had this funny feeling to check the oil...to my surprise, i pulled the dipstick out and the oil level was way below the minimum!!!! i'm talking half way down the point of the dipstick BELOW the required minimum oil level...i almost passed out on the spot...i checked it a couple of times of course just to make sure i wasn't seeing things and immediately dumped oil into it...after i filled the car up, i let it idle for alittle bit and drove it very carefully for a couple of miles before i resumed normal driving...everything seems fine now but i have two questions: 1) how come the warning didn't go off and 2)do you think i did any damage to the engine? my car only has 1900 miles on it...any input would be very appreciated....thanks

John

[This message has been edited by leebro1 (edited 30 April 2001).]

[M5Laser]

Whoa that sucks man! I know nothing about how the sensors work but you would of thought that it would of said something!?
I would guess that your engine is probably fine though. They have to give you some leniency right? And I would think that you would of felt it if it got dangerously low in oil. Surely a warning would of gone off then. You didn't hear a ping noise at idle did you?
Good thing that you had that feeling to check your oil - funny how those things work

I hope its ok!
-Dunc

[MEnthusiast]

I think the M cars have very deep oil pans so I doubt you did damage, but I would call my dealer to double check.

ME

[leebro1]

there was no ping or any warning...i did notice a little dot that lights up under the resetable mileage counter (the one you reset near the speedometer after every fill-up) and immediately checked the manual...it says the car has an auto-monitoring system and if you see the dot, it should also come with a warning from the car but i didn't get any warning...after i turned the car off and restarted it, the dot went away....

[rvacha]

I have some personal experience due to a blown VANOS unit. It turns out that the oil sensor typically will not trigger until the level drops one liter or more below the dipstick's low mark. I assume that this is due to production tolerances in the sensor coupled with a desire to avoid nuisance warnings that would lead to expensive trips to the dealer for service. I was surprised to learn this at first but it probably isn't a big deal in the S62 engine which is designed to pick up oil under almost any imaginable situation.

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143366
'97 E39 540i six speed Aspen/Aubergine <-- Damn fast
'00 E39 M5 Carbon/LeMans <-- Faster

[leebro1]

out of curiousity, what happened to your car rvacha? did they replace the VANOS or the whole engine? how's the car now?

[rvacha]

They replaced the entire right side (5-8) VANOS unit and that did the trick. I'm still a little paraniod though because it still has a burning smell that resulted from lots of oil getting splattered all over the block. Overall I'm a happy camper.

[greg]

Remember - checking your car cold is not accurate anyway. Follow the procedures in your owner's manual: warm engine, shut off, wait one minute, check.

I'm sure you didn't do any damage. Don't worry - just check more often in the future!

[leebro1]

you guys are AWESOME! where would i be without you guys....

[Hubcap]

I would not worry about the oil level getting to where you described although I wouldn't make it a regular practice. A couple of things.......First, the oil level will be lower if you measured it with the oil cold. The recommended way to check is to have the car warm and let it sit for a minute before checking. The volume of hot will be greater than cold oil. If the oil had been warm you may have been to the bottom of the recommended minumum.

Second, I am sure the BMW engineers design in some safety margin for the oil level. That's what engineers do.

So I don't believe you were anywhere close to the point of actually damaging the engine.

Just DON'T do it again....OK?

Enjoy the ride!!

Hubcap '01 M5 (white/caramel)