DON'T trust in sensors!!!!

[951Dreams]

When I first got the car several times I got the "oil level low" message. I was losing about a quart every week or two. That was when it was smoking really bad and before I had done the CCV and VC's. I had filled it up just before I did the work, and it had never came back so I figured it was fixed.

So I'm on a road trip for a funeral, and I'm hunting down something to eat. Some yahoo pulls out in front of me, I slam on the brakes, and hear *DING* and look down... See "Oilpressure" on my information display (I've got a burned out bulb, so I only saw the last word). CCRRAAAAPPPPPPP!!! I instantly knew what was up! Pulled over, and sure enough, no oil on dip stick! CRAP CRAP CRAP!!! I KNOW better than to trust sensors!! But it had been working fine, and it's my first car with a level sensor and I was stoked I didn't have to check it all the time....

And it bit me in the A$$!!!! I don't know why it stopped working, I'm wondering if something broke or came loose during the intake/valve cover work. I know one of the wires I had to move around went to it! Ended up I was 3 quarts low!!! Geesh!! Not good. Luckily the chains seemed well oiled still, so I don't think any damage was done. But still!! And where the heck is the pickup tube at that it gets starved with 4-5 quarts still in the system??? I'm lucky it did alert me that soon, but seems weird to me.

Also, last week I was doing a bunch of brake bedding, and was slamming on the brakes a lot. So it JUST finally got low enough to have issues in the last few days. I'm thinking my spirited 120 MPH passing in the passing zones on a two way highway MIGHT have something to do with it....LOL..

Anyway, don't be lazy and stupid like me. Don't trust the sensor to always tell you your low on oil.... mine sure didn't!!

[georgebest]

When I first got the car several times I got the "oil level low" message. I was losing about a quart every week or two. That was when it was smoking really bad and before I had done the CCV and VC's. I had filled it up just before I did the work, and it had never came back so I figured it was fixed.

So I'm on a road trip for a funeral, and I'm hunting down something to eat. Some yahoo pulls out in front of me, I slam on the brakes, and hear *DING* and look down... See "Oilpressure" on my information display (I've got a burned out bulb, so I only saw the last word). CCRRAAAAPPPPPPP!!! I instantly knew what was up! Pulled over, and sure enough, no oil on dip stick! CRAP CRAP CRAP!!! I KNOW better than to trust sensors!! But it had been working fine, and it's my first car with a level sensor and I was stoked I didn't have to check it all the time....

And it bit me in the A$$!!!! I don't know why it stopped working, I'm wondering if something broke or came loose during the intake/valve cover work. I know one of the wires I had to move around went to it! Ended up I was 3 quarts low!!! Geesh!! Not good. Luckily the chains seemed well oiled still, so I don't think any damage was done. But still!! And where the heck is the pickup tube at that it gets starved with 4-5 quarts still in the system??? I'm lucky it did alert me that soon, but seems weird to me.

Also, last week I was doing a bunch of brake bedding, and was slamming on the brakes a lot. So it JUST finally got low enough to have issues in the last few days. I'm thinking my spirited 120 MPH passing in the passing zones on a two way highway MIGHT have something to do with it....LOL..

Anyway, don't be lazy and stupid like me. Don't trust the sensor to always tell you your low on oil.... mine sure didn't!!

Dude... invest $20 into a proper scanner and it will show you these errors before they cost you a new engine. For example the oil level sensor will throw an error when it goes bad. This car is so sophisticated will tell you months in advance before you run into an issue. You can only read the oil level sensor error thru the 20 pin connector, not part of the DME module. I think LCM but not sure. Anyway, get a proper scanner
Btw: this is the proper replacement, I have just installed it a few months ago when noticed the error message: https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...-12617508003-1
Do you have the splash guard at the bottom of the engine? If not get one, they are cheap and protect all the sensitive parts there.

[951Dreams]

Dude... invest $20 into a proper scanner and it will show you these errors before they cost you a new engine. For example the oil level sensor will throw an error when it goes bad. This car is so sophisticated will tell you months in advance before you run into an issue. You can only read the oil level sensor error thru the 20 pin connector, not part of the DME module. I think LCM but not sure. Anyway, get a proper scanner
Btw: this is the proper replacement, I have just installed it a few months ago when noticed the error message: https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...-12617508003-1
Do you have the splash guard at the bottom of the engine? If not get one, they are cheap and protect all the sensitive parts there.

Splash guard yes! Scanner Yes... as of today.

I got INPA today, and was using it. No codes however. But the screen that shows oil level doesn't work on my install. I get connection errors. Only reason I know it's the screen with oil level is that I ignored the error and allowed the script to keep running. And Oil level was one of the things it was trying to display. And I don't think it's something just in my install of INPA either, cause I've got Deep OBD (Ediabas) on my phone and that module seems not to read on it either. I've used every position on the switch I got, no joy.

But I'd be thinking if a whole module went out, something would be screaming. So I either just can't communicate with it, or I'm barking up the wrong tree. But if I can't talk to it, I can't read codes from it I'd think. So that might be why I have no codes. After 7 hours of INPA/Deep OBD messing around I was sick and tired of BMW for the night. Going to pick back up next week and see if I can't figure out my issues and how to better use that stuff.

I think I'm going to dream in German tonight.....

[951Dreams]

George! You were right LCM, why it's the Light Control Module that controls that, I'll never know. But when I was posting up about my codes I was getting I figured out that

LCM_III:
thermal Oelsensor defect,

was in fact complaining about my oil sensor (Oelsensor = Oil Sensor) Google keeps translating it to a thermal overheat, but I'm thinking something is getting lost in translation. I guess INPA is reading from something else for Oil Level because I can read the LCM fine. I thought it was complaining about a light. Cause LCM, duh... silly Germans.

However it is weird, in the link you shared they state straight out that it should fail "on" not "off". And I'm getting additional messages from the LCM itself about thermal overheating issues. Don't know what that's about. More research I guess.

[georgebest]

George! You were right LCM, why it's the Light Control Module that controls that, I'll never know.

I'm not sure why it's there, maybe cause it controls a check light? Still doesnt make much sense.
The thing with INPA that it's great for a lot of things but IMHO not really good for everyday diagnostics. I'm a big advocate of BMW Scanner 1.4 (PA Soft), cause you press a button and it reads ALL modules. Then you can jump from module to module to see the error messages.
This is how I found that my oil level sensor was defective among many other things. It's kind of a fun project to solve all the error messages one by one.
Of course you can achieve the same in INPA if you go module by module, but there are approx 15-20 and takes a lot of time.

I dont think you can read oil level on these cars, at least I have never seen that. Are you sure you selected the correct car in INPA? Cause dont think my version even show that possibility anywhere.

[Sobek]

An oil pressure warning (NOT oil level) under heavy braking would potentially indicate that your oil pump bolts are loose and/or have completely backed out. What happens is when you brake hard, the pump can swing away from the housing it is typically bolted to, causing a brief starvation of oil and a resulting pressure drop and warning. When was the last time you dropped your oil pan? If not for some time, I would consider doing so and looking for loose bolts on the oil pump, or bolts just sitting in the pan. I dropped my pan at around 75k miles and I had one bolt sitting in the pan that had completely backed itself out.

It's essentially unrelated to your other troubles but I wanted to mention that just in case.

[Qsilver7]

Just an FYI...the LCM (light check module) came to be when BMW started combining the functions of multiple components into one. It first began with the LM (light module)...then went on to become the LCM where the functions of the check control module were incorporated. The check control system is responsible for sending all of the priority 1 and 2 warnings to the IKE...such things like LOW OIL PRESSURE:

[951Dreams]

Thanks Q, once I got over that it was the LCM, and not the DME, monitoring this it kind of made sense. Google showed me others had the same thought. Now that I get the LCM controls fault messages too it makes sense.

I'll be dropping the pan soon. And it was on the list of things to check. Since it went away after refilling the oil I don't think that's it, but I'm still going to check.

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[georgebest]

Just an FYI...the LCM (light check module) came to be when BMW started combining the functions of multiple components into one. It first began with the LM (light module)...then went on to become the LCM where the functions of the check control module were incorporated. The check control system is responsible for sending all of the priority 1 and 2 warnings to the IKE...such things like LOW OIL PRESSURE:

This is amazing stuff Q, I had no idea about the follow me home function. Where do you get all these documents? Do you work a BMW museum or something?

[Qsilver7]

This is amazing stuff Q, I had no idea about the follow me home function. Where do you get all these documents? Do you work a BMW museum or something?

LOL. I've been on BMW forums since the late 1990s...and anytime someone had BMW technology PDF documents...I'd download and save them before they'd disappear. You can try internet searches for BMW technical PDFs and probably find some.

[georgebest]

LOL. I've been on BMW forums since the late 1990s...and anytime someone had BMW technology PDF documents...I'd download and save them before they'd disappear. You can try internet searches for BMW technical PDFs and probably find some.

Very helpful! Learnt a lot from your posts, thanks for them!

[951Dreams]

What I find interesting is how Q seems to know more about our cars than BMW! LOL. I'm going to stop posting the things my local dealer tells me, it's wrong more often than right!!

Screw Google too, old Post don't seem accurate either. We need a Qsearch button!!! ;-)

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