[biosurfer1]

From time to time, my "!" and "Engine Oil" lights up and does not go off until I stop the car and start it again. It usually happens if I start my car or a slope of some sort but it came on last night after I filled up with gas and I was pretty flat. I have checked the oil several times and it's always toward the top mark...so what gives? Is this a sign the sender is going out? Something else going bad?



Not sure whether to be concerned or not.

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[94SilverCab]

the (!) warning light comes on for everything. My car is very sensitive to low oil and a mere 1/4 qt. low will cause the warning to come on...for my own sanity, that works for me, though I'm sure it would drive others crazy.



FYI, oil should be checked after motor has been run and then shut down for approximately 3 minutes.



Jay

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[MB968]

I assume that the light on is from the low oil level sensor as per Jay's comments. Check the level per Jay's procedure, and top it off to see if this makes it go away (or is a lot less frequent to come on) to confirm that it is the sensor. And, maybe someone else can confirm, but I think it is OK to have the oil level a little bit above the line. Pretty sure at least one person who races this car has told me he tops it off a little above the line. If it continues to be a nagging issue, you could replace the one you have. It is a simple two bolts that hold the sensor in the pan, and a single wire.



The sensor is a simple float that grounds the wire when the level if high enough. Because there are no electronics involved, I didn't mind replacing my bad unit (float was missing) with a used one.



If it isn't the sensor, and since the sensor grounds the wire, it could be a break in the wiring somewhere that intermittently is causing the wire to loose connection to ground and makes the light come on. But, based on your comments, and as long as the oil level seems to affect the frequency that the light comes on, I doubt it is a wiring break.

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[Lear35A]

Three bolts. Very small ones. And if you're going to take the sensor out, have a new gasket on hand. It's paper and easily damaged during disassembly.

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[DaveN]

You need to back off the sensor wire guard as well, 2 10mm bolts. Mine was acting up so when I did the rebuild I just cleaned it up and it has been acting properly since then. I believe it's on a time delay as well so you sometimes have to wait a few minutes for it to settle into new oil levels and extinguish the "!"

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[biosurfer1]

Thanks guys

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[MB968]

Thanks all for filling in the missing blanks. That reminds me. Since the sensor points up, I think you have to rotate it after you take the 3 bolts out, to get it to clear something in the pan, before it will come out.

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[DaveN]

True, it doesn't come straight out.

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[Scott Collins]

bio et al.,



If you park on even a slight incline, and the oil level is at the middle or bottom end of the acceptable range, you might get the B.R.I.L. My 944 would light up if I was 2 oz. low it seemed. T'was very sensitive.... With the 968 I keep the oil level right at the top of the mark on the stick and avoid getting B.R.I L.'d.



(B.R.I.L. = Big Red Idiot Light <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/smile.png" class="smilie" alt="" />)

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[biosurfer1]

I checked my oil level the correct way yesterday and found out I was a bit low. Not below the lower mark but close so I added more. We will see if that helps with the light or not.

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[flash]

there is a spacer at the base of the dipstick. some mechanics fail to install this. when that happens, the dipstick is resultantly inserted too far, and gives a falsely high reading. the sensor though still sees the correct level. so, while it might look full on the dipstick, it's really a bit lower. when it shows close to the add mark, you are really below it. that may or may not be your problem, but i've seen it a couple of times now.

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[mgustus]

Biosurfer1...What was the final verdict? I have the same problem. I'll be checking this today per Jay's procedure. Thanks. Mike

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[ds968]

My "engine oil"  light  ( along with the annoying and accompanying  " ! "  light )  just came on, and continues to stay on, even after I made sure the oil level is completely at the full mark on the dipstick - actually it's just about one or two mm above the full line now, after adding more oil.  The oil pressure gauge reading is perfectly fine at idle, when cold ( at the 5 bar ) or when warm ( slightly above the 3  bar ), perfectly fine when accelerating ( always goes up to the 5 bar ) , the oil temp gauge reading is also fine when the car is warmed up and being driven .....so.... is it the oil sender / sensor unit failure ?   Or, some wire connection came lose all of a sudden ?  The engine was rebuilt a little over a month ago, so maybe some connection got dislodged and it worked ok for a while, until it finally just came loose ?    

 

Any other possible causes ?            

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[flash]

most likely when he installed the oil level sensor, it was not installed in the same location.  that or he forgot to install the spacer, which essentially moved the dipstick relative to the sensor.

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[ds968]

If it's either one or the other, are both easy to fix ?   

 

And does it make sense that this would not manifest itself for more than a month  ?  In addition to that, I added a quart right when I returned from SoCal because the light was triggered and the dipstick showed a quart low, and as soon as that happened the light turned off.  Since then I also had the oil change done ( a couple of weeks ago ), and no light until now..        

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[flash]

the dipstick is likely no longer reading where it should.  if the spacer is missing, the dipstick will sit low.  that makes the reading high relative to what is really in there.  it may say that it is only 1/4 quart low, but really be a full quart low.  the same could be said if somehow the sensor location is wrong.

 

i'm betting on the spacer.  i've seen that happen before.

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[ds968]

Ruled out the spacer ; I added an entire quart on top of a full level reading on the dipstick , drove it for a few minutes, let it sit , started it again on level ground , and the light still stays on. I'm not worried about " overfill " because I'm taking the car to my mechanic this afternoon to check out the problem - I'm guessing there are only 3 possibilities left at this point ( ? ) : 1) the sender until suddenly failed, 2) a wiring beak / short somewhere along the way between sender and where it connects to the rest of the harness , or 3) a bad contact at the gauge cluster .

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[ds968]

On my way to the mechanic this afternoon I stopped briefly to pick up a lithograph print we had framed at a place about five minutes away from his shop. Loaded it in the hatchback , got it the car, started it and ...no warning lights !! Drove it to his shop, turned it off , then turned it on again a minute later to drive it insode so we can get it on the lift and....still no alert lights ! So after two days with those lights on all the time " it " suddenly just decides to turn off . We checked the wire connection to the sender and all seems to be ok, so whatever gremlin has caused this thing to happen maybe went on vacation. We'll see if he returns , and deal with it at that time.

So I asked my mechanic : WTF ? He just shrugged his shoulders and said : " hey it's a 20 year old car ! , what do you expect ? "

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[Bulti]

Did he drain the excess amount of oil?

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[ds968]

He did not seem to be too concerned with only 1q more oil in there , maybe because it's almost due for the second oil change ( in less than 1000 miles from now ) .


I just started the car this morning and let it run for a couple of minutes , then I checked the dipstick level and itt's at most about 1/2 qt above the " full " line , so probably nothing to worry about .

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