2005 M5 - oil question
Discussion
The low oil warning recently came on, so I topped it up with 1 litre of the approved M5 oil. The dash indicator then said there was 0.2 litres of oil in the engine. This being on the low side, I put another 1/2 litre in, but the indicator didn't change, so I put the rest of the 2nd litre in. It was still showing as 0.2 litres, so I put another half litre in, and so on. I've now put 3 litres of oil into the engine and it's still only showing 0.2 litres!
Am I missing something blindingly obvious here??? Either the oil capacity is way more than I expected for a top up, or the sensor's faulty.
Any thoughts?
NL
Am I missing something blindingly obvious here??? Either the oil capacity is way more than I expected for a top up, or the sensor's faulty.
Any thoughts?
NL
I have an M6 and recently toppede up 1 litre. The dash info told me 1 litre - after adding it, I let the engine run for about 5 minutes, turnrd it off again and then restarted and it worked it out - think it has a digital dipstick! Mine went straight up to having 1 litre again, so all perfect. I hope you have not added 2 litres too much?!
You had best check.....!
You had best check.....!
Thanks for the quick feedback.
Seems I have a fault on the reader and BMW are now suggesting they can't fix this at my house and need to send a truck to recover the car to the dealership so that they can take 2 litres of oil out of the engine! I'm thinking that, if I can jack the car up and undo the sump drain I should be able to do this myself.
Any thoughts?
NL
Seems I have a fault on the reader and BMW are now suggesting they can't fix this at my house and need to send a truck to recover the car to the dealership so that they can take 2 litres of oil out of the engine! I'm thinking that, if I can jack the car up and undo the sump drain I should be able to do this myself.
Any thoughts?
NL
It is much easier to do it on ramps - i'd let bmw recover and rectify it. if you take out the excess oil, the problem still exists, so what have you gained? I rely heavily on my dashboard info for everything, especially the oil needed and consumption. Let the dealers have - and ask for 2 x 1 litre bottles of 10w 60 castrol as well! they cost 17 quid a litre and it would be handy to keep one in the car, one in the garage.
Let us know how you get on.
Let us know how you get on.
Mine takes a few miles of driving to reset to the new level. The local dealers told me to wait until it said it needed 1 litre and then add it - DO NOT OVERFILL was the clear message.
Let BMW recover it, if you mess this up you are going to be looking at a bill of somewhere north of £10k for a new engine.
S
Let BMW recover it, if you mess this up you are going to be looking at a bill of somewhere north of £10k for a new engine.
S
The dipstick only measures the last litre that gauges between minimum and maximum. From experience if the indictator is at the 'minimum' level or slightly above, you rarely have to put more than 1 litre in.
I like to slowly pour the oil and and keep checking the level on the stick as it slowly rises up. Always do it with a cold engine as well as a warm engine can give a false reading. A computer is never an accurate measure.
If worst comes to the worst and you have put too much oil in and dont want the oil seeping through the head gasket, oil stems seals etc, ring up a garage, ask them to row the car and remove oil from the sump (at least 2 litres worth). That way you can potentially avoid a catastropic bill worth thousands of pounds.
I like to slowly pour the oil and and keep checking the level on the stick as it slowly rises up. Always do it with a cold engine as well as a warm engine can give a false reading. A computer is never an accurate measure.
If worst comes to the worst and you have put too much oil in and dont want the oil seeping through the head gasket, oil stems seals etc, ring up a garage, ask them to row the car and remove oil from the sump (at least 2 litres worth). That way you can potentially avoid a catastropic bill worth thousands of pounds.
Schermerhorn said:
The dipstick only measures the last litre that gauges between minimum and maximum. From experience if the indictator is at the 'minimum' level or slightly above, you rarely have to put more than 1 litre in.
I like to slowly pour the oil and and keep checking the level on the stick as it slowly rises up. Always do it with a cold engine as well as a warm engine can give a false reading. A computer is never an accurate measure.
If worst comes to the worst and you have put too much oil in and dont want the oil seeping through the head gasket, oil stems seals etc, ring up a garage, ask them to row the car and remove oil from the sump (at least 2 litres worth). That way you can potentially avoid a catastropic bill worth thousands of pounds.
Thanks. That's what I did this morning and the drama is now over. I'm lucky enough to live 500 yards from a small F3 team with a complete workshop manned by race engineers. One of them came round this morning and removed 2 litres of oil from the sump. BMW are now on the case to identify what caused the issue with the false reading.I like to slowly pour the oil and and keep checking the level on the stick as it slowly rises up. Always do it with a cold engine as well as a warm engine can give a false reading. A computer is never an accurate measure.
If worst comes to the worst and you have put too much oil in and dont want the oil seeping through the head gasket, oil stems seals etc, ring up a garage, ask them to row the car and remove oil from the sump (at least 2 litres worth). That way you can potentially avoid a catastropic bill worth thousands of pounds.
You mention a dipstick, but, unless I really am going stir crazy, the E60 M5 doesn't have one?!?
NL
NobleLord said:
Schermerhorn said:
The dipstick only measures the last litre that gauges between minimum and maximum. From experience if the indictator is at the 'minimum' level or slightly above, you rarely have to put more than 1 litre in.
I like to slowly pour the oil and and keep checking the level on the stick as it slowly rises up. Always do it with a cold engine as well as a warm engine can give a false reading. A computer is never an accurate measure.
If worst comes to the worst and you have put too much oil in and dont want the oil seeping through the head gasket, oil stems seals etc, ring up a garage, ask them to row the car and remove oil from the sump (at least 2 litres worth). That way you can potentially avoid a catastropic bill worth thousands of pounds.
Thanks. That's what I did this morning and the drama is now over. I'm lucky enough to live 500 yards from a small F3 team with a complete workshop manned by race engineers. One of them came round this morning and removed 2 litres of oil from the sump. BMW are now on the case to identify what caused the issue with the false reading.I like to slowly pour the oil and and keep checking the level on the stick as it slowly rises up. Always do it with a cold engine as well as a warm engine can give a false reading. A computer is never an accurate measure.
If worst comes to the worst and you have put too much oil in and dont want the oil seeping through the head gasket, oil stems seals etc, ring up a garage, ask them to row the car and remove oil from the sump (at least 2 litres worth). That way you can potentially avoid a catastropic bill worth thousands of pounds.
You mention a dipstick, but, unless I really am going stir crazy, the E60 M5 doesn't have one?!?
NL
Sorry, you're correct the M5 doesn't have a dipstick. I'm not familiar with the under-the-bonnet workings of an E60 M5. My comment was more of a general one; if you think you've overfilled, don't start the car and have it towed.
I think its quite crazy the M5 doesn't have a dipstick by the way. A human being is far more discerning than a computer can ever be in my opinion. Imagine when the M5 falls into affordable territory, a lot of these people won't bother taking these machines to the correct garages, fitting the correct parts and will drive it like an ordinary car and make mistakes like over filling with oil, using wrong grade of oil (I know someone who used 5w30 semi synthetic on his M3 only to come back later and tell me that it sounded like a bag of spanners), wrong filters (cheap budget ones), pads, discs etc.
I consider the M5 a supercar and it should be looked after like a supercar also. After a few years lots of people who have bought one on the cheap will think "it's just another 5 series thats 10 years old, let's do it on the cheap at an cheap independant garage"
t.If you add 1 litre as per dashboard indicator do this:
Restart the engine, scroll through on board computer using the indicator stalk button - when you have oil level, push and hold the button in on the end of the stalk - hey presto - a little clock appears on dash and tells you it's working out oil level - 5 seconds later you have a new, accurate reading. - Simples.......
Restart the engine, scroll through on board computer using the indicator stalk button - when you have oil level, push and hold the button in on the end of the stalk - hey presto - a little clock appears on dash and tells you it's working out oil level - 5 seconds later you have a new, accurate reading. - Simples.......
sparkyclarky said:
If you add 1 litre as per dashboard indicator do this:
Restart the engine, scroll through on board computer using the indicator stalk button - when you have oil level, push and hold the button in on the end of the stalk - hey presto - a little clock appears on dash and tells you it's working out oil level - 5 seconds later you have a new, accurate reading. - Simples.......
That's it.Restart the engine, scroll through on board computer using the indicator stalk button - when you have oil level, push and hold the button in on the end of the stalk - hey presto - a little clock appears on dash and tells you it's working out oil level - 5 seconds later you have a new, accurate reading. - Simples.......
Gassing Station | M Power | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff