Low oil level sensor

[den9112]

Hi, i bought a Honda civic 1.8 from a dealer with 59k with full Honda service history it was said to be last serviced at 54k and i have put 100k on the clock ..I like to do a service as soon as i can so i am 100% certain what's been done so i bought all the right service kit ..However on a drive to work the low oil level came up to tell me to top up and i though it was strange as it was only serviced 1000k miles ago so i carried on driving to work picked something up then returned but on my way home after stopping and starting again the light did not return after 6 miles so i decided to do a oil change ,the civic takes 3.6 with a filter and i dropped approx. 3.1 litres out of the car possible could have been more in due to not being perfectly level on the ramps so i was wondering if i have a dodgy level sensor as i would have thought having 3.1 litres out of a possible 3.6(if that is what was put in on service) the oil level sensor would not kick in i would have thought the oil level would have to be a bit lower ..Getting paranoid here about losing oil as i see no leaks etc..

[littleredrooster]

59k...54k...100k...1000k - OP, youre scattering 'k' around randomly here which doesn't help. I'm sure you didn't run it to 100,000miles before deciding to service it!

Googling suggests that an oil-level sensor failure is fairly common. What did the dipstick reveal?

[voram]

littleredrooster said:

What did the dipstick reveal?

Does it even have a dipstick? Drives me bonkers that many modern cars rely on a sensor and don't give you a good, old-fashioned dipstick.

I guess if the sensor fails and your car's burning a lot of oil you'd eventually get a low pressure warning light - at which point it's definitely time to switch off!

[GreenV8S]

den9112 said:

the low oil level came up to tell me to top up

I'm not familiar with that car. Is it definitely a low oil level warning or might it be a low oil pressure warning? The latter is far more serious. Does it have a dipstick?

[littleredrooster]

GreenV8S said:

den9112 said:

the low oil level came up to tell me to top up

I'm not familiar with that car. Is it definitely a low oil level warning or might it be a low oil pressure warning? The latter is far more serious. Does it have a dipstick?

According to the owners club, it has a dipstick & a level sensor.

[GreenV8S]

littleredrooster said:

According to the owners club, it has a dipstick & a level sensor.

That's good news. In that case I'd trust the dipstick to tell me the truth and ignore the level sensor if it says different.