New Vantage - Reduce Oil Level Warning
Discussion
Hi All,
Got the Vantage delivered last Tuesday, it is currently not at home having had 2 warnings both times to reduce oil level at cold start, which is annoying.
I am just wanting to hear from other owners if they have suffered with the same issue?
The dealership that has the car, has in fairness been fairly pleasant to deal with and despite not being able to see the warning themselves has reached out to Gaydon. Response being replace the oil level sensor which both times the car suffered with the warning the car was nose down on an incline, the OLS is at the front of the sump, the rest is all pretty obvious as to why.
It seems the software or sensor on mine is little oversensitive if oil levels can be flagged by a minor incline....
Oh and I managed 470 miles in my first week with it, what joy!
Got the Vantage delivered last Tuesday, it is currently not at home having had 2 warnings both times to reduce oil level at cold start, which is annoying.
I am just wanting to hear from other owners if they have suffered with the same issue?
The dealership that has the car, has in fairness been fairly pleasant to deal with and despite not being able to see the warning themselves has reached out to Gaydon. Response being replace the oil level sensor which both times the car suffered with the warning the car was nose down on an incline, the OLS is at the front of the sump, the rest is all pretty obvious as to why.
It seems the software or sensor on mine is little oversensitive if oil levels can be flagged by a minor incline....
Oh and I managed 470 miles in my first week with it, what joy!
Dealership could not get the error to repeat, but they tested level and it was fine, left on a incline and error has not repeated.
That being said they spoke with Gaydon technical, and it is getting a new oil level sensor on Monday, left overnight and checked. With a view to collection on Tuesday.
It had impressed me them standing by their product.
From what I have seen this is a mercedes part and the position seems to make the situation worse.
That being said they spoke with Gaydon technical, and it is getting a new oil level sensor on Monday, left overnight and checked. With a view to collection on Tuesday.
It had impressed me them standing by their product.
From what I have seen this is a mercedes part and the position seems to make the situation worse.
Of course not, given there is quite a bit of mercedes. But the sump is Aston's own creation on the M177 in the new vantage, from what I have seen for the better as a lot of the M177 sumps on Mercedes are plastic, from my current information the Aston version is all metal.
I do wonder how much commonality in the oil sensor though, software, threshold and positioning. Coming from the world of BMW, the oil level sensors appear to have a higher threshold than the Mercedes part (possibly software) in the Vantage. I never saw a reduce oil level warning with the BMW (caused by correct oil level).
It says to me that the current unit, threshold is just a little tight and oversensitive.
I do wonder how much commonality in the oil sensor though, software, threshold and positioning. Coming from the world of BMW, the oil level sensors appear to have a higher threshold than the Mercedes part (possibly software) in the Vantage. I never saw a reduce oil level warning with the BMW (caused by correct oil level).
It says to me that the current unit, threshold is just a little tight and oversensitive.
I have a DB11 Vantage with 6,000 miles on it. Had the oil changed about 100 miles ago and only this morning, for the first time, I had a 'reduce oil level' message on my console. I turned the engine off, then back on and the msg went away... The car was completely level when I got this message.
Is this anything I should be concerned about? The oil was added per spec, but it was not at the local AM dealer.
Is it possible that this oil sensor switch might be bad?
The dealership wanted $2,800 to perform a Service C .... basically an oil change and brake fluid service. That seems ridiculous.
Is this anything I should be concerned about? The oil was added per spec, but it was not at the local AM dealer.
Is it possible that this oil sensor switch might be bad?
The dealership wanted $2,800 to perform a Service C .... basically an oil change and brake fluid service. That seems ridiculous.
cardigankid said:
Interesting. I've got an AMG GT which did exactly the same immediately after a service. Dealer said that they had serviced it per the requirements. I took it back over and during the trip, the message disappeared. Never had it on the DB11 though, but I'll watch out.
The AMG GT series, M178, is a little different than the M177 used in AMs. The 178 is a dry sump. Funny, but the dealers (being certified, I assume) almost always get the oil level wrong in the 178. I know this for a fact as I too owned an AMG GTS. If the factory instructions are followed (to the letter), an oil change on this platform would take an inordinate amount of time because the oil temps have to be brought up to operating temps, then the oil drained out of the sump within 3 minutes. warming this motor up to operating temps is going to take the better part of an hour idling...or the tech can drive it (spiritedly) then he/she has to have the car back in the service bay, on the ramps and oil sump plug pulled within 3 minutes. If either the oil temp is not brought to op temps, or the plug is pulled too late, the temp sensor that opens up the oil lines to the cooler closes (or never opens). If that is the case, then an additional liter of oil is NOT drained from the cooler/lines. THEN the dealer "tech" fills the the oil per the instructions, but that puts the level over filled by 1 liter.
I've personally done this oil change on my GTS the "correct" way, and am pretty positive a shop cannot afford the time it would take to do it correctly, and I also believe half the MB techs out there are unaware about the oil temp sensor or the correct procedure.
I've written this procedure up on a MB forum where many AMG GT() owners routinely experienced a real overfill condition after dealer service.
None of this pertains to the M177 wet sump.
Got the same message few days ago in my DB12. Bought it almost 10 months from new, and now has little below 10K km.
The warning appeared after a high speed Autobahn run, so maybe a result of higher oil temps? I drove higher speeds before, but first time I got this message. After a short coffee break, the message never appeared again, and I forgot about it, until I read this thread.
The warning appeared after a high speed Autobahn run, so maybe a result of higher oil temps? I drove higher speeds before, but first time I got this message. After a short coffee break, the message never appeared again, and I forgot about it, until I read this thread.
V8 Minotaur said:
The M178 is now being used in the Valhalla.
Would be interesting to see if it is the flat plane crank version of the M178 which, to my knowledge, is only used in the AMG GT Black Series on the MB side. Even the 178 versions used in the AMG GT vs. the AMG GTR are different. All cross plane but different turbos/compression, etc.
Hi, just to add more to the "Reduce Oil Level". I had the car serviced (Vantage AM6 my2020) at an Aston specialist at the start of this week. Drove the 50 miles home and parked it in the garage with no warnings or messages. Saturday I went to get it out for a blast and message flashed up before I could put my Ghost codes in. I checked the oil stick and yep it was high. Managed to get together a 3.5mm fuel flexible tube and fed it down the dipstick tube. Took some maneuvering to get in all the way down into the sump. I when used a syringe to suck out some oil....500ml in all to get it so that the level was on the top notch of the oil stick. However, the Lower oil level message remains persistent even with the oil at the correct level? I'm guessing that a code reader and clearer is now required to clear the message. Looks like a 50 mile trip on Monday morning!
It's not a week later and on the Monday morning the message had cleared. However, I did visit the Aston service center and they looked at the DTCs and could see the message. They check levels and offered to remove a fraction more as it was a smidgen over the top marker. As it had self cleared and was only ever going to go down I said no it will be fine as is. However, check car today (4 days later) and Reduce Oil Level message is back. Check dipstick and it's fine. But there is about a 10° drop in floor level from door to front wall which will give a higher reading at front of sump? Could reduce level more but will park in reverse to give that a go...
It's not a week later and on the Monday morning the message had cleared. However, I did visit the Aston service center and they looked at the DTCs and could see the message. They check levels and offered to remove a fraction more as it was a smidgen over the top marker. As it had self cleared and was only ever going to go down I said no it will be fine as is. However, check car today (4 days later) and Reduce Oil Level message is back. Check dipstick and it's fine. But there is about a 10° drop in floor level from door to front wall which will give a higher reading at front of sump? Could reduce level more but will park in reverse to give that a go...
Edited by Soggydyldog on Thursday 31st July 15:08
I've recently become a DB11 V8 owner....
Is it me, or is the oil level check procedure ridiculously finicky? I've been checking and topping up oil levels as required on many different types of car (and commercial vehicles too) for 49 years now and have never managed to overfill one previously. Life is full of new experiences - though I'd rather not have had this particular one.
The information relating to the quantity in the oil cooling circuit and thermostatic control thereof is very helpful - thank you for posting!
I got the car out of the garage on a very hot day following a lengthy road trip (3200 miles) the previous couple of weeks and ran the engine for a while - it was soon showing normal operating temp on the gauge. I will say now that my normal preference is to start up and drive off as soon as possible, but that wasn't really an option this time. So with normal temp showing, I switched off and left it and went to do something else for the stated 15 minutes exactly, using the timer on my phone
Checking the stick very carefully (twice) I could see the level was just at the bottom of the stick. I then added oil, first 0.5 litre, then 0.1 litre at intervals to allow it to drain into the sump until eventually I had reached 1 litre. The level on the stick was then showing just below max.
On starting the car, I immediately saw the 'Lower engine oil level' message. I left it and tried again the next day - same message. So I went to my local motor tool factor and bought a proprietary suction device. A lot less costly than having it recovered to the nearest dealer 75 miles away....
I removed oil a little at a time, until eventually I had removed the litre I had put in....and on start up it went straight to 'GT mode'. Relief....
Is it just me that finds a DB11 V8 dipstick hard to read?
Is it me, or is the oil level check procedure ridiculously finicky? I've been checking and topping up oil levels as required on many different types of car (and commercial vehicles too) for 49 years now and have never managed to overfill one previously. Life is full of new experiences - though I'd rather not have had this particular one.
The information relating to the quantity in the oil cooling circuit and thermostatic control thereof is very helpful - thank you for posting!
I got the car out of the garage on a very hot day following a lengthy road trip (3200 miles) the previous couple of weeks and ran the engine for a while - it was soon showing normal operating temp on the gauge. I will say now that my normal preference is to start up and drive off as soon as possible, but that wasn't really an option this time. So with normal temp showing, I switched off and left it and went to do something else for the stated 15 minutes exactly, using the timer on my phone
Checking the stick very carefully (twice) I could see the level was just at the bottom of the stick. I then added oil, first 0.5 litre, then 0.1 litre at intervals to allow it to drain into the sump until eventually I had reached 1 litre. The level on the stick was then showing just below max.
On starting the car, I immediately saw the 'Lower engine oil level' message. I left it and tried again the next day - same message. So I went to my local motor tool factor and bought a proprietary suction device. A lot less costly than having it recovered to the nearest dealer 75 miles away....
I removed oil a little at a time, until eventually I had removed the litre I had put in....and on start up it went straight to 'GT mode'. Relief....
Is it just me that finds a DB11 V8 dipstick hard to read?
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