Oil level sensor concern

[hunter_509]

So i bought my 2010 x5m a little over 2 months ago. 129k miles. I put 1k miles on it when i first got it and in that time it burned/leaked about 3/4ths a quart of oil according to the oil level meter. Got the oil changed, dealer used 10w-60. I have put about another 1k miles and my oil level meter hasnt moved. Im a little concerned it might not be reading correctly.. Is my only option to drain the oil and see if theres still 9 quarts? Or is it not something to worry about?

[yco]

sometimes oil level meter doesnt work that sensitive or dumb i should say, it might go down fast in one drive.. you can manually let the car calculate the oil level again while driving not in stop go traffic but in a steady ride or idling on a flat surface.. best result will be under operating temp of the oil so you can let the car recalculate then..

and there were some talks like a myth that there is a dipstick on E70-71 S63 engines but since i sold the car never tried to find it.. you can start by taking the cover off..
on 35d video shows dipstick.. S63 probably has it in a different area and actually newer V8's has it and its not hidden dipstick thankfully clearly there is one..

[Dave00]

Definitely no dipstick on the S63. If you're concerned about the oil level sensor replace it as its not that hard - 3 bolts and a electrical connector and you're done. Gonna have to change the oil while you're at it tho.

Here's the part from FCP Euro:
https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/bmw...607910#fitment

Here's the diagram:
http://bmwfans.info/parts-catalog/E7...ator#7607910_7

[Molez93]

Looks like one would need to remove the cross brace to gain access, right?
I’m questioning the accuracy of mine. 120k on the odo

[Dawgz]

10w60 is so wrong for this engine.

You want 5w40

[Dawgz]

Originally Posted by yco

sometimes oil level meter doesnt work that sensitive or dumb i should say, it might go down fast in one drive.. you can manually let the car calculate the oil level again while driving not in stop go traffic but in a steady ride or idling on a flat surface.. best result will be under operating temp of the oil so you can let the car recalculate then..

and there were some talks like a myth that there is a dipstick on E70-71 S63 engines but since i sold the car never tried to find it.. you can start by taking the cover off..
on 35d video shows dipstick.. S63 probably has it in a different area and actually newer V8's has it and its not hidden dipstick thankfully clearly there is one..

S63 absolutely has no oil dip stick.

[hunter_509]

Originally Posted by Dawgz

10w60 is so wrong for this engine.

You want 5w40

I did what the dealership recommended.

[Dawgz]

Originally Posted by hunter_509

I did what the dealership recommended.

They will also recommend a new motor when their previous recommendations lead to issues.

[Molez93]

Originally Posted by hunter_509

I did what the dealership recommended.

Plenty of places assume “M motor = 10W60.”
As previously mentioned, that isn’t correct. Others can speculate to the size of the problem, but I wouldn’t run it in my X5M.

However, it’s the only oil I use in the S54 engine on the Z4M.

[Dawgz]

10W60 is to thick for the x5m setup.

[Dawgz]

https://www.opieoils.co.uk/t-car-eng...explained.aspx

[Autobacs]

Originally Posted by Dawgz

10w60 is so wrong for this engine.

You want 5w40

YUP. It is even wrong for the engine it was made for, the S85 V10, at least in the opinion of this engineer who wrote an lengthy article regarding engine oil, mentioning the bearing issues on those engines, so not first hand experience. Definitely wrong for the S63 IMO.

[hunter_509]

Well looks like i will be doing another oil change, i think i will change the oil level sensor out as well just to air on the side of caution. so 5w-40, i can get royal purple for next to nothing through my work. definitely wont take my car back to that dealership for any reason. i was planning on going camping, about 250 miles round trip this weekend, should i change it out before then?

[hunter_509]

strike all that, i feel pretty stupid. just went back and looked and they did use 5w30. I feel a little dumb now. for some reason i remember the service writer mentioning 10-60. regardless, sounds like i need to replace the oil level sensor so ill be doing that soon.

[Dawgz]

Originally Posted by hunter_509

strike all that, i feel pretty stupid. just went back and looked and they did use 5w30. I feel a little dumb now. for some reason i remember the service writer mentioning 10-60. regardless, sounds like i need to replace the oil level sensor so ill be doing that soon.

Nice. The sensor is very easy to replace.

[Autobacs]

Originally Posted by hunter_509

Well looks like i will be doing another oil change, i think i will change the oil level sensor out as well just to air on the side of caution. so 5w-40, i can get royal purple for next to nothing through my work. definitely wont take my car back to that dealership for any reason. i was planning on going camping, about 250 miles round trip this weekend, should i change it out before then?

I definitely would use an LL-01 rated oil and not use Royal Purple, if it is not one, which do not think it is.

[msan]

I wouldn't change the oil sensor. Seems like a waste of money to me. There will be other things that you will need for real repairs in the future.

[colinmartin]

if you persist with 10-60 you will start to hear the tappets as the oil is too thick and will cause expensive problem i made that mistake ,if you are losing too much oil with 5-30 its probably time to change the valve seals.

[SlowX6M]

It has been my experience ever since my 5.0 started burning oil - after initial oil change at the dealership it takes twice as long as usual for the oil meter to move. After it drops down to minimum and requires a quart to top off, it usually takes half the miles for it to drop back to minimum.

I can see two reasons for it - first maybe the dealer is overfilling, especially if they are not using quart bottles but pump it out of a high capacity tank. Second, if you check history, back around 2013 or so BMW actually revised their recommendation for oil capacity for N63 and S63 engines from 8 quarts to 9 quarts. This is when the first batch of oil consumption issues started to surface, and so BMW used a cheap trick to keep complaints to a minimum. Thus, after an oil change you essentially have an extra quart of oil, but your computer oil meter is set for the original quantity of oil, and so it only starts to drop when a whole quart has already been consumed by then engine.

Here is a decent video regarding this.

[sidewaysat11]

Originally Posted by SlowX6M

It has been my experience ever since my 5.0 started burning oil - after initial oil change at the dealership it takes twice as long as usual for the oil meter to move. After it drops down to minimum and requires a quart to top off, it usually takes half the miles for it to drop back to minimum.

I can see two reasons for it - first maybe the dealer is overfilling, especially if they are not using quart bottles but pump it out of a high capacity tank. Second, if you check history, back around 2013 or so BMW actually revised their recommendation for oil capacity for N63 and S63 engines from 8 quarts to 9 quarts. This is when the first batch of oil consumption issues started to surface, and so BMW used a cheap trick to keep complaints to a minimum. Thus, after an oil change you essentially have an extra quart of oil, but your computer oil meter is set for the original quantity of oil, and so it only starts to drop when a whole quart has already been consumed by then engine.

Here is a decent video regarding this.

The dealer has been known to add an extra quart to lengthen time between oil fills due to inherent burning.