BMW 330Ci oil light just came on?

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I havent been out to the car park to check the oil level just yet, will do it when I am leaving. But i did call BMW and asked them the price on an oil service, £160 which seems steep for what it is. So i asked what type of oil is used and was told 0W30 Synthetic, so i might try and source some of this myself to keep costs down. Any brand in particular i should be aiming towards?
 
Caporegime
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Just lol. Scrap it and get a new one.

Mine is several thousand away from an oil change so cannot advise if it comes on when it's due (although handbook indicates a spanner will appear when it's due) however I would suggest checking the oil level and filling as necessary. Could be a faulty sensor or just simply needs more oil.

£160 doesn't sound that rediculous depending on what type of oil service it is.

and you should check your oil level after a journey that has warmed the engine up and left it 10-15 minutes to cool, not when the engine is cold.
 
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I havent been out to the car park to check the oil level just yet, will do it when I am leaving. But i did call BMW and asked them the price on an oil service, £160 which seems steep for what it is. So i asked what type of oil is used and was told 0W30 Synthetic, so i might try and source some of this myself to keep costs down. Any brand in particular i should be aiming towards?

Olivio is good, low saturates.
 
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It means low (minimum) oil level on a 330ci. Red is no oil pressure, he's quite a way off that yet.

This. I love how half the people on OcUK will offer advise even though they've got absolutely no idea how the car in question actually operates. It does not mean low oil pressure.

what does the sensor sense as the oil level will all over the place whilst the engine is running?

It is a thermical oil level sensor which calculates the volume of oil in the sump.
 
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[TW]Fox;14099310 said:
This. I love how half the people on OcUK will offer advise even though they've got absolutely no idea how the car in question actually operates.

I think it's quite amazing someone will pay a lot of money for a premium brand car and not bother to even look at the owners hand book (or even bother checking oil level on a regular basis).
 
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I think it's quite amazing someone will pay a lot of money for a premium brand car and not bother to even look at the owners hand book (or even bother checking oil level on a regular basis).

lol, my thoughts exactly, I read the owners manual of my 330i from cover to cover when I got mine.
 
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I think it's quite amazing someone will pay a lot of money for a premium brand car and not bother to even look at the owners hand book (or even bother checking oil level on a regular basis).

I quite agree. Amusingly there is a page in the handbook which explains EXACTLY:

a) How to check the oil
b) What the various oil lights mean
 

Jez

Jez

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I think it's quite amazing someone will pay a lot of money for a premium brand car and not bother to even look at the owners hand book (or even bother checking oil level on a regular basis).

Not knowing what the light does is a bit silly, but there is really no need to be doing the dirty task of manually checking oil levels in a car with oil sensors which does not leak or burn oil.
 
Soldato
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Dude check your manual. There are different explanations for the oil light and different scenarios mean different thing. Yellow light while driving - Top up oil ASAP. Yellow light appears when ignition is turned off - Top up withing 50 miles..Etc etc.
 
Soldato
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It's nothing to worry about, just top the oil up, but use the proper stuff, don't go chucking any old oil in there. I had it come on once in my old 330, I was just a bit low on oil, so I topped it up and the light went out, no problem.
 
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Not knowing what the light does is a bit silly, but there is really no need to be doing the dirty task of manually checking oil levels in a car with oil sensors which does not leak or burn oil.

But after spending so much money on something that can be potentially expensive to fix, why let a sensor tell you when you are low on oil when it's possible the sensor itself could fail? It's a two minute job that can save you huge bill.
 
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But i did call BMW and asked them the price on an oil service, £160 which seems steep for what it is. So i asked what type of oil is used and was told 0W30 Synthetic, so i might try and source some of this myself to keep costs down.

Is this the reason, when someone say 'spec me a 4k car', that a 330ci is not the answer?
 
Soldato
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I have a 57 plate 3 series, and the exact same happened to me, turned out to be a faulty oil sensor, took about an hour for them to fix and all is fine now.
 
Soldato
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Not knowing what the light does is a bit silly, but there is really no need to be doing the dirty task of manually checking oil levels in a car with oil sensors which does not leak or burn oil.

It's not really a dirty task though is it? unless you drip oil all over the dipstick, then wipe the dipstick on your face or something.

You will get dirtier taking off a tyre dust cap.
 
Soldato
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It's got a sensor which can tell the level. My Z4 doesn't have a dipstick at all I don't think.

I wouldn't want to rely on a sensor for oil level, with a dipstick i'm sure it's a handy set-up... but a sensor alone seems a like a bad idea.
 
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People seem to forget that the car cost well over £20k(?) new so despite it only costing £4k it will still cost the same to run as a £20k car. Just because it costs that little doesn't mean it's going to cost little to keep on the road.

It's the reason why a brought a Fiesta when I had £1k to spend on a car. Could have purchased an old Beemer or something like that but do I really want the bills associated with such a car.
 
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People seem to forget that the car cost well over £20k(?) new so despite it only costing £4k it will still cost the same to run as a £20k car. Just because it costs that little doesn't mean it's going to cost little to keep on the road.

Invoice for mine was £35k, a 330Ci was barely any cheaper.
 
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