[tres]

WOW 200+ miles its good to hear e90's lasting this long hope you get your problem resolved.

[Three_thirty_I]

I reckon the N52 is a fairly bullet-proof engine in terms of the mechanicals, but when it comes to the electronics, it's a different story and usually where the bigger problems arise...

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by Three_thirty_I

I reckon the N52 is a fairly bullet-proof engine in terms of the mechanicals, but when it comes to the electronics, it's a different story and usually where the bigger problems arise...

This is a software issue, not an electronics issue.

[Three_thirty_I]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

This is a software issue, not an electronics issue.

True, but at same time meant as part of the same issue since if it's not a sensor that has failed somewhere, it's the software not picking up on it or adding to the problem. But yes, in this specific case it is purely software!

[Efthreeoh]

Okay, an update on this fricking stupid issue.

When I changed out the oil sensor, I spilled a bit over a quart of oil putting the re-used oil back in (it only had 3,000 miles on it at the time). After I spilled that oil (I added about 3/4 qt. of fresh oil back in - it read about 1/4 qt. low). And after it came back from the shop I topped off the engine again with 3/4 of quart and it read full.

On 11/23/13 at 232,253 miles I did my 15th oil change, which was the 1st oil change since I replaced the sensor and took the car to BMW to try and code out the CBS oil service monitor, so I knew for sure there was 7 quarts of oil in the engine. I've been closely monitoring the e-dipstick readings since that oil change at 232,253 miles.

At 235,400 miles the e-dipstick read 1/4 qt. low.
At 236,750 miles it dropped to 1/2 qt. low.
At 238,079 miles it dropped to 3/4 qt. low.
At 239,135 miles it dropped to 1 qt. low (I got the +1 QT warning).

I was prepared for this and had a fresh quart of oil in the trunk ready to put in. So at 239,179 miles (just 44 miles later once I parked the car) I added in the full quart I had in the trunk.

NOW AFTER ADDING THE FULL QUART THE E-DIPSTICK IS READING 3/4 QUART LOW. So what this means is I added 1 full quart of oil (32 ounces) when the CBS reported the engine was 1 quart low and now the e-dipstick reads 3/4 of a quart low.

This is why I think once the oil life monitor stops using the oil quality data from the oil sensor it also screws up the reporting capability of the e-dipstick.

This whole issue is just screwed up, totally f'ing screwed up. Thanks BMW, thanks.

[Three_thirty_I]

Well, I am so fed up with my E90 and have actually lost faith in the brand - seems like just about everything on these cars are designed to only work while the car is still under warranty, and even then, only just barely! I have owned this car for over 3 years now, and 2 of those until present have been battling with a stupid pinging problem coupled with dips in power through the rev range. Has to be the worst car I have ever owned, and sorry, but as it stands, by no means is it a "driver's car", and definitely not refined. Stupid things like CDV clutch and laggy drive by wire throttle with stupid adaptations does not help either! I have not been able to find a comfortable seating position since the dealer wasted my time and of course had to fiddle with the driver's seat in the process. I read somewhere that the new M3/M4 will have a feature on their DCT models called "smokey burnout" - so that at low speeds you can spin the wheels! I am sorry, but WTF? What has happened to this brand?! They used to make good cars that lasted and were a pleasure to own!

I BMW ownership is most definitely drawing closer and closer to an end thanks to this car!

I really hope that they will pull finger and sort this issue out for your car!!

[freon480]

Very interesting. I used to notice a quart of oil consumotion at 6000 miles so rather rhab topoing off I would change oil myself. Being a tech and purchasing the oil at cost I see no harm in changin oil before what bmw recommends. I do not usually reset oil life indicator until it comes on to change. So I have not had the chance to reset. I will say I noticed that is has been saying a quart down considerably sooner. I have not changed the sensor and I have rhe same slow seeping at oil pan I have had since I got my 2006 325xi at 90k. Im at 199k and am planming to change oil next week. I may try resetting indicator tom just out of curiosity. Glad you linked me to this thread because I was worried my level sender might be starting ro malfunction. So in subscribed to this to see what happens next.

[pruettfan]

I am at 192,000 miles, I changed the oil at 190,000 but did not reset the oil life monitor because beyond 185,000 it appears (based on what I have read here) to create issues. I had driven 9,000 miles on the old oil and the oil life monitor did not count down at all. The level was accurate based on my measurement of the oil I drained. Over the past 2,000 miles (11,000 total) the oil life monitor dropped 1,000 miles. I decided as soon as I read this thread that I would just go to 10,000 mile intervals. On a side note I have been given a work car so my 25,000 mile a year commute won't have an impact on my BMW, I will probably be driving it about 5,000 miles a year so that should keep her alive for my daughter when she turns 16 in 18 months. Frustrated with this issue but overall I cannot complain, the car looks like it has less than 100k, heck looks like about 50k. I paid 24,500 for it in 2009, I have driven it 150,000 miles and had good luck with it, and with a little luck my daughter will get 4-5 years use out of it.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by freon480

Very interesting. I used to notice a quart of oil consumotion at 6000 miles so rather rhab topoing off I would change oil myself. Being a tech and purchasing the oil at cost I see no harm in changin oil before what bmw recommends. I do not usually reset oil life indicator until it comes on to change. So I have not had the chance to reset. I will say I noticed that is has been saying a quart down considerably sooner. I have not changed the sensor and I have rhe same slow seeping at oil pan I have had since I got my 2006 325xi at 90k. Im at 199k and am planming to change oil next week. I may try resetting indicator tom just out of curiosity. Glad you linked me to this thread because I was worried my level sender might be starting ro malfunction. So in subscribed to this to see what happens next.

Well I don't know what to tell you other than BMW has told me they are not interested in solving the issue. I just changed the oil this past Saturday. What has changed in the behavior of the e-dipstick is, now when I drain and refill the engine with 7 quarts at an oil change the e-dipstick immediately reports the oil level (when it shouldn't before the new oil warms up) but it reports it at the last reading the system took before the oil change. So on Saturday my car was 3/4 quart low. I changed the oil reset the oil life monitor (it only resets to 0) and took the car out to check the oil level and the e-dipstick reported the level at 3/4 low (even though I just put in 7 full quarts) when it should have given the spinning clock because the new oil was not yet warmed up. Also, I measured the quantity of the old oil and it was under 6 quarts, so the e-dipstick was off by at least a 1/2 quart.

I live out in the country and use a consistent route to warm the car up. So I drove the car prior to the oil change to warm up the oil and took an e-dipstick reading (which showed 3/4 low). When I took the car out after the change to get a reading of the new oil level I took the exact same route and at the same speed. The e-dipstick finally reported a full level of oil at the exact same distance and time from my house. Prior to the 186,000 mile obsoleting of the oil life monitor, the e-dipstick would only show the spinning clock after an oil change until the new oil warmed up (like it normally should).

Now that the oil life monitor only counts backwards (i.e. only negative numbers) I just use it as a oil change mileage counter and when it gets to -10,000 miles I change the oil (which is how the old system in the E30 and E36 used to work - LOL).

If BMW decides to fix it I will report so, but don't get your hopes up. Because this is SO STUPID I'm done with BMW over this issue; my E90 will be the last BMW I buy. It's very disappointing, I've owned a BMW since 1988; IMO I think the company has just gone idiotic.

[freon480]

So i got my scanner and got into the car today and figured id try resetting the indicator to see what happens. Im at 199463 miles and it says im -24000 for oil life. I decided not to reset. Yet until I find out if I can code out the cbs indicator without bringing to dealer. Ive always maintained based on mileage and driving conditions anways but I do wonder if it is the reset or the mileage that affects the dipstick. This is what I find to be most important. I plan om changing oil this week and measuring to see if it reads accurate before and after changes with out resetting the cbs

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by freon480

So i got my scanner and got into the car today and figured id try resetting the indicator to see what happens. Im at 199463 miles and it says im -24000 for oil life. I decided not to reset. Yet until I find out if I can code out the cbs indicator without bringing to dealer. Ive always maintained based on mileage and driving conditions anways but I do wonder if it is the reset or the mileage that affects the dipstick. This is what I find to be most important. I plan om changing oil this week and measuring to see if it reads accurate before and after changes with out resetting the cbs

If you try to reset the oil life monitor with the scan tool, I doubt it will let you, my BT scan tool doesn't; I can only reset it through the turnsignal stalk. I measured my oil when I changed it last weekend and the e-dipstick was over a 1/4 quart higher than the amount of oil that drained out.

[pruettfan]

I am at 192,000 miles. I haven't reset my oil life monitor based on this thread. I suspect that resetting after 186,000 miles creates issues with the oil level accuracy. So far it appears that it is working fine. I have gone to changes at 10,000 mile increments. In all of the years and miles of use I have never had to add oil between changes so if my level shows low it will probably be due to a problem with the level indicator more so than actual oil level. I just got a company car so my annual miles on the BMW will drop from 34,000 to less than 10,000 so I guess the timing is right. As I have said in previous posts I am giving this car to my daughter when she turns 16 with the plan to have her use it through the rest of high school and through college so we will be dealing with this issue so many more years to come.

[doogee]

Just wanted to report im at 305,000KM or 190,000 miles and don't have any of these issues.

[freon480]

so i decided to wait until the warning for needing 1 qt came on to do my oil change. im at 204k i drained the oil and exactly 6 quarts came out. i have no issues with oil accuracy. i have not reset the oil indicator in 25k miles. i started car up and after brief warm up period ( a minute, didnt even pull car out of the bay) the oil level read full. im tempted to reset oil indicator but then again im not. lol

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by freon480

so i decided to wait until the warning for needing 1 qt came on to do my oil change. im at 204k i drained the oil and exactly 6 quarts came out. i have no issues with oil accuracy. i have not reset the oil indicator in 25k miles. i started car up and after brief warm up period ( a minute, didnt even pull car out of the bay) the oil level read full. im tempted to reset oil indicator but then again im not. lol

Well it be nice to have two cars with the same issue so BMW may take notice. Just saying. Besides, once it starts counting backwards from 0, you can use it as a counter to track the mileage of when to change the oil.

[freon480]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

Well it be nice to have two cars with the same issue so BMW may take notice. Just saying. Besides, once it starts counting backwards from 0, you can use it as a counter to track the mileage of when to change the oil.

so i bit the bullet and reset the indicator. prior to resetting i was 29000 since it was last reset. it reset with no issues so far i still havent driven it since i reset but i will update with any oddities i find if any. next recommended oil service is in 18000miles with a date of 4/2016. lol i find the 4/2016 date to be hularious because i do about 200 miles a day most days. ill be changing the oil again most likely first week in june. i use about a quart every 5k miles. ill wait until 1 qt low indicator comes on drain measure and report back here then and see what we find. not that it matters but ill say that i use the snap-on solus scanner to do the reset just so all variables are on the table.

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

Well it be nice to have two cars with the same issue so BMW may take notice. Just saying. Besides, once it starts counting backwards from 0, you can use it as a counter to track the mileage of when to change the oil.

Any idea what software version your cars DME is?

Can you check with INPA and post the month/year thats its dated?

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by index1489

Any idea what software version your cars DME is?

Can you check with INPA and post the month/year thats its dated?

I'll scan this weekend and see. But it was updated with the latest software as of August 2013, so the SW version is pretty recent.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by freon480

so i bit the bullet and reset the indicator. prior to resetting i was 29000 since it was last reset. it reset with no issues so far i still havent driven it since i reset but i will update with any oddities i find if any. next recommended oil service is in 18000miles with a date of 4/2016. lol i find the 4/2016 date to be hularious because i do about 200 miles a day most days. ill be changing the oil again most likely first week in june. i use about a quart every 5k miles. ill wait until 1 qt low indicator comes on drain measure and report back here then and see what we find. not that it matters but ill say that i use the snap-on solus scanner to do the reset just so all variables are on the table.

When I reset my car at the 195K oil change it the OCI reset to 18,000. My next oil service at 212,000 the OCI only reset to 9,700. My next oil service at 221,000 is when it would only reset to 0 (zero) miles.

[freon480]

so im checking back in. i am at 210k. just changed oil. monitor only reset to 12000 miles now. i feel oil level reading may be off im not sure on that yet i measured but spilled some also. if there is a discrepancy it would not be more than 1/3 of a quart. i will make a better effort to measure next time. but i can confirm the change ability to reset to the normal 18k. also adding that oil life reset with snapon solus scanner.

[Efthreeoh]

Interesting that the Snap-On scan tool worked resetting the CBS. See if the OCI interval sticks. Mine reset briefly one time, but went back to 0. Congrats on the mileage. How the oil usage doing? I'm consuming about a quart every 7,000 miles now.

[freon480]

well it did reset but only to 12k. not that ive gone that far. so we can confirm it is not programmed to work passed a certain mileage.im consuming/leaking a quart every 5k. i usually change when the +1 message first appears. which is around 5k. oil pan/possible rear main seal has been leaking since 90k. ill fix when I do clutch if that goes before engine lol. I noticed it would not tell me oil level right away after starting like it should although prior to oil change I was getting +1qt message immed after starting for a few days as I was procrastinating tossing a quart in to only drain it out for the oil change. im eagerly awaiting thw next oil change now. im very curious to measure oil correctly. the reminder I couldnt care less about since I dont do my changes by that. but if there is an issue with the capability to correctly measure the oil level then im intrigued to find out how or why the two are connected.