[jonaspriebe]

Hello, so I just bought today, my first F30. I got a 2014 328i xDrive with 131,xxx miles and in good condition. The former owner was an old lady who had it serviced regularly. There were 2 owners before her, both serviced regularly, although one got into a fender bender that damaged the front and left side.

So I picked this up today, and an hour into my drive home, the oil pressure warning came on. I thought this was super strange because the guy who owns an alignment shop that was selling it on her behalf had his guys check the levels of all the fluids and make sure they were all good to go. So I pull off and did some quick research, couldn't find much and just ended up trying to turn it off and back on and see if it was a sensor issue. It worked but ended up going back off. I called the guy and he said that this has been an issue that the other owner has had for the past 2 years or so and has brought it in and has never been an issue with the actual level of the oil, but maybe just a sensor issue.

Well its worrying me, its gone off 4 times now, all at random times (mind you I've only had this car for a day, and probably have drove it for a total of 4 hours so far). I've tried running the oil level test but it just gets to 15% and then stops. My oil temp has sat around 240ish when I've been at interstate speeds of around 80 then goes down to around I'd say 180 when driving sub 60.

Has anyone had this issue or know what could be causing it? I'm hoping its just a sensor issue, I thought I read somewhere that this could be a sign that the timing chain is going. Which I hope badly it isn't seeing I just bought this today.

[fe7565]

Oil pressure coming on/off for two years is not a trivial issue. The guy who was selling this on behalf of the "old lady" who only used it to go to "church and funerals" is a d*ck for not telling you this before you bought the car.

If your oil level is good, and it's only the sensor...you are lucky. If it's your timing chain guides broken and parts of it being stuck in your oil passages which at higher rpms cause a severe oil starvation...then it's a ticking time bomb as the engine can fail catastrophically.

https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...ght=Jeovany818

[sspade]

Sorry about your luck and hope you're able to resolve quickly and inexpensively BUT...

Low oil pressure on the N20 engine screams clogged oil pickup screen which is very small in diameter to begin with. As shown, can cause quite a problem when broken bits of the guide get sucked into it!

[rhenier99]

First and foremost as a BMW owner I suggest investing into a diagnostic tool, you can do ista+ with an enet cable (this might be the cheapest option and works quite well) or you can get a bluetooth obd2 reader that is compatible with Bimmerlink, or really there are a bunch of tools - there are many threads that explain this. Of course you can also get a diagnostic done at any shop if you wish to go that route, but if you plan on working on the car then being able to clear faults etc. is just something you can't go without. I have both the bimmerlink and Ista+ solutions and bimmerlink is very convenient for live reading data on your phone as you drive (be careful though lol), you should be able to live read your oil pressure, of course this relies on sensors, which could also give you an idea of the fault.

if you're unable to do it yourself then you can get it done at almost any shop. Once you've done the diagnostic, post it here. If there's an oil level sensor fault or oil pressure sensor fault that might be the cheapest potential fix, unfortunately for the oil pressure sensor if I'm not mistaken this sits under the intake manifold so a bit of work to get to. Not being able to read the oil level is probably an oil level sensor fault, but I doubt that would throw oil pressure warnings, not 100% sure about the n20 but for an n46 I did a few weeks back it sits in the oil pan, you would probably need to drain the oil for this change. Might not be a bad idea to check your oil filter for metal shavings or bits of guide... to give you an idea of what's going on.

[jonaspriebe]

Originally Posted by fe7565

Oil pressure coming on/off for two years is not a trivial issue. The guy who was selling this on behalf of the "old lady" who only used it to go to "church and funerals" is a d*ck for not telling you this before you bought the car.

If your oil level is good, and it's only the sensor...you are lucky. If it's your timing chain guides broken and parts of it being stuck in your oil passages which at higher rpms cause a severe oil starvation...then it's a ticking time bomb as the engine can fail catastrophically.

https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...ght=Jeovany818

Thank you so much for the warning! Also, sorry for not giving an update for sometime. I brought it to the nearest BMW service station near me and they figured the reason that the "LOW OIL PRESSURE" kept going off was because the center piece in the oil filter cap wasn't there which will cause oil pressure faults. Here is word for word what the tech said,

"1. INSPECTED VEHICLE PERFORMED VEHICLE TEST FOUND MULTIPLE FAULT FOR LOW OIL PRESSURE.
PERFORMED OIL PRESSURE TEST PASSED OIL PRESSURE TEST. REMOVED OIL FILTER CAP FOUND CENTER
PIECE MISSING THIS CAN CAUSE OIL PRESSURE FAULTS REPLACED OIL FILTER CAP. DRAINED OIL FOUND 4
QUARTS IN VEHICLE VEHICLE TAKE 5.5 QUARTS. AFTER OIL CHANGE CLEARED FAULT MEMORY AND TEST
DROVE VEHICLE. NO FAULTS RETURNED."

I haven't had any issues since with it!!

[fe7565]

Originally Posted by jonaspriebe

Thank you so much for the warning! Also, sorry for not giving an update for sometime. I brought it to the nearest BMW service station near me and they figured the reason that the "LOW OIL PRESSURE" kept going off was because the center piece in the oil filter cap wasn't there which will cause oil pressure faults. Here is word for word what the tech said,

"1. INSPECTED VEHICLE PERFORMED VEHICLE TEST FOUND MULTIPLE FAULT FOR LOW OIL PRESSURE.
PERFORMED OIL PRESSURE TEST PASSED OIL PRESSURE TEST. REMOVED OIL FILTER CAP FOUND CENTER
PIECE MISSING THIS CAN CAUSE OIL PRESSURE FAULTS REPLACED OIL FILTER CAP. DRAINED OIL FOUND 4
QUARTS IN VEHICLE VEHICLE TAKE 5.5 QUARTS. AFTER OIL CHANGE CLEARED FAULT MEMORY AND TEST
DROVE VEHICLE. NO FAULTS RETURNED."

I haven't had any issues since with it!!

Wow...you are lucky that this was the reason. Glad it turned out well!

Thanks for the update, it helps others.