I'm convinced that my oil level sensor is bad, which means I have absolutely no clue how to tell what my oil level is. Any suggestions?

Here's the long version:

My oil level sensor isn't measuring properly. I know this because I check the oil every morning. My car is parked on my flat garage floor. I haven't had to add any oil since my last oil change (that I did myself), which seemed a little odd. I've driven the car about 3000 miles since then. I figured I would have to put in at least a half liter in that time.

Anyway, I went on a hundred mile drive on Thursday, and on the way home I started to hear a slight noise from the engine. When I would give it a little bit of gas I would hear the valves rattling slightly. I was thinking the worst--timing chain tensioners.

I drove the rest of the way home very carefully and parked in the garage. A few hours later I checked the oil and it said to add a half liter. I added oil, waited ten minutes, and checked again. It still said to add a half liter. I added another half and started the engine. There were no weird sounds. I let it run for a minute and then turned it off. An hour later I went back to the garage and checked it again. It STILL said to add a half liter. I added another half liter. Thirty minutes later I checked it again and added a FOURTH half liter.

I went to bed and checked it in the morning Once again it said t add a half liter. I added a fifth half liter, for a total of 2.5 liters. I started the engine and it purred like a kitten. I started driving it to work, but my plan was to drive it straight to the dealer if I heard any weird sounds. I sounded completely normal on my drive to work. At work I park on a slight grade, so I didn't check the oil there, but I parked it in the garage last night and checked it this morning. It's finally saying that the oil level is normal.

 

If you have an extractor pump, then suck all the oil out and measure it. Then put it back in.

 

What a coincidence. I'm religious about checking my oil and do it before every cold start. It's been a year since my last do it yourself oil change and the oil level has been "full" for the entire year and approx. 3500 miles. So I started getting the "Service Required" message and when I checked the oil on Tuesday it showed half full on the instrument cluster scale.. Checked for obvious oil leaks and signs of smoke but nothing. I drove the car about 45 miles that day and checked the oil when I returned (after cool down) and it was back to full and has stayed that way since. I was wondering if triggering the service message caused some glitch in the system. I did see a post by someone stating there was an inherent problem with the oil level warning system on the 5:0 engines but he wouldn't elaborate on the issue. I'd love to know what he found.

 

The last time I changed the oil it started sucking air at around 6 liters, so that's what I put back in. It was showing full before I changed the oil, and it was showing full afterwards.

My "Service Required" message is also on when I start the engine, but I just haven't gotten around to resetting it. The oil only has a few thousand miles on it and I change my oil based on mileage, not a reminder. I'm going to reset the reminder later today.

 

There's an oil volume meter on the Torque Pro app which can be connected through bluebooth on the OBD2 port. I think the parameters for volume meter need to be manually entered--it is easy to enter and there is a thread on it. However, I don't think it is very accurate. I entered in on my Torque Pro app, but haven't had any time to mess with it. My car is on jack stands for full fluid changes and maintenance.

 

A few weeks ago on checking mine from cold it gave "reading unavailable check handbook. " after putting car back on ctek over nite i checked again it gave the reading oil level ok . i deliberately never completely fill mine oil level that is to the top i know i am 300ml short . like mine your battery could be low . charge fully then check again , these cars are notorious for giving out false readings

 

This is too low, and that will cause you to burn more oil as you found out.
Look to put in 8+ liters.

This is what I would do in your situation. If you are using expensive oil, pull it out and set it aside.
Fill with inexpensive oil, add bottle of techron to the oil. Drive 100 miles, add bottle of lubegard oil flush, idle 5 mins, get all the oil out put old oil back in.
Sludge may be your problem.

 

That does sound like some alarming sludge & warrants Q&C's suggestion. I watch the level indication at each quart during the fill process as well.

 

What's your oil type and weight if I may ask?
Don

 

So... a month and a half later, I did what Queen and Country suggested. I tried to de-sludge the engine. Twice. I had my expensive Motul Specific Jaguar spec engine oil in the engine. It only had a few thousand miles on it. But I poured in a bottle of Liqui Moly Engine Flush, let it idle for 10-15 minutes, then I changed the oil. (I put in some"cheap" Mobil 1 synthetic).

After driving it for a couple of days, I poured in another bottle of Liqui Moly Engine Flush, let it idle for 15 minutes, then changed the oil again. This time I put in some Pennzoil 0W-20 synthetic made from natural gas.

Now, a month and a half later, I was hearing weird sounds from the engine. So I pumped out the oil and I only got 6.5 quarts. The oil sensor is showing that it's totally full. It's not.

How do I replace that sensor? I'm guessing I drain the oil, drop the pan and the sensor is in there somewhere, right?

Who the f*** builds an engine with no dipstick? The oil sensor would be awesome if it worked right. But a dipstick as a backup would be even better.

 

Residual oil in the pan not accessible through suction, and the car reads by the half-liter?
Agreed that a dipstick would be a good thing.

 

That's incorrect. Your oil must be hot! .

 

SERIOUSLY??? I never saw that before. That's just ridiculous. My car is a daily driver. Every morning I check the oil level. I guess I've been wasting my time. This car needs a damn dipstick.

 

I did read the ****ing manual. Except I don't want to wait every time I drive the car so I check it before I start. If you think hot oil occupies a significantly larger volume of oil than cold oil them have at it. Since I carefully measure the volume of oil when I refill the car, I'm only interested in a change. And from the hundreds of oil measurements (hot and cold) I've made since I bought the car, I've never been able to see an change in level reported from the car system. But go ahead and read your ****ing manual -****.

 

Calm down, TXFireblade, you'll live longer. Just trying to be helpful.

 

I have this issue too, but not to the extent that you do.
I also check when cold. But it's SoCal, so "cold" is relative.
But the idea that you have to warm the engine fully (and it's a V8, I don't even think my drive to work does that), then, what... set a ten-minute alarm to go back to "check" (i.e., trust the e-dipstick) the oil? Oh, and what if it's 20 minutes? 30? No good? Sorry, try again another day?
Through all the decades we've all owned cars, the two times we'd check the oil (first thing, or at a gas station) are both now, apparently, VERBOTIN.
As I've stated elsewhere, my car seems good in town, but on a long (200+ miles in a day), high speed road trip it definitely drinks oil.
I hate to say it but I think you've got to do the "set a 10 minute alarm" crap for a week or two.
Here's my crazy question: since it's electronic now, wouldn't it be childishly simple to factor in A) the oil temp, and B) the amount of time the engine has been shut off, and come up with an oil reading at any time? Like "if the temperature is X degrees and the engine has been shut off for Y minutes the oil level should be Z?" Or is that too complicated?

 

According to the relevant text in the AJ133 Technical Training doc, the sensor measures both oil level and temperature.
The last sentence of the text implies that the oil temperature is accounted for in the
oil level read-out.

Quote:

"Oil Level / Temperature Sensor
The new ultrasonic sensor, a first for JLR, provides an
electronic indication as to when the oil in the engines
sump is low or high. This allows for the deletion of the
mechanical dipstick.
The sensor maps the fill level of the oil continually during
trips. An advantage in comparison with the static
‘dipstick’ method is that all marginal influences are compensated
for by averaging. Marginal influences include
the vehicle being on a slope, the oil flowing back at the
end of a journey, lateral and longitudinal acceleration, or
even dipstick tolerances.
The values determined can be used to signal that the
minimum oil level has been reached or to display the
current oil level if required.
The continuous-mode sensor measures engine oil level
and temperature. The oil level and oil temperature readings
are taken and turned into a pulse-width modulated
output signal."

I for one usually check the oil level read-out first thing in the morning after the car has been sitting in my garage all night and the oil is at room temperature, and it always reads exactly the same - smack on the "max" line.
The few times I have followed the "warm the engine up then wait 10 minutes" procedure, to check if it gave a different result, it didn't - it gave the the same reading.
This is in both my current F-Type (V6 but the exact same sump and oil system as the V8) and my previous 2010 XFR (exact same engine as the 2010 XKR).

 

Then why the 10-minute wait?? That seems contradictory.

 

I have read that the 10 minute wait is to allow enough time for as much oil to drain into the sump as is possible (or conversely so there not excess oil "up top"), and it has nothing to do with allowing the oil to cool down a little.
But like you this seems a bit contradictory to me as the specified oil is either low or very low viscosity to start with (5W-20 or 0W-20) so surely leaving it overnight for the oil to drain will give the same result - as much oil as is possible is now sitting in the sump.

 

The sensor knows exact volume/level. But the dash reading is
-averaged
-won't shft from full for a long time
The workarounds are:
-use serivce mode, which shows more accurate results (hood open, a few clicks of cruise "cancel" button will give a service reading of oil level)
-torque app with custom pids shows EXACT amount of oil (i tried a several times before releasing a PIDs - during oil swap i put 8l in crank, torque reports 8l/130mm. If i measure a drained oil volume during oil service it ALWAYS the same that the toruqe readings right before draining an oil).
6l of oil is way too low. For example, with full 8l and spiritual driving sometimes, during the drive, torque shows (yep, it show oil level on a running engine) that the level drops to 3l (<80mm). With 6l it's something like 1l, so oil starvation is quite possible.