[Leokravchuk]

Hello guys,

I'm a new one hear and wanted to write this post the same day when my problem occurred. It was the day before yesterday.

Before to tell about the problem, let me provide some small intro.

I own E90, 318I, N46 engine in Ukraine, bought it from 0 and now have 406 000 on my odometer. I know in this car everything, right from the bottom, all weaknesses and so on. I take care of her like real men took care of their beloved women.
Changing oil every 10 000 km, use Motul for the last 200 000 km, since jumping off from dealer's service and their Castrol oil.
Last year I changed the Oil level sensor due to precaution and because I couldn't reset the service oil period as it showed - 0 in red and not 10000 in orange like before. But I have failed with that, ok it goes to -9000 or - 10000 and then I change oil and reset service till 0. So the change of oil level sensor didn't help but at least I was satisfied because I never changed it in 12 years.

On Monday I drove from Ukraine to Russia, (from Kyiv to Lipetsk) almost 900 km, the last half of them the weather was hot, about 29-30 C (86 F) but definitely it was hotter. Everything was good, A/C was working and I never reached more than 3.5 x 1000 rpm.

The next day the weather was even hotter and I was rushing to complete all the stuff I came for to deal with by driving around 220 km. The car was on the sun almost the whole day even just standing at the parking.

The same day, around 4 PM after a small stop I jumped in the car for a short trip maybe 5 km inside the city of Lipetsk. Then this happened when I was going to stop at the traffic light, ding ding - red oil light. I was stunned. Began to drive further it disappeared, then again speed below 20 kph ding ding. Called my mechanic, who is a good friend of mine as well, he said Leo I'm not sure but seems it's oil level pressure sensor. Because I checked the oil level immediately and it was OK, maybe 80 % on the bar, because I changed an oil 6000 km before that happened and added 800 grams almost before my trip because it's already like a clock in this car, every 5000 km please add the rest from your 5 L can after you put it as new changed oil.

I went back to the hotel, it was 2-3 km, parked the car and thought Leo you're in trouble, something is with your motor 1000 km from your home and in another country. I already wanted to drive back home the next day early in the morning because I did everything that I've planed. Of course, I was scared.

The next morning I googled some car services in order to be able to measure my oil pressure manually, some services where fulled for that day others didn't have the right tools. Official BMW dealer told me that they don't have time today, there are a lot of cars in the process of navigation update and they proposed me to try tomorrow.

Called to Ukrainian's dealer, described everything, I was told it could be a bad oil because there's a lot of Motul fakes in Ukraine (Ok, I'm changing oil at my mechanic's place for the last 7-8 years, and I drove already 6000 km).

By the mid of the day I've found someone to able to check the oil filter on the purpose of metallic pieces on it. By that time I drove another 3-4 km and no red light appeared, the filter was checked and it's clean. Great!
After describing everything the guy told me that the reason why this all happened that the oil was heated up. I was thinking OK I didn't touch the car for 13 hours since I parked it at the hotel yesterday and today is almost 1 pm and I drove only 5-6 km and all is good. I agreed that maybe.


Right after that, I decide to drive not so fast to Ukraine by making a stop to sleep 90 km before the border. I drove a distance of almost 400 km from Lipetsk to the border yesterday, with A/C and hot weather. No red light on the way - hallelujah.

I had a very short night, maybe 6-7 hours but fall asleep with good mood

Today in the very early morning I drove that 90 km to the border, the temperature outside was +13, and there was no reason to turn on A/C. There is a straight road with no traffic lights so I stopped in 1 km before the border to put in fuel and then I stopped at the border and - ding ding; red light.

Well, it took me 3 hours to cross both borders, of course, Russian's was longer and it was still a red light. I checked an engine on noises and it was as usual.

Maybe I decided for the fullest idea in my life to ignore it and drive home not fast.

I was at home in 3 hours, 300 km distance covered and nothing happened. I'm already planning to get the car to my mechanic on the weekend, will try tomorrow to start an engine and check if I'm a loser.

This is my story, please don't be harsh in comments but I will appreciate if you will share your thoughts about it

Thank you

[Maestro]

I think others will say the same, you need to read the code and error the system is throwing. As you are figuring out there could be a number of reason the you are getting the red indicators. The codes will give you more information to look at. I am not sure what the 318 instrument cluster shows, but the 335I have an oil temp indicators and I know there were some versions built without the external oil coolers and a number of people were tracking their cars and got the red indicator as well putting the car in limp mode. You could have temperature issue.

[Leokravchuk]

Thank you Maestro for your reply. I left the car at the dealer's service and went on a small trip inside Europe. The next day I received a call that the reason was in the oil pressure sensor, the oil was thick and temeperature was normal. To hear that was a kind of relief for me.