[Explorerlyon]

06 330i 177,000 miles.

Issue #1
I know that at some mileage point there is a reset issue, but I though I was still under that mileage. I changed the oil, reset the reminder through the stalk controls and it it will not reset. Drove a while and tried resetting again. This time it took, showed 2 years, 15,000 miles. Next day it is back to oil change due in 700 miles.

Issue #2
After the oil change with 6 liters, the level showed in the middle of the empty/full. I added 1/2 liter. Oil level did not change. It has been driven over several days now. Still showing in the middle of the empty/full. Hesitant to add more as it has 6.5 liters in it.

[Efthreeoh]

I was the lucky E90 owner that first discovered the 2006 N52 oil life monitor ceases function at 300,000 km/ 186,000 miles. Someone on E90 post suggested that there is a maximum oil change count that also triggers the oil life monitor to stop, but I'm not sure that has been verified. But what it sounds like, your car is behaving like the oil life monitor is now defunct. So your option is to have the oil change notification coded out of the kombi. The dealer has the coding change and so does the aftermarket. Once the notification is coded out, you then just follow a set oil change interval.

Issue #2. The oil change procedure is to drain the oil, change the filter and refill with 6.9 quarts of oil. The e-dipstick is accurate but not precise. That means if the oil level is truly 6.6 quarts, the e-dipstick may report 6 and 3/4 quarts full. Because there is such variation in the precision (i.e. it only reports in 1/4-quart increments) the oil is only supposed to be topped off at full 1-quart increments upon the "+1qt" notification. So next time just drain the oil and refill with 7 quarts. For this instance, now just wait until the "+1 qt" notification shows up and add in a full quart. And as I have explained many times on E90 post, the e-dipstick does not instantly report a new oil level. It takes 20 minutes of continuous driving to get an updated oil level.

[e90yyc]

Good to know! Just rolled over 300k km myself...

Will add this to my list of things to address.

[lowrydr310]

Originally Posted by Explorerlyon

06 330i 177,000 miles.
Issue #2
After the oil change with 6 liters, the level showed in the middle of the empty/full. I added 1/2 liter. Oil level did not change. It has been driven over several days now. Still showing in the middle of the empty/full. Hesitant to add more as it has 6.5 liters in it.

I thought this horse has already been beaten to death around here... and I'm surprised Efthreeoh didn't complain about it again. He's written countless posts here about how the electronic dipstick works, and how to properly check your oil level. I'm too lazy to search again, but the short answer is RESIST ALL URGES TO KEEP YOUR OIL LEVEL 'TOPPED OFF' AND ONLY ADD OIL WHEN YOU GET THE +1QT MESSAGE!

You must remember your oil indicator isn't an indication of total oil capacity. It only shows the last quart of oil capacity. So a 1/2 reading means you're approximately a half quart below the maximum capacity, which is perfectly safe. If it's at the minimum level, that only means you're a quart low, and does NOT mean that you're out of oil.

The N52 has a ~7 quart capacity which is huge (my 3.5L Honda has a measly <5 quart capacity) so even if you're a full quart low there are still 6 quarts of oil and you're not going to damage anything driving a bit until you have time to top it off.

Originally Posted by e90yyc

Good to know! Just rolled over 300k km myself...

Will add this to my list of things to address.

Efthreeoh also made several detailed posts documenting this along with instructions on how to resolve it, well worth a read! I know it helped me. I bought my E90 with over 300K km (186K miles) and while I was still able to reset my oil life monitor, it was showing a significantly reduced mileage interval (fresh oil and a reset indicated 4300 miles left until the next oil change), and then when I did the oil change around 222K miles, I was completely unable to reset the oil life indicator. The solution is to remove the oil life monitor completely, which is ridiculously easy with ISTA software.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by lowrydr310

I thought this horse has already been beaten to death around here... and I'm surprised Efthreeoh didn't complain about it again. He's written countless posts here about how the electronic dipstick works, and how to properly check your oil level. I'm too lazy to search again, but the short answer is RESIST ALL URGES TO KEEP YOUR OIL LEVEL 'TOPPED OFF' AND ONLY ADD OIL WHEN YOU GET THE +1QT MESSAGE!

You must remember your oil indicator isn't an indication of total oil capacity. It only shows the last quart of oil capacity. So a 1/2 reading means you're approximately a half quart below the maximum capacity, which is perfectly safe. If it's at the minimum level, that only means you're a quart low, and does NOT mean that you're out of oil.

The N52 has a ~7 quart capacity which is huge (my 3.5L Honda has a measly <5 quart capacity) so even if you're a full quart low there are still 6 quarts of oil and you're not going to damage anything driving a bit until you have time to top it off.

I politely asked the Mods to make my one thread that explains how the e-dipstick works a Sticky, but they've yet to do so. I also think because the N52 is an international engine, the oil sump has enough play in the capacity to accept the volume differences between quarts and liters. I found that 6.5 liters does not get a full reading mark, but 6.8 liters does.

[lowrydr310]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

I politely asked the Mods to make my one thread that explains how the e-dipstick works a Sticky, but they've yet to do so. I also think because the N52 is an international engine, the oil sump has enough play in the capacity to accept the volume differences between quarts and liters. I found that 6.5 liters does not get a full reading mark, but 6.8 liters does.

On this same topic, I check my oil level periodically instead of just waiting for the reminder. I know I was down to the 1/4 mark and was expecting to have to add oil soon. Before I stopped for gas last night I checked the level and it showed "+1 qt" but that was only when I navigated to the menu. I didn't get any other warning or indication pop up that I had to add oil. If I remember correctly, the last time I had to add oil, I got the "+1 qt" message while I was driving and dismissed it, then when I got home and shut my car off, the "+1qt" message popped up as I was taking the key out.

[Explorerlyon]

Originally Posted by lowrydr310

I thought this horse has already been beaten to death around here... and I'm surprised Efthreeoh didn't complain about it again. He's written countless posts here about how the electronic dipstick works, and how to properly check your oil level. I'm too lazy to search again, but the short answer is RESIST ALL URGES TO KEEP YOUR OIL LEVEL 'TOPPED OFF' AND ONLY ADD OIL WHEN YOU GET THE +1QT MESSAGE!.

I read many of those posts which is why I thought adding 1/2 liter was enough to move the e-needle. I have 6.5 liters in so will just leave it as is. Now to figure out why the life reset works for a day then bounces back the next day to service due.

[e90yyc]

Originally Posted by lowrydr310

...The solution is to remove the oil life monitor completely, which is ridiculously easy with ISTA software.

I knew there were posts out there documenting this but I haven't gotten around to reading them yet

For some reason I read Efthreeoh's post as meaning I'd need a third-party (dealer or indy) to help code this out. Good to know I has misunderstood.

Haven't been able to get ISTA working on my Mac (running Windows 7 on Parallels). If I can't do it with NCSExpert, I'll just wait until I purchase a Windows laptop, which should happen soon anyway.

Thanks for all the helpful info here guys. I'll leave it at that to avoid

[lowrydr310]

Originally Posted by e90yyc

I knew there were posts out there documenting this but I haven't gotten around to reading them yet

For some reason I read Efthreeoh's post as meaning I'd need a third-party (dealer or indy) to help code this out. Good to know I has misunderstood.

Haven't been able to get ISTA working on my Mac (running Windows 7 on Parallels). If I can't do it with NCSExpert, I'll just wait until I purchase a Windows laptop, which should happen soon anyway.

Thanks for all the helpful info here guys. I'll leave it at that to avoid

Here's my post where I replied to Efthreeoh's original thread with my experience, along with a screenshow from ISTA showing the menu to remove the oil life monitor.

[ctuna]

The idiot programmers at BMW use down counter for oil
changes you only get so many. See following thread.
Down counter means it comes with a set number of changes
till it reaches zero then it ceases to work.

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...=1#post8782350

Unfortunately it seems you can't just reset the counter.
see above thread.

for this reason I just keep track of my oil changes on paper and do not
reset the counter unless it reaches one of the excessively
long oil change intervals.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by ctuna

The idiot programmers at BMW use down counter for oil
changes you only get so many. See following thread.
Down counter means it comes with a set number of changes
till it reaches zero then it ceases to work.

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...=1#post8782350

Unfortunately it seems you can't just reset the counter.
see above thread.

for this reason I just keep track of my oil changes on paper and do not
reset the counter unless it reaches one of the excessively
long oil change intervals.

Thanks for that post link. I read the whole post, but it wasn't clear that there is a set number of OCI resets built into the software. I'm assuming the topic of OCI counts is from Jase_DFW post:

"5. Since you are concerned with the oil change interval, you will type an argument in the "argument" line. "oel;40;29" Then you hit "run job" (I believe you can also hit F5). In about 1 second you will see a message telling you the job is completed. Depending on the milage interval you want, you can vary the 40 to other amounts (i.e. 40 is 40% of the original programmed value, or 7,000 miles in my case. 45 will give you an 8000 mile interval, and so on) Keep in mind that it will also lower the time value by the corresponding amount also. My two-year max interval became something like 10 months or so. The last value in the argument "29" tells the DME how many times you want to use that interval. You can select 0-29, and 29 will pretty much cover the life of the car (over 200,000 miles)."

So are you saying the ECU only counts up to 29 oil changes? After 29 changes the OCI does not then reset? When I went though this whole thing with BMW N.A. in August of 2013 there was never any discussion regarding OCI counts, but rather just the 300,000KM threshold. BMW N.A. opened a PUMA case because of my car and the dealer not being able to perform the SCBS_6006 routine that was supposed to code out the oil change notification from the kombi.

And I just have to add "You can select 0-29, and 29 will pretty much cover the life of the car (over 200,000 miles)." - LOL @ 200,000 miles life of the car...

[Efthreeoh]

So again I want to make it clear that my observation has been the oil level in the engine is somewhat arbitrary. The capacity is stated as 6.9 quarts or 6.5 liters. When BMW switched to its natural gas based synthetic oil, it also switched to liter bottles from quart bottles. When I did my fist oil change using liter bottles, I refilled at 6.5 liters. When the e-dipstick reset, the oil level came back as a 1/4 quart low. I found it unusual. When I used quarts, I just filled the engine with the full amount of 7 quarts. I change the oil about every 3 months so the next oil change I refilled again with 6.5L and again got a not full oil level. So on the third oil change using liter bottles, I added 6.8 liters and got back a full oil level reading, so that is what my refill quantity is.

Now that the E90 consumes a liter of oil every 3,000 miles or so, I add oil every few weeks. When the +1qt notification comes up, I add in a full liter of oil. I never get an over-fill notification. So this leads me to believe the max engine oil level has some tolerance built into it to allow for topping off with either quarts or liters.

[nsjames]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

So again I want to make it clear that my observation has been the oil level in the engine is somewhat arbitrary. The capacity is stated as 6.9 quarts or 6.5 liters. When BMW switched to its natural gas based synthetic oil, it also switched to liter bottles from quart bottles. When I did my fist oil change using liter bottles, I refilled at 6.5 liters. When the e-dipstick reset, the oil level came back as a 1/4 quart low. I found it unusual. When I used quarts, I just filled the engine with the full amount of 7 quarts. I change the oil about every 3 months so the next oil change I refilled again with 6.5L and again got a not full oil level. So on the third oil change using liter bottles, I added 6.8 liters and got back a full oil level reading, so that is what my refill quantity is.

Now that the E90 consumes a liter of oil every 3,000 miles or so, I add oil every few weeks. When the +1qt notification comes up, I add in a full liter of oil. I never get an over-fill notification. So this leads me to believe the max engine oil level has some tolerance built into it to allow for topping off with either quarts or liters.

I imagine given the length and depth of the pan that the small difference in oil level between liter/quarts is so miniscule that the oil level sensor can't even accurately discern between the two levels.

I just pour 7ish quarts in my junk and it's not been a problem.