Oil Level Monitor System

[Tr55vor]

While out in my 2010 XK at the weekend a warning message presented saying that my oil level monitoring system wasn’t working.
As the car doesn’t have a conventional dipstick I can’t check the oil level and the local specialist that I use can’t take the car in until the end of the month I was wondering if any other member had had this problem and whether it it is a long, costly, repair as for the moment I have stopped using the vehicle.
Regards
Trevor

[JimMann]

Hi Trevor, sometimes these faults are generated spuriously and can be due to other "issues" such as a low battery. Was the car standing for any length of time before the warning came up? When the warning message came up, did you manage to take any stored codes from the OBD port with a reader?

Whilst you have the car standing unused, I suggest you plug in a battery conditioner and top the battery up overnight, at a minimum. Then, before you start the car once again, switch on the ignition but do not put your foot on the brake, i.e. don't start the engine. Then use the trip button on the LH stalk to scroll through the displays until it comes to the "oil level" and see what it is telling you. If you don't have an oil puddle under the car, and / or the underside of the car is not coated with a film of oil, you may well be fine and it is just a spurious fault thrown up.

As an aside, and I am sure others will be able to confirm this, if you unscrew the oil filler cap and have a look inside, I believe there should be a slim tube visible in the opening. This is the tube that the garage would fit the vacuum to in order to drain the oil from the sump / car during a service. It may be possible to take a "dip" of the oil level using a thin steel rod, such as a gas welding rod or similar. Of course all that will tell you is that there is oil in the sump as we have no reference of how much should show on a "makeshift" dipstick!

Jim Mann

[Tr55vor]

Thank you for your reply Jim. The car had been standing and shortly before the message came I left the radio on for my wife while I nipped into a shop and there was a low battery warning. I thought the oil level warning could be connected to the low battery so I have charged it fully and then tried the stalk but it just kept saying the system wasn’t working. I don’t have a fault code reader. Once a fault has shown does it need to be switched off?

There’s definitely no sign of oil loss and the car was running faultlessly.

[Tr55vor]

Following my request and Jim’s response I again tried the left hand stalk to scroll through and all is now working correctly.

Thank you again Jim for your response, hopefully a happy ending.