Mercedes 3.0 6 cylinder 'reduce oil level'!! (1 Viewer)

[DavidG58]

Anybody had similar or know what to do, or not to do?

Warning light on dash says reduce oil level

I have rung our service man who is a commercial agent, he has not heard of it, but says as long as the oil level dips OK and the dash check for oil level when cold is OK, then ignore it, probably a faulty sensor

I trust him totally, but when it flashes on roughly every 10 miles, it is a little concerning

Anybody had similar

By the ay, oil level is perfect on dip stick, dash board oil check good, only serviced 1000 miles ago just before we left, but we are now in Biarritz, still heading south for a few more weeks

 

[Wildbill]

David if the oil is dipping ok oil pressure ok
One check I do is take the oil filer on cam cover off and look in to make Shure oil is getting to cam if oil is splashing out theirs plenty of oil going round engine
If he says it's ok enjoy the rest of your holiday and get it fixed when you get back
bill

 

[MikeD]

I just did a quick search on google and got 600k hits for "mercedes high oil level"

https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sour...n=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=mercedes+high+oil+level

It appears its a regular problem but as long as the oil is not actually high on the dip stick it should be ok.

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[DavidG58]

Bless you both, I love this forum, 15 minutes after posting, totally reassured

 

[DavidG58]

I just did a quick search on google and got 600k hits for "mercedes high oil level"

https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=mercedes high oil level

It appears its a regular problem but as long as the oil is not actually high on the dip stick it should be ok.

just working my way through your link (thanks again) did you notice that in at no7 on the list is my MHF forum question

 

[maxsdad]

Same thing happened to us driving down the toll motorway in France going down a long gradual incline warning flashed on in the middle of some road works.
To be honest i thought it said reduced oil level but i could well be mistaken stopped and checked oil level at Le Mans services which was spot on the mark, bought a litre of oil anyway just to be on the safe side.
We had only done about 5k miles from new at the time, done another 3k since and no further issues.
Put it down to the long downhill affecting the oil level sensor in the sump, still got the oil only 18 eur a litre

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[DavidG58]

we have had it flash on about 5 times every day for the last three days, I cant seem to find a pattern, but it is a lot warmer here today

having looked through the google threads I am not overly bothered, trust my garage man's opinion

and we have good recovery if it all goes wrong

 

[DavidG58]

Update

Just when I thought I was getting somewhere, I realised I wasn't

Read the blog replies, all more or less saying the same, occasionally drive a bit harder to clear the sensors

So I did and it didn't, it actually got a lot worse

Pulled out of a layby in Spain on a dual carriageway into quite a steep hill, decided now would be a good time to give it some to clear things out, accelerated hard up to about 70 mph, then backed off, but the MH backed off far more than I wanted

Had no power, tried dropping down gears manually had a little more power but could do no more than 40mph, now we normally only do 55 or so, but this felt like we had parked, so hazards on in line with other slow Spanish lorries, crawled to the top, then apart rom a small increase in speed die to gravity no real change

So pulled over into a lay by, stopped, engine off, locked MH, unlocked restarted, this is in line with a similar issue we had in our old Mercerdes MH. Pulled away no repeat, yesterday or today

So today, checked oil manually and on dash display, both perfect, pulled off and within 5 miles reduce oil message back on. Now I had decided we only got it after 100 + miles, so this threw the theory, it then came on again within another 5 miles

We were on the plains south of Madrid which are as straight and level as anywhere I know, so opted to use cruise control, something I very rarely do, but coincidentally or not, we have then done 180 more miles all on cruise control and with no more alerts

Now I am confused

 

[DavidG58]

further update

we have used cruise control more than ever before on this trip, but had not usd it much before we had the issue with the warning light

for the first few days using cc we had no more alerts, but since then have still had a few more but nowhere near as many as before

very odd

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[dabhand]

accelerated hard up to about 70 mph, then backed off, but the MH backed off far more than I wanted

Had no power, tried dropping down gears manually had a little more power but could do no more than 40mph, now we normally only do 55 or so,

I have a 2001 Hymer with the sprintshift type gearbox, this has a manual gearbox with an electronic hydraulic gear selector) If yours is a similar gearbox, and you had the shift selector in manual (semi auto) accelerating to 70 would probably take the revs over 4000 which would put the gearbox into limp mode, normally stopping, engine off and on again will sort the problem, in limp mode you can not normally get past third gear. If the gear change has a life of its own and is the same gearbox as mine,this would indicate a problem with the hydraulic pump (had mine replaced, £1000) I had the same oil light problem as you, think they put too much oil in at a service, cured itself after a while with driving the vehicle, seemed to come on when going downhill. It will not normally be a problem just carry on with your holiday. If it is the same type of gearbox as mine they are an absolute joy to drive but a bit of a pain in the arse if you need to do any fault finding, if the vehicle is not constantly going into limp mode I wouldn't worry about it. Use auto for almost every situation except taking off on very steep hills when manual (semi automatic) is often best, but keep a close eye on the revs and change up at around 3.5 - 4000 revs. My gearbox has something which has been explained to me as "driver memory" which means it tries to predict when you are going to change gear (mainly on steep hills) I never use auto when starting off on a hill.

Not really sure if this helps in any way but if vehicle is not in limp mode I wouldn't worry, If it is going into limp mode get the fault finder plugged in and get the codes read as there are many, many reasons why this can be happening.

Good luck

Simon

 

[DavidG58]

Thanks Simon

Very reassuring and more or less in line with my own thinking

Our last MH had the sprintshift gear box, this one is more conventional, but with option to manually change gears

I did not realise the 4000 rpm limit, but I only achieved high revs with normal gearbox changes , albeit using kickdown

the light comes on when it feels like it, no pattern at all, other than it seems far less common if on cruise control

Not had a recurrence of the limp mode, so carrying on regardless, not going to stop my holiday, hopefully they are not famous last words

 

[Reallyretired]

Had this warning last year, after service. My mechanic said he had put in the amount requested by the dashboard display (there is no dipstick on mine) but it must have been a whisker over. It didn't cause any problems and the warning disappeared after 1000 miles.

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[jezport]

I think you are possibly getting the warning once the oil expands with heat so after a thousand miles or so once a bit of oil has been used you will get back to normal

 

[DavidG58]

Had this warning last year, after service. My mechanic said he had put in the amount requested by the dashboard display (there is no dipstick on mine) but it must have been a whisker over. It didn't cause any problems and the warning disappeared after 1000 miles.

I now wonder what I dipped!! I have confirmed my dashboard indicator daily and no problems there, but have now driven 2500 down to Granada and half way back, so don't think mileage will fix it

That said nothing at all today

 

[sadlonelygit]

but keep a close eye on the revs and change up at around 3.5 - 4000 revs.

holy sh!t. you are joking aren't you? or do you enjoy changing the high pressure pump on your motor (£300 and the front end off the van). the merc engine produces max torq at 2400rpm, after that you are just wasting diesel

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[grumps147]

We had a merc estate once and we had that message driving away from a service, and almost immediately engine management system cut engine out. Dealer said it had been overfilled at the service and was down to something to do with a 'breather'. Doesn't sound that similar to your problem, unless you had just topped up perhaps, but that was why we got that message.

 

[dabhand]

holy sh!t. you are joking aren't you? or do you enjoy changing the high pressure pump on your motor (£300 and the front end off the van). the merc engine produces max torq at 2400rpm, after that you are just wasting diesel

I meant to say if you don't change up the limiter will cut in and the vehicle will go into limp home mode around 3500 to 4000 revs so don't over Rev etc etc I was just being lazy, it was late!!

 

[DavidG58]

holy sh!t. you are joking aren't you? or do you enjoy changing the high pressure pump on your motor (£300 and the front end off the van). the merc engine produces max torq at 2400rpm, after that you are just wasting diesel

I meant to say if you don't change up the limiter will cut in and the vehicle will go into limp home mode around 3500 to 4000 revs so don't over Rev etc etc I was just being lazy, it was late!!

Our Merc engine will quite happily hold lower gear changes to around 3500 rpm when driving normally, going to 4000 rpm if driven with enthusiasm

Not had a repeat of the message for some time now, but cant really identify a pattern, other than on cruise control it seems to happen far less

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[dabhand]

Dear @DavidG58 i know this is an old thread but had exactly the same problem on my 830 as you last year, I was told by the dealer it's a very common problem and is a result of the oil level monitoring sensor being slightly to low, so certain conditions (maybe hills etc) will cause sensor to operate. I was told not to worry if the dipstick showed within normal limits (that's the dipstick on the engine, not the one in the vehicle!)

 

[JJ]

I recommend trading in your modern load of warning lights lit, stress generating, van for a calmer, more mature, more reliable motorhome which is unaffected by the trend of having loads of unnecessary, PCB controlled, electronic bling.

My "check oil" light has never come on in 200,000 kms of use.


Just saying


JJ

 

[dabhand]

I recommend trading in your modern load of warning lights lit, stress generating, van for a calmer, more mature, more reliable motorhome which is unaffected by the trend of having loads of unnecessary, PCB controlled, electronic bling.

My "check oil" light has never come on in 200,000 kms of use.


Just saying


JJ

Yes but you really must take that rocking chair off your roof!...... Well listen to my story bout a man called JJ......

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