Engine Oil light

[FLYNAVY]

Hey gents, had the engine oil light come on today in my s52 swapped M3. Probably not a coincidence that I had just done an oil and filter change. Anyway, I'm just trying to troubleshoot what might be causing the problem....any help would be greatly appreciated. Basically coasted the car downhill after getting the light, and turned it off in my garage. No noises or anything, no visible leaks (from the drain plug or the filter assembly). Checked the dipstick, and it is right where it was when I finished the oil change. With all of that covered, my best guess is that it could be the oil filter itself....think I also read that this is where the engine oil sensor is located, so it kind of sticks out as the smoking gun to me. As for the filter, I picked up a Fram filter locally, and to be honest I wasn't very happy with the fit. So, I kept the old filter just in case.....thinking that swapping it back temporarily until I can pick up a Mahle filter is my first course of action.

edit: forgot to mention that this is the oil level light on the overhead check panel, not the oil pressure light on the dash (which seemed to be working correctly when it came on initially after the oil/filter change for a second or two, and then went out)

[Fidhle007]

It depends on which light it is, the light on the cluster is for pressure and the light on the check panel is for level.

Assuming it's the bad one (level) what is the history on your motor and what oil are you using? I've seen the S5X motors eat bearings and lose pressure but I've also seen some false scares from running oil that's too light. On my boss's M3 (95 Dinan-ized) we run a LubroMoly 10w60 race oil to keep the pressure up.

[lateracer]

I did a coolant system flush in my backyard that was pretty sloppy and got water everywhere. Shortly afterward, my check panel oil level light came on and stayed on. Dipstick read normal, but the light said otherwise.

I pulled the sensor plug (driver side top of oil pan at the front) and hosed it with some electrical contact cleaner. I let it dry and coated the contact surfaces with a little dielectric grease.

Seems to have fixed it.

The good news is that the dipstick doesn't lie.

[FLYNAVY]

Engine is about 30k miles old, haven't had any problems with it thus far. Previous owner used 10w30 mobil one dino oil, though I just changed out to 15w40 royal purple. First oil change I have done on the car since I bought it about 5k miles ago. I went ahead and put the old metal filter back in, and the light hasn't come on again (at least not yet). Double checked the dipstick again, and it is at the top level hash mark, so who knows. And yes, it was the oil level light, not the pressure light.....if that were the case I'd be a lot more concerned; learned the hard way on my w201 that oil pressure lights should be trusted :)

[Fidhle007]

Yeah, check your connections.