I tried to search for an answer and came up empty handed. I recently had my oil light flickering and assuming the sensor isn't faulty, how low in oil does the car need to be for the sensor to register? I know the dummy light is meant for a low oil pressure warning, which ultimately can be caused by low oil levels
So....how many quarts have I most likely burned through if all parts are functional and its just burnt oil without some kind of mechanical failure?

 

Usually when the oil light comes on there's like.....NO oil in the motor. Now that you know you have an OC issue, just keep an eye on it and top off as needed.

Provided you didnt drive too long with the light on, you're good.

 

I'm pretty smart with cars, it flickered a week ago about 2 miles from my house and its been sitting ever since. Lol. Sucks to know in 4000 miles since last oil change its ran it low enough for a dummy light. Sheesh you guys aren't kidding with the OC issues. :-/ I was just curious if anyone has ever had the dummy come on and do an immediate oil change to discover how much had actually been burnt through.

 

why would you do an "immediate oil change"? Checking the oil level is as easy as pulling out the dipstick...

 

Being a forum member of cars for well over 10 years, I have a hard time accepting "oh its fine top it off" answers. Hopefully its that simple, but with cars, it almost never is. I'm still a noob to G's, however my experience with cars is with motors a million times more complex. In past, a dummy oil light leads to spun bearings and other chaos. We post technical things that will answer these questions for those that are real gear heads and want to know what they are up against if something as mild as "an oil light flickered" happens. Pardon my bluntness, but I have a hard time hearing "just top it off" as an answer that can potentially be from a problem that will destroy an engine. I have read these cars have OC issues, but within 4000 miles of an oil change, I was curious to know if anyone has actually put in the labor to change and measure their own oil levels after this. Why? So we might know how much oil our cars are capable of consuming from simply weekend driving and putt-putting around town. Make more sense? No offense intended by all means.

 

i had the same issue with mine, it flickered, ive been reading up on it and why beat around the bush....however i checked my oil levels and they seem full but its difficult to tell becasue of the fact the whole damn dipstick is marked with oil so i cant tell....really frustrating, but oh well going to try to keep it in tip top shape dont have funds to cover for a new engine.

 

btw from what ive been reading up on these cars have a oil consumption issue, some guys with in theyre 3k oil change mark they've burned up all the oil and sometimes are completly out of oil, i guess depending on how severe it is. but its quite a few guys who have this issue in there G's some as low as 10k miles started having this issue.

 

Thanks for the input Texas. I forgot to post my response to after I did an oil change. I was down 2 full quarts and thankfully that's not running her completely dry like I originally thought. The great news was after starting her up, my other noise was gone. The timing chain was slapping around like all hell, beings our tensioners run off oil pressure, my simple theory was low oil levels caused lower oil pressure was prevented the tensioner from being able to keep up. I hope this helps someone in the future!