“Engine oil level. Service required”
 

XC 70. 2011my. 127936 miles. Daughter’s car.
Above message displayed when checking oil level display during weekly check. Display shows oil level is too high.
Is checked weekly. Has always been OK until today.
Dealer serviced 28/01/19 @ 114553 miles so next service due in January.
Daughter monitors her average fuel consumption by the dash display. She commented just yesterday that her average had dropped dramatically last week to 25mpg. She refuelled a couple of days ago and average is now showing as 35mpg.
Could this excess fuel consumption be something caused by a “regeneration” which has gone wrong and caused fuel to go into the sump, and caused the increase in oil level?
I’m a little concerned as she needs the car for her work. (Travels from client to client as a pet carer.) The very nature of her job means that the car is regularly doing short journeys which we know is not conducive to regeneration but the car has been used like this for nearly 3 years with the occasional longer run and this is the first time there has been a problem.
We have obtained a “proper” dipstick kit but I haven’t yet managed to fit it as I was intending to do so after the car’s next dealer service in January.
Comments and opinions will be appreciated.

I may have missed it, but which engine?

Fuel consumption drops like a stone during DPF regeneration and it is a known issue of oil rising due to regeneration, there was a recall to sort this issue. as her car is dealer serviced it will have bee done. There is a sticker under the bonnet showing the new lower oil level point on the dip stick. The rising oil issue does still happen though if regenerations are not allowed to complete due to short journeys. Draw off some oil to take it to the required level and go for a good long motorway drive. The light should go off.

D5 automatic AWD.

Thanks Kenny. I”m aware of all you said. Message didn’t flash up as a warning and no warning lights. Message only found when I accessed the oil level graphic during weekly checks. Unfortunately it will be difficult for her to let me have the car long enough to do anything about it within the next few days.

Just to reiterate. There were no warning lights or messages flashed up during normal use of the car. I was not aware of this issue until I physically accessed the oil level check display during my normal weekly checks. Had I not done the check I would have been blissfully unaware of the issue.
My concern is whether her using the car until we can attend to the matter is likely to cause any other problems.
As we all know the graphic is in the form of a horizontal bar graph with “blocks” which are lit.
I understand from other comments on this forum that, due to the parameters that the sensor system has, the graphic for the oil level sensor system is only able to display either Full or Empty depending on the signal from the sensor and does not show intermediate levels so would show Low with no “blocks” lit even if the level was only slightly lower than the parameters are expecting. I have only ever seen it showing normal with all the “blocks” lit so I do not know which “blocks”, if any, would be lit if the system is sensing Low oil level. The graphic bar graph currently has a “block” lit above the Full mark but obviously it does not show by how much the sump is over full, it could be just slightly or quite a lot. It may well be that the oil level is simply between the 3/4 and Full but is outwith the parameters and so the graphic is showing “too Full”. I’ve tried removing the “technicians dip stick” but as yet without success and I don’t want to force it and damage it until I am in a position to fit the full size dip stick.
Sorry about the waffle. I am simply thinking in print.

The gauge uses each block fully , don't believe everything you read in forums :-) 🎅

Thanks Clan, you posted whilst I was editing my last post.
1) Does that mean that if the oil level was, for example 1/2 what it should be, then the bar graph “blocks” would replicate that?
2) Should I have expected an oil level warning to flash up during normal use of the car?

Update.
 

Oil level graphic now showing Full, as it usually does.
I’ve been trying to decide how to resolve this issue, possibly by taking car to dealer but daughter has been unable to be without the car at present due to her work commitments. I decided to check the oil level this morning before she used the car. As stated, it is back to normal. I’ll check again tomorrow. I hope this “too full” has just been a “one off” spurious signal.

Oil graphic still showing normal Full this morning.