S40 V40 Cars: Oil Refill Light

[AinsyD4]

Hi fellow Volvo owners! Need some help / guidance if possible. I bought a V40 D4 in August. THe company said it’d had an oil / filter service. The refill 0.5 litre light cane on. Took it to my mechanic who put a new filter and fresh oil in around a month ago. The refill oil light is back on again. Checked for leaks, no leaks anywhere. Any advice on what to do next? Or anyone had this issue? Thanks guys

[Austin160]

It sounds as if the car is burning oil, but you don’t give us any information which indicates whether this is excessive or not - although it sounds as if it is.
You will need to add details of mileage covered from point of purchase to point of when the oil and filter was again renewed, and also the mileage covered from that point to now.
Do you actually have a dipstick on this engine - which you can regularly observe oil usage over a specific mileage (judged on quantity required to return the oil level to the mark at which it was?
If indeed it turns out the car is consuming an unreasonable quantity of oil, then you will need to inform the seller, and start the process of investigation and rectification.
What age is this car and what is the mileage, and it’s history of servicing?
Kind regards,
Austin.

[Zebster]

Not really enough info about which engine you have, so I'll assume it's a pre-2016 VEA D4 and point you towards this excellent post... https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showp...47&postcount=6

No leaks, but I have to regularly top mine up. Doesn't seem to be much of a problem though.

Unfortunately my e-dipstick has too little resolution to make an assessment. I wait for the 'add 0.5L' message then add some from the comtainer I carry around. I've raised it with my Volvo dealer who describe it as normal.

[Clan]

Originally Posted by AinsyD4

Hi fellow Volvo owners! Need some help / guidance if possible. I bought a V40 D4 in August. THe company said it’d had an oil / filter service. The refill 0.5 litre light cane on. Took it to my mechanic who put a new filter and fresh oil in around a month ago. The refill oil light is back on again. Checked for leaks, no leaks anywhere. Any advice on what to do next? Or anyone had this issue? Thanks guys

do you have the 4 cylinder or 5 cylinder D4 engine and what model year ??

[Welton]

I'm only posting to say how ridiculous it is to not have a dipstick!

I would not want to own a 10 year old car with no dippy, instead having to rely on a sensor that may or may not be accurate.

[Clan]

Originally Posted by Welton

I'm only posting to say how ridiculous it is to not have a dipstick!

I would not want to own a 10 year old car with no dippy, instead having to rely on a sensor that may or may not be accurate.

They are extremely accurate and have to be calibrated at each oil change ...

[Austin160]

If the sensors are accurate and reliable, yet need calibrating at every oil change, how does one confirm the sensor is accurate if you don’t know whether it has indeed been calibrated at the last (DIY??) service?
Kind regards,
Austin.

[Clan]

Originally Posted by Austin160

If the sensors are accurate and reliable, yet need calibrating at every oil change, how does one confirm the sensor is accurate if you don’t know whether it has indeed been calibrated at the last (DIY??) service?
Kind regards,
Austin.

The joys of having your car properly serviced to manufacturers specifications I guess. One person will put in a different volume of oil to another .... so it has to be told what is FULL every time the oil is changed... It is that accurate as to need this and correct oil level these days is critical , I spent a lot of time 5 years ago finding out that exactly 5 litres of 0w/20 VCC RBS0-2AE oil is half way between the allowable limits for filling , so if you do this and get the level gauge calibrated it should be ok when you put exactly 5 litres in at the next service ..

[Zebster]

Originally Posted by Austin160

If the sensors are accurate and reliable, yet need calibrating at every oil change, how does one confirm the sensor is accurate if you don’t know whether it has indeed been calibrated at the last (DIY??) service?
Kind regards,
Austin.

It'll sort itself out and give an accurate reading after 30km without the dealer reset. But obviously there'll be a short period where it can't be trusted and could well give inappropriate indications and warnings. Alternatively, at my last Volvo service they didn't put in enough oil but nevertheless performed the system reset, so the system read fine until the next day (≥30km travelled) when I was then disappointed to get a warning message to add 0.5L. I went back and complained and apparently the required oil volume (and e-dipstick display range, plus warning message thresholds) has been changed at least once via a software update during service time, hence why I may have got less than the current requirement of 5.2L (at least that was what they told me the requirement was back in February, it could have changed again!).

[Austin160]

Thanks folks. So let’s try to boil this down to more specific meaningful information for the original poster:-
The average DIYer who changes their oil and filters themselves (and I guess there are quite a few on here) will not have the necessary equipment to carry out the ‘necessity’ oil level recalibration, but the dealer does, and will.
If neither the DIYer or the dealer carries out the recalibration then the system could give false readings for the first 35? miles (or whatever it was that was quoted).
Likely oil consumption within 35 miles ? - can reasonably ignore that?
System self calibrates after 35 miles so now we are back to placing reasonable trust in the sensored level - so probably the whole consideration of its accuracy influencing a believed high oil consumption can be forgetting about.
Kind regards,
Austin.