Oil light on after oil change

[kre8tive202]

Hey guys,

OK I need some advice. My GF had an oil change on my 500E yesterday at a Juffy Lube. All went fine, so I thought. Today my GF is driving the car and the oil light went on and just before the AC quit working. She tried to play with the climate control but the car no longer pushes hot or or cold air(AC) but it is still blowing air into the cabin. I checked the oil and it indicates at max level? What happended any ideas?

 

[gsxr]

Are you certain it is the low oil light? Can you post a photo of the instrument cluster with the light on?

 

[kre8tive202]

Here is a pic

Are you certain it is the low oil light? Can you post a photo of the instrument cluster with the light on?

 

[samiam44]

Not a good sign. Don't drive it. Check the oil level on the dip stick, look for oil on the lower cover.

Mike.

 

[kre8tive202]

Ok so yes there is something definitely wrong, my GF pulled over and parked it as it began to give off smoke.

 

[kre8tive202]

The dip stick still registering oil at max level

 

[Klink]

Follow all of the above, most importantly check your oil and check for oil leaking out. Don't be surprised if its simply low on oil. Most oil change shops aren't used to car engines that hold around 9 quarts of oil. That's double what they are used to, and their reference literature is often wrong.

Pure guesswork here on my part, but I'm thinking that you didn't tell GF to take your 500 to a Jiffy Lube (?). If you didn't, I'm also guessing that the appearance of the oil light prompted the visit?

If your oil level is good, check your fuses for hair line cracks or other areas of poor contact. Better yet change them all out if you haven't lately. There are threads here that talk about these old style ceramic fuses and the endless mischief they cause. A fuse issue could also be causing your ACC difficulties.

Other possibilities include the known issue of wiring harness disintegration, in this case the lower engine wiring harness (sometimes called the "starter harness").

In very rare but increasingly frequent instances, the float in the oil level sensor simply looses buoyancy and refuses to float high enough in the fresh oil, as the fresh oil tends to be less dense. Some modern oil formulations are less dense in use as well. If this level sensor fault is happening it tends to show up right after an oil change. Really helps with customer relations, I'll tell you...

The following has nothing to do with your low oil warning light, but after that issue is resolved, consider having your oil filter checked and replaced by an OEM part unless you know first hand that that's what they used! See the related oil filter threads. Here's why I'm mentioning the filter element: Lots of these oil change shops are using some very low quality third world sourced filter elements. After a few thousand miles, some of them are literally in pieces. Don't let your engine run with one of those any longer than absolutely necessary.

 

[Klink]

The dip stick still registering oil at max level

Make sure that you're reading the dipstick correctly. It is confusing to some. I'm too new here to know where the threads for this are but I'm sure they are easily searched. If not, check your owners manual.

If the oil isn't running out anywhere, it may be overfilled. Was the smoke emitting from the tail pipe, or simply from under the hood?

Also, just in case you're feeling anxious, don't panic. You did have oil pressure on the gauge and oil on the stick, so it's extremely unlikely that any engine damaging event has likely taken place yet.

 

[kre8tive202]

Klink thank you for reassuring me that the motor hopefully did not just implode. My GF told me that she just checked the oil level and it is completely fine but the car is idling rough. I am at work right now and I am unable to go deal with it. What should I check first when I get off in an hour? Where do I start

 

[kre8tive202]

My GF was trying to be nice and get an oil change done on it. No oil light at all

Follow all of the above, most importantly check your oil and check for oil leaking out. Don't be surprised if its simply low on oil. Most oil change shops aren't used to car engines that hold around 9 quarts of oil. That's double what they are used to, and their reference literature is often wrong.

Pure guesswork here on my part, but I'm thinking that you didn't tell GF to take your 500 to a Jiffy Lube (?). If you didn't, I'm also guessing that the appearance of the oil light prompted the visit?

If your oil level is good, check your fuses for hair line cracks or other areas of poor contact. Better yet change them all out if you haven't lately. There are threads here that talk about these old style ceramic fuses and the endless mischief they cause. A fuse issue could also be causing your ACC difficulties.

Other possibilities include the known issue of wiring harness disintegration, in this case the lower engine wiring harness (sometimes called the "starter harness").

In very rare but increasingly frequent instances, the float in the oil level sensor simply looses buoyancy and refuses to float high enough in the fresh oil, as the fresh oil tends to be less dense. Some modern oil formulations are less dense in use as well. If this level sensor fault is happening it tends to show up right after an oil change. Really helps with customer relations, I'll tell you...

The following has nothing to do with your low oil warning light, but after that issue is resolved, consider having your oil filter checked and replaced by an OEM part unless you know first hand that that's what they used! See the related oil filter threads. Here's why I'm mentioning the filter element: Lots of these oil change shops are using some very low quality third world sourced filter elements. After a few thousand miles, some of them are literally in pieces. Don't let your engine run with one of those any longer than absolutely necessary.

 

[Klink]

Klink thank you for reassuring me that the motor hopefully did not just implode. My GF told me that she just checked the oil level and it is completely fine but the car is idling rough. I am at work right now and I am unable to go deal with it. What should I check first when I get off in an hour? Where do I start

Check the oil yourself. Make sure you've got some on the stick, just for lube shop liability's sake. Call them and let them know what happened. If they did error, they should pay for the remedy. It was most likely an overfill if the idle is now rough. DON'T START IT! Take pictures and document everything with dates and times. Also, keep an open mind and be fair. While it is likely that they caused or contributed to this, it's not absolute. Sometimes things that are about to start pouring out oil do so just after fresh oil contacts them. Customers are incredulous, but it really happens that way some time. They may have left the cap off, or not correctly secured. Oil would then be sprayed out of the cap, getting on the exhaust manifold causing smoke and stink. They may have spilled oil and flooded the right side spark plugs with oil. They may have then tried to clean that up with water, now shorting out the plugs and causing rough running. There's a number of possibilities here.

The more I'm thinking about this, the more I'm thinking you should just get the car flat bedded to your favorite shop. If you don't already know where to start, you should have a competent tech look at it before you or he does anything other than just check the stick to make sure it's at least wet. It could even be some combination of the things we've said above.


I'm not saying YOU should do this, but my GF (ok, wife) would get a spanking after something like this. Of course, she'd probably like that so I'm not sure that it's very much of a deterrent...

All The Best
Klink

 

[J-Sauce]

If your oil level is fine when checked at the dipstick, but the indicator light is on, I would ensure that the bulbs are placed correctly in the cluster. I have seen more than a couple cars ( my own and a few on the forums) that had the bulbs placed incorrectly by a previous owner/mechanic. If you pull the cluster, check the numbered indicators on the bulbs vs the stickers on the cluster and insure that they match. Your car could be trying to tell you to check the engine. My theory is that owners swap the bulbs when they have a CEL and need to pass smog. The tech won't fail them if they are "low on oil" or wiper fluid.

 

[Klink]

Great thought, J but on that left side of the cluster the bulbs plug straight into fixed positions on the circuit board, there are no "pigtail sockets". The frequent mixup that one finds on the right side can't happen on the left. Yes, that right side mixup still happens all the time. It has really sent some people spinning over the years. Intentional swapping? I like that. It would explain why it "occurs" so often...

All The Best,
Klink

 

[kre8tive202]

What is this? [IM

G][/IMG]

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[Maui]

Looks like you're low on power steering fluid.

 

[kre8tive202]

Oh

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[kre8tive202]

Ok so I just drove my car and the car is running hot, no hot air and my coolant reservoir is bubbling water and water is not getting into my top radiator hose? Is it my thermostat?

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[bing]

That's your power steering fluid reservoir . Looks a bit low but I can't be certain from the photo.

 

[kre8tive202]

Yes it is low.

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[Roma_500E]

I would say very low on ps fluid.

Also looks like your wire harness is not in the bet shape .

Regarding oil issue, I would never ever take car I like to oil change stations like Jiffy Lube, Valvoline etc. Most of the time they have no idea how to deal with the nice cars. They usually deal with the old camrys or hondas that are brought by college kids or ladies or simply careless people.

It is better, easy and safe to do oil changes yourself. However, if one does not have time to deal with it then it is better to take car to MB dealer (at least those folks saw Mercedes more than once in a life).

 

[Roma_500E]

Ok so I just drove my car and the car is running hot, no hot air and my coolant reservoir is bubbling water and water is not getting into my top radiator hose? Is it my thermostat?

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Not sure could be thermostat. Mine was stock in open position which is just fine in summer. But if it gets stuck in closed position then it is a problem. I would change thermostat if it was not changed for couple of years . Pretty cheap and easy to do when car is cool .

Dave (GSXR) should be able to tell you more on that issue.

 

[NIGHT RAIDER]

The oil light cause of : low oil level , fault oil pump , bad sensor or harness.

 

[bing]

So how does the oil level look in your own eyes , now that you're with the car?

What's your engine/coolant temp indicating when you say hot?

As Roma pointed out, such as the state of your top harness, seems like you need to deal with a few issues here. I would not be surprised if your lower harness (as per Klink) is bad too , which may have been aggravated during the oil change and now causing the oil the light .

 

[kre8tive202]

The engine oil looks great. The car is only going up to 90 on the water gauge but I hear a boiling sound come out of the reservoir and the reservoir is having a discharge from the overflow tube. When I first got into the car after the car has been sitting for 4 hours, the AC worked great but as the car warmed up, the AC stopped blowing cold and when I call for heat in the car, I get no heat. Also there is no water going through my top radiator hose.

 

[Roma_500E]

The engine oil looks great. The car is only going up to 90 on the water gauge but I hear a boiling sound come out of the reservoir and the reservoir is having a discharge from the overflow tube. When I first got into the car after the car has been sitting for 4 hours, the AC worked great but as the car warmed up, the AC stopped blowing cold and when I call for heat in the car, I get no heat. Also there is no water going through my top radiator hose.

The reason you do not have a heat is the problem with cooling system as you said no water/coolant going through big circle when car is warmed up .

What I would do is to check and repair cooling system (water pump, thermostat, hoses, radiator) . It would not be a bad idea to replace all of these items if none of them were done previously (this is what I did on my car). If the problem will not be resolved then you may have problems with the head gasket.

 

[kre8tive202]

I agree I am going to start with the thermostat tomorrow. When I squeeze the top radiator hose should that easily collapse or should water be running through it.

 

[Roma_500E]

I agree I am going to start with the thermostat tomorrow. When I squeeze the top radiator hose should that easily collapse or should water be running through it.

When car is hot there is definitely must be a coolant fluid .

 

[Klink]

You obviously have more than one issue in play here and they are not necessarily related. From this distance it sounds like you have a stuck thermostat and / or a defective coolant pressure cap.

Your apparently false low oil level warning is likely caused by short-circuits inside disintegrated wiring harnesses.

Research the related information available on the forum and make the appropriate repairs.

As I said before the really expensive bits like your engine are probably undamaged yet, but it's not likely to stay that way if you don't address these issues.

If you have to choose what to address first, address the coolant ejection issue first.

Best of luck to you!
Klink

 

[gsxr]

Ok so I just drove my car and the car is running hot, no hot air and my coolant reservoir is bubbling water and water is not getting into my top radiator hose? Is it my thermostat?

Your P/S fluid is low, but that is totally unrelated... you probably have a P/S hose leaking, which is very common, but has nothing to do with the issues described above.

You said the car is running hot... how hot? Above 100°C (the unmarked line between 80 and 120)? That's not good.

No hot air and no liquid in the upper radiator hose sounds like the system is not completely full. Remember, when filling the system, you should ALWAYS fill the block separately by disconnecting the upper hose at the radiator, and pouring into the hose. When it's full, quickly reconnect to the radiator. THEN fill the rest of the way. If there is not enough liquid at the t-stat, even a good t-stat won't open. If your t-stat has not been replaced in the past 5-7 years, it's good preventive maintenance.

Check your coolant level in the reservoir... it should be at the seam when cold, and a little above the seam when warm. I have a feeling your low coolant sensor is not working (common problem). If the reservoir is totally full, then the folks above who mentioned stuck t-stat may be correct.

Related note: If the system is not full of coolant, the top most coolant temp sensors will be in a steam pocket and read abnormally high temps. The HVAC system is designed to disable the air conditioning at high temps, so the lack of AC could be related to the low coolant level.

Sounds like you gots some work to do...

 

[mwaldron]

The more I'm thinking about this, the more I'm thinking you should just get the car flat bedded to your favorite shop. If you don't already know where to start, you should have a competent tech look at it before you or he does anything other than just check the stick to make sure it's at least wet. It could even be some combination of the things we've said above.


I'm not saying YOU should do this, but my GF (ok, wife) would get a spanking after something like this. Of course, she'd probably like that so I'm not sure that it's very much of a deterrent...

All The Best
Klink

From all said here, I would second the Cols. advice: When in over your head with these it is much cheaper to fix then flail.

Except I would spank the girl friend as a reward for thinking about you and you car, then start hinting towards marriage at some point in the future (she sounds like a keeper, for now anyway).

Mark

 

[clarkz71]

Oil level light could also just be a bad level sender sensor.

Unplug the wire and ground it, the light should go out.

My sender is bad and I don't feel like replacing it right now so I grounded the wire.

It's not uncommon after an oil change for an original to stick in the low position.

 

[kre8tive202]

Can you tell me where the sensor is located

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[clarkz71]

Can you tell me where the sensor is located

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R/S block just to the rear of the oil filter housing

Sensor is inside, you have to drop the lower oil pan
But the wire connector is visible

I'll post a pic when I get home unless Dave does 1st

 

[kre8tive202]

Oh ok thanks

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[clarkz71]

Image from gsxr Dave.

 

[mistermiata]

That's a common oil leak spot (oil level sensor), so if it's wet with oil below the sensor, you may kill 2birds with one stone replacing this part.