do our oil level sensors go bad? motor was hydrolocked

BMWSauberF1 · 01-31-2023, 05:07 PM

I recently was driving in severe rain and when coming home it was flooding so bad that the water started coming over my hood so my engine hydrolocked which took a long time on the side of the road to get all the water out and get my M5 running again and I changed the oil on the side of the road as well as it was full of water. Anyways it’s been a few weeks and it’s still saying my oil level is full. This could be accurate but I’m not 100% sure I feel like typically my car would have at least showed the oil being a little bit lower than full by now. My question is after the water came up over my hood the bottom of the sensor was obviously submerged im sure they’re waterproof but I’m wondering if it could have caused damage to that sensor at all. I plan on changing it anyways on my next oil change which I will be doing soon anyways I just wanted to know if you guys thought it could be bad and just sending a signal that the oil is full because if you think that’s the case I’ll change my oil today or tomorrow instead of next week. Also what else could have been contaminated or damaged with the water being that high? Ie. trans fluid, diff fluid or anything else you guys could think of thanks!

BMWSauberF1 · 01-31-2023, 05:10 PM

The car drives perfect otherwise luckily after that whole ordeal just wanted to make sure there isn’t anything I’m missing that could need to be checked on before it causes an issue I wasn’t expecting.

crazyinp · 01-31-2023, 10:39 PM

If you have ISTA you can run oil level check. It is way more precise ans will tell you exactly how much oil you have. Dash oil level isn’t that great

TLK · 02-27-2023, 10:48 PM

Yes the oil level sensor can go bad. I changed mine soon after I bought my car at 16k miles because the oil level never went below the full line on the display and I got scared. After replacing it (obviously a good opportunity to do an oil change), it worked normally and did show some consumption between changes.

01-31-2023, 05:07 PM	#1
BMWSauberF1 Private First Class 36 Rep 112 Posts Drives: 2013 BMW M5 Join Date: Jul 2022 Location: San Francisco iTrader: (0)	do our oil level sensors go bad? motor was hydrolocked I recently was driving in severe rain and when coming home it was flooding so bad that the water started coming over my hood so my engine hydrolocked which took a long time on the side of the road to get all the water out and get my M5 running again and I changed the oil on the side of the road as well as it was full of water. Anyways it’s been a few weeks and it’s still saying my oil level is full. This could be accurate but I’m not 100% sure I feel like typically my car would have at least showed the oil being a little bit lower than full by now. My question is after the water came up over my hood the bottom of the sensor was obviously submerged im sure they’re waterproof but I’m wondering if it could have caused damage to that sensor at all. I plan on changing it anyways on my next oil change which I will be doing soon anyways I just wanted to know if you guys thought it could be bad and just sending a signal that the oil is full because if you think that’s the case I’ll change my oil today or tomorrow instead of next week. Also what else could have been contaminated or damaged with the water being that high? Ie. trans fluid, diff fluid or anything else you guys could think of thanks!
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01-31-2023, 05:10 PM	#2
BMWSauberF1 Private First Class 36 Rep 112 Posts Drives: 2013 BMW M5 Join Date: Jul 2022 Location: San Francisco iTrader: (0)	The car drives perfect otherwise luckily after that whole ordeal just wanted to make sure there isn’t anything I’m missing that could need to be checked on before it causes an issue I wasn’t expecting.
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01-31-2023, 10:39 PM	#3
crazyinp Major 296 Rep 1,245 Posts Drives: BMW Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Bay Area iTrader: (5) Garage List 2022 BMW X5e [0.00] 2023 BMW X5M [0.00]	If you have ISTA you can run oil level check. It is way more precise ans will tell you exactly how much oil you have. Dash oil level isn’t that great
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02-27-2023, 10:48 PM	#4
TLK First Lieutenant 112 Rep 385 Posts Drives: '14 M5 CP, '12 550i, '04 545i Join Date: Sep 2016 Location: SF Bay, CA iTrader: (0)	Yes the oil level sensor can go bad. I changed mine soon after I bought my car at 16k miles because the oil level never went below the full line on the display and I got scared. After replacing it (obviously a good opportunity to do an oil change), it worked normally and did show some consumption between changes.
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