• Welcome to the BMW Scooter Forums. Member registration disables ads and allows you to post and share. Register Here.

2016 C650 Sport Check Oil warning intermittant.

H

husafreak

Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2023
Messages
48
Location
NorCal
Visit site
Kind of an FYI here, I don't see this discussed on the forum, but I didn't look too hard. On the test drive of my C650S the check oil warning came on. I told the salesman that was a no go. He was embarrassed and back to the shop it went When it came out an hour later the light was gone they said it just needed topping off. I bought the bike and on the way home the warning came back. So I went back to the shop and they apologized profusely, claimed it was a finicky thing. I checked the oil level myself and it was in the allowed range. They worked on it and I drove off again. Now one week and a couple hundred miles later I can say it comes on about half the time, the warning. I ignore it and it usually says Oil OK the next time I run it. I took it back by the dealer today and said they really need to address this warning, it is annoying, I don't want to buy a bike and have a warning light going on and off all the time.
The shop manager said there is a computer update for this issue and I would have to leave the bike for a couple hours as a bunch of plastic has to come off to do the update. They will do it free of charge, naturally, but this is the same gentleman that "fixed" the problem the day I bought the bike, I think he should have offered to do this then. Just kind of fishy. Has anyone heard of this problem?
 
husafreak said:
Kind of an FYI here, I don't see this discussed on the forum, but I didn't look too hard. On the test drive of my C650S the check oil warning came on. I told the salesman that was a no go. He was embarrassed and back to the shop it went When it came out an hour later the light was gone they said it just needed topping off. I bought the bike and on the way home the warning came back. So I went back to the shop and they apologized profusely, claimed it was a finicky thing. I checked the oil level myself and it was in the allowed range. They worked on it and I drove off again. Now one week and a couple hundred miles later I can say it comes on about half the time, the warning. I ignore it and it usually says Oil OK the next time I run it. I took it back by the dealer today and said they really need to address this warning, it is annoying, I don't want to buy a bike and have a warning light going on and off all the time.
The shop manager said there is a computer update for this issue and I would have to leave the bike for a couple hours as a bunch of plastic has to come off to do the update. They will do it free of charge, naturally, but this is the same gentleman that "fixed" the problem the day I bought the bike, I think he should have offered to do this then. Just kind of fishy. Has anyone heard of this problem?
Click to expand...
I believe that the diagnostic plug for your bike is located inside the right panel next to the battery and that would take all of 10 minutes to access if the technician is familiar with the location of the fasteners. And with respect to the oil warning light, the oil pressure sending unit may be faulty or just dirty. If it’s the latter, then the sending unit could be removed and cleaned with an electronics spray cleaner. I had this to happen on my R1150RT while traveling through Charleston, WV, on my way to Columbus, OH. I had washed the bike the day before and that may have had something to do with the problem. The use of a diagnostic code reader such as the Motoscan or GS911 to see if a fault code was generated could provide a starting point for the repair. With your scooter being a 2016, things like this tend to show up. I wish you the best in getting this sorted out.
 
Motomanjim is correct, the plug for the scanner/programming tool can be accessed in a few minutes.
The oil level has to be checked, if you want to do it manually, 'just so' in accordance with the user manual instructions. From memory you need to let the bike sit for quite some time before taking a reading. The warning light on mine came on intermittently for a while and, again from memory, it did need just a bit of top-up. I did not have to replace or clean the sensor and the warning light no longer comes on. Now when I change the oil and filter, I am extra careful about how much oil I put in, it's rather sensitive to that.
 
I have got a 2018 C650GT, and have recently had the same problem. Usually the warning comes on after the motor has been running for at least a few minutes, so I do not think it would be the oil pump being faulty. I check the oil - always OK (I am very careful about the amount of oil used in an oil change). Sometimes the light goes out after a while. Sometimes it stays on for the rest of the ride. The Motoscan does not indicate any problem. It's pretty frustrating - and incidentally the high temperature warning light does the same thing - sometimes comes on as soon as the motor is started but still cold! One day I will take the plastic off and check the temp sensor. Where is the oil sensor located, I wonder? Might clean it too!
 
moodleman said:
I have got a 2018 C650GT, and have recently had the same problem. Usually the warning comes on after the motor has been running for at least a few minutes, so I do not think it would be the oil pump being faulty. I check the oil - always OK (I am very careful about the amount of oil used in an oil change). Sometimes the light goes out after a while. Sometimes it stays on for the rest of the ride. The Motoscan does not indicate any problem. It's pretty frustrating - and incidentally the high temperature warning light does the same thing - sometimes comes on as soon as the motor is started but still cold! One day I will take the plastic off and check the temp sensor. Where is the oil sensor located, I wonder? Might clean it too!
Click to expand...
Using the workshop manual as my reference, the coolant-temperature sensor is located on the right side of the bike. And it’s to the right of and slightly above the infamous cam chain tensioner. The oil-level/oil-temperature sensor is on the left (alternator) side. Accessing both sensors requires removal of the panels with more extensive removal on the left side which includes the running foot board.
 
I took my bike back today and left it for an hour. The shop said they would update the software and adjust the oil level. The shop manager said he thinks it needs to be slightly overfilled. On the way home I stopped for gas and -you guessed it- pulling away from the pump the check oil warning light returned. I'm super annoyed but I think the shop is too. They have worked on this three times now. I decided to take matters into my own hands. I checked the oil level myself and it was two marks below FULL on the dipstick. So I brought the oil level up to the FULL mark. It did not take much oil, 4-6 oz maybe. Basically I did what the shop manager said he was going to do, LOL. Maybe the mechanic in the shop is reading the oil level with the bike on its side stand? That would raise the oil level. The manual clearly states center stand. Fingers crossed.
 
So, after the shop worked on the bike twice, the day I bought it, I checked the oil level (by the book) and it was at the LOW mark. I brought it back twice more (to include some sort of computer update) and with the Check Oil Warning still coming on I checked it myself again to find it two marks out of five above LOW on the dipstick. Still less than halfway between LOW and FULL. I carefully added oil to bring it up to the FULL mark exactly. Since then I have logged at least twenty driving cycles with no warning light. It appears to need to be filled to the FULL mark. Why the shop had so much trouble with this is a mystery to me.
 
Reviving this thread.
My oil level sensor has always been sensitive (pun intended). When I first got the bike I had its running in service done at the dealer and they overfilled it ('check oil' message appeared), so I removed some oil to get it to the max mark and that solved it. Then, maybe 2 years later, I was getting some intermittent 'check oil level' messages that went away again without me doing anything. Sporadically this happened again.
Fast forward to a month ago, when I did an oil and filter change. I was careful, I thought, about filling the correct amount, having in the back of my mind the troubles I had before. Well, after some time I got the message again. I went through the trouble of removing the couple of panels and took the measurement - it was a bit high, right at the 'max' level. So I removed a little bit, to be one mark below the max. Week later, message came back. So I did it all again, removing another 100-150 cc. Same thing happened again today, so I just did it all again - the reading was just above the middle mark. Wondering whether I had somehow dropped one of the plastic tube filters behind the drain plugs into the sump and maybe that was causing issues, I checked those and drained all the oil. The oil was very clean, and the filters securely in place, so I put it all back together and all the oil, save a small amount, back into the engine. Took the reading again, and oil just at the mid point. Started the bike, and after a minute or so, the warning re-appeared: 'check oil'. Wow. I went back to the manual and for the first time noticed that that warning only appears when the sensor thinks there is too little oil, not when there is too much, supposedly. Not sure I believe that. And, I was sure that every one of the now 4 times, taking the reading following religiously the instructions (good and warm engine, on center stand, let idle for one minute, turn off, remove the panels and take the reading) not once was the oil level low - at least, measured as BMW says you should.
So .... onto my question now - have any of you experienced the sensor going bad? That's my final hypothesis now. I would order a new one except that, of course, they are very expensive, around $300 here in the US. Before I do this, or at least buy a used one (my bike does not have that many miles, only 14K so less likely the sensor is already bad - I also always only used the BMW branded oil and filters). Also I am sceptical that it's the sensor since it co-incided with my oil change a month ago - would be a bit of a coincidence that the sensor would fail at the same time, although that can happen.
Thanks for any pointers/experiences.
 
Last edited:
As I mentioned in another post (above), I have had trouble with the oil warning light. It began coming on when I first bought the bike (2018 model, I got it in 2021 with 12,000km on the clock). It would come on and then go off at random intervals - sometimes stay on during an hour's ride or more, then suddnly go off. My Motoscan app does not show any fault. So I have just gone back to old-school methods - I check the oil manually before any long ride. No problems. I have no leaks and no smoke - the oil level doesn't change much - so I now just ignore the warning light. That's the trouble with warning lights - if you cannot rely on them they are just a nuisance.
 
Since my last post on this subject and after countless rides I have had the warning twice both times after bumpy patches on longish rides. Oil level is fine. It’s a fickle thing on these older bikes…
 
A few years ago I found a white 2016 BMW C 650 GT for sale in Jacksonville, Florida. I took an Amtrak train 300 miles north to buy it and ride home. It was a creampuff, nearly new, owned by a grandma who rode three miles daily to visit her 93-year old mother in a nursing home. When her mom passed on, the owner couldn't bear to ride the bike again and sold it.

On my way home, the "check oil" light came on. Alarmed, I pulled over immediately and looked for leaks, then checked the oil level. It was fine. I continued on my journey and within the hour, the warning light came on again. This happened half a dozen times during my 300-mile ride. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that the bike had a bad sensor, because the oil level was perfect every time I checked it. I also discovered if I turned the bike off for a few seconds, the check oil light would often disappear.

Besides the bad sensor, I had a gigantic "oh by the way" when I arrived in Jacksonville. The sweet little old lady had dropped the bike in her gravel driveway and neglected to tell me the right front fairing had quite a few scratches, which were not visible in photos of the bike I saw. I could have refused to buy it, but with a purchase price of $5,000 and no idea when the next Amtrak arrived, I bought it anyway. Ended up selling within a few weeks because the bad sensor + scratched fairing had turned me off. Made a nice profit and bought a 2017 C 650 GT in metallic black with less than 2,000 miles (and no check oil sensor issues!).

One funny note. In the "never judge a book by its cover" department, the little grandma who sold me the GT confided -- with her husband out of earshot -- that she had ridden over 100 mph on the bike, just once, because she wanted to see what that felt like.
 
Thanks for the repllies, After posting I came across another thread on the subject where it became clear that these sensors are very often giving off wrong readings. I'll keep tinkering because I really don't like seeing warning lights, even to-be-ignored ones.
 
Ceesie76 said:
Thanks for the repllies, After posting I came across another thread on the subject where it became clear that these sensors are very often giving off wrong readings. I'll keep tinkering because I really don't like seeing warning lights, even to-be-ignored ones.
Click to expand...
I'm reminded of my VCR days, I think it was. A blinking something or other -- I think maybe it was the clock needed to be set -- was cured by putting some black electrical tape over the plastic in that area. Perhaps you could use that method, in order not to be bothered by seeing an errant oil light.
 
Short update, my 'check oil' warning light is still coming on sporadically; I've taken the approach to adding 50 ML every time this happens on a ride. Done that for the third time tonight. I did check the level and it was right around 'max' just now, so technically I am overfilling it now by a bit. Interestingly, that is what someone said his BMW dealer said: you have to overfill it a bit to not have the warning light come on. I've not had this issue that persistently until my most recent oil change. Fingers crossed that this will be the last time I need to adjust the level (have done it now about 8 times since the last oil change and the light started coming on right after).
 
2018 650GT. I have two regular journeys from home, both urban at 30mph.

One is level at sea level (in case altitude is a factor for others) and no alarm indicator.

The other is a mile nearly all uphill with a pause at some traffic lights, very much facing uphill. I cruise into the stop line at those lights because I don't need to race to the stop line, and whatever the true oil level is (on the level, engine off for days, centre stand down), however new the oil, whatever the temperature, I usually get the oil warning light. It stays on until I stop on level road, turn off and on again, and then does not reappear.
 
Finicky they are. Today I went for a 15 mile run and the oil warning light did not come on, but that doesn't mean I finally have it at the for-the-bike acceptable level, but fingers crossed, after so many tries. My rides here are very much up- and downhill, I live in a canyon and regularly go steep up and down, however not for very extended periods. So far the behavior has been that for the first 20 miles or so, nothing happens and I park the bike to go do something. Then, when I come back after maybe 5 minutes, and ride off again, the light sometimes comes on after only a few miles. If I then turn the bike off and immediately back on, the light/warning resets and may not come back for 100 miles, only to have the same behavior the next day. I topped it off with another 50 ml a few days ago and made two (30 and 50 miles) trips since then, and no warning light but I won't trust it for quite a while. If it comes on again, I may just disable the sensor - although it doubles as the oil temp sensor, so I have to identify which wire is for what function before I disable it. A new one is probably 3x what it should cost from BMW.
 
Since last update, two more extended 40 mile runs with some stopping/starting along the way, and no warning light. Fingers crossed and touching wood I did not jinx it.
If this was the successful last intervention, after some 7 tries measuring level, taking out since it appeared too high, but next time having to add back as sensor said too low, and the manual measurement was inconsistent at best despite following all instructions from the owner's manual, my approach next oil change will be as Mike described: very carefully measuring what I put in exactly as per the manual, and attempting to also carefully measure what I drained out to 'validate'. This should not have to be this difficult!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top