05 Mini Cooper oil warning light

Carl Fisher · **Posted:** Mon Apr 22, 2019 11:33 pm

This past week my wife and I took some fun runs on an autocross course in Winston-Salem. After taking 6-7 pops at it between the 2 of us in quick succession, the oil light came on when we stopped and came to idle. We parked and shut it off. After an hour or so I checked the oil and it was right at the full line. Started it up, no warning light and pressure looked good on the gauge. Drove it around the pits a bit and all seemed happy.

The next day we went back and, thinking maybe the previous day was a fluke, basically repeated the whole scenario above. After cooling off a bit everything seemed normal again, and we drove home 1.5 hrs with no problems. She's since driven it to work and on various errands- reports no warning light and the pressure gauge reads normal.

What could be causing this? We've been out of autocross for ~10 years and are thinking of getting back into it, but obviously need to get this issue sorted out before we do.

Possibly relevant info:

2005 Mini Cooper (non-S), 125k miles, Sport Suspension Plus, 100% stock, shod with some old Bridgestone Star Specs
The oil had been recently changed by a trusted mechanic with Castrol GTX 5-30 High Mileage Synthetic
On the first day (before we ran) we noticed the idle was hunting in the 700-1000 rpm range. Idle straightened out by the time we got to the course.
After the first day's runs, the idle was rough and the car stalled at a stoplight one time. This behavior never repeated.

Thank you all for your insights.
Carl

Keith Roberts · **Joined:** Wed Sep 17, 2014 12:14 pm **Posts:** 31

That's a scary scenario!

I got curious about what might be the cause, cause even though I don't have a Cooper, it might apply to other cars. So I did a search and found the link below. Short story is that the sensor was leaking. See post 3

https://www.mini2.com/forum/first-gener ... -help.html

Carl Fisher · **Posted:** Tue Apr 23, 2019 10:32 pm

Thanks- I'll check it out. We have an oil pressure gauge on the cluster which responds quickly, making me think it's mechanical, so I would have liked to have seen what the gauge was reading when the light came on. But I was never in the car when it happened and my wife didn't check the gauge.

Still, it's a good lead. Thanks again.

Duane Black · **Joined:** Mon Mar 26, 2018 5:58 am **Posts:** 33

Could oil have sloshed away from a sensor and caused a temporary warning!

Carl Fisher · **Posted:** Thu Apr 25, 2019 7:45 am

Yes, that thought occurred to us, but why would that happen? The oil level was full, and this car is no stranger to autocrossing but this has never happened before.

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Tue Apr 30, 2019 4:30 pm

Carl, you know this is a German car right? Asking 'why' is like pissing in the wind.

If you checked and say the car is not low on oil, and the sensor says it is, guess which one is wrong?

I ran into this with the brake fluid level sensor on my Mustang. The level is indeed full, the sensor says it's low. All the internet forum experts suggested everything from the ABS module needs to be replaced, to having the dealer replace the entire brake system. I simply unplugged the level sensor, and the problem was solved for free.

Arthur McDonald · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 1:54 am **Posts:** 2052

Vincent Keene wrote:

Carl, you know this is a German car right? Asking 'why' is like pissing in the wind.

Vincent, go easy on Carl. It's not like Mary's car is a BMW :nana:

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05 Mini Cooper oil warning light

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