Oil Warning Light and Oil Level

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ADarkDividedGem

New member
Joined
Jul 11, 2018
Messages
4
Hi,

Excuse the rather simple questions but this is also my first car.

I have a 2014 Outlander PHEV GX4H and when I turn on the engine I get a beep and the red oil symbol stays on longer than the other icons.

At the moment I am trying to figure out if I have too much or too little oil since it seems unclear from the oil dipstick. The first image is of the dipstick clean and I am assuming the oil needs to be between the two holes?


When I take the dipstick out the oil seems to go beyond the two holes:


Any advice on how to fix the oil warning light would be great.

Thanks
 
As far as I am aware it is an oil pressure light, not an oil level light. As the ICE normally doesn't start up that often on switching on, the extinguishing of the light can have but two causes: either the computer notices that the engine is not running, or there is an electric oil pump. I have been unable to determine which of the two. In any case, the oil light is one of the last to switch off in the startup procedure on my car. I have a feeling that yours is behaving perfectly normally.
There are several beeps when starting up, BTW. Does yours have a Cobra immobilizer? That has its own beeps.
 
Please excuse me if you know this already!

If the engine has been running, it takes a while for the oil to drain back down into the sump. Your picture looks as though you might have taken it while the oil was draining back. Then when you need to look at the oil level, my dad used to remove the dipstick, clean it, put it fully back into the engine and finally take it out again to read it
 
Well on my dipstick - also a 2014 GX4h - there are two holes like yours, the 'upper' hole has an F etched next to it and the 'lower' hole has an L etched next to it. They're a bit hard to see and only on one side of the dipstick. So I'm suspecting the F means Full and the L means Low. Unlikely (but not impossible) that the oil has gone anywhere, unless not enough was put in there in the first place. If the level does ever drop then the oil has either leaked-out somewhere (big puddle and a lot of mess underneath the car) or the engine 'burns' it (a lot of smelly smoke). Niether of these events (especially the burning of oil by the engine) occur very often on cars these days. Maybe 40 years ago.

Always park the car on level ground and preferably when the engine is cold (or at least left for about an hour from hot), take the dipstick out, wipe it clean and then re-dip it and take it out again to get an accurate level. If the level is a bit smeary on the stick have another go, sometimes it gets oil on it from the tube that the stick locates into, although usually only if it's still a bit warm.
 
jaapv said:
As far as I am aware it is an oil pressure light, not an oil level light.
Yes the manual confirms its a Oil Pressure warning symbol.
jaapv said:
In any case, the oil light is one of the last to switch off in the startup procedure on my car. I have a feeling that yours is behaving perfectly normally.
If that's the case then I feel the Oil Pressure warning light is just a red herring and not the actual cause of the beep when turning on the engine.
jaapv said:
There are several beeps when starting up, BTW. Does yours have a Cobra immobilizer?
I got it second hand so how would I find that out?
NightPHEVer said:
Well on my dipstick - also a 2014 GX4h - there are two holes like yours, the 'upper' hole has an F etched next to it and the 'lower' hole has an L etched next to it. They're a bit hard to see and only on one side of the dipstick. So I'm suspecting the F means Full and the L means Low.
That's the same for me as well and the car manual confirms your suspicions, the F means Full and the L means Low.
NightPHEVer said:
Always park the car on level ground and preferably when the engine is cold (or at least left for about an hour from hot), take the dipstick out, wipe it clean and then re-dip it and take it out again to get an accurate level. If the level is a bit smeary on the stick have another go, sometimes it gets oil on it from the tube that the stick locates into, although usually only if it's still a bit warm.
Yes that's what I did, I checked the oil after leaving the car overnight, made sure to wipe the dipstick clean and tried a few times to get an accurate reading without any smearing but every time the oil level seemed to be above the F.

Given that the Oil Pressure warning light does disappear and is the last icon to switch off in another car then I suspect the Oil Pressure warning light is a red herring and not the cause of the one peep during engine start. Does anyone have any ideas what the beep could be or should I just take it to a Mitsubishi Service Dealer?
 
I've only just actually identified the position of the oil pressure warning light. If there's a problem with oil pressure (according to the manual) an additional 'worded' warning (no doubt accompanied by bings and bongs - although if there was an oil pressure problem a bing and a bong would be a good thing) will appear as well as the oil pressure symbol. What exactly do you mean by 'turning on the engine' - do you mean pressing the 'Power' button with your foot on the brake so that the car is 'live' and ready to move or once you've made the car 'live', pressing the 'charge' button so that the engine starts? Or do you mean it beeps when the engine starts of its own accord. In what particular circumstances does the beep occur?
 
NightPHEVer said:
What exactly do you mean by 'turning on the engine'
Yes I mean when I am seated in the driver's seat with my seat belt on, foot on the brake then pressing the power button so that the car becomes live. After pressing the power button a bunch of lights appear and the beep seems to correlate to the exact time the check engine light turns off.

If it helps I uploaded a short video that shows the car being turned on and going into the live state at which point you can hear the bong as soon as the check engine light turns off:
Turning on Outlander PHEV.mp4
 
Well when I press the 'power' button in mine (with my foot on the brake) to 'boot-up' the car ready to go, it beeps all the time that the dash display is forming on the centre screen and then stops beeping when the 'booting-up' procdure is complete and all the graphics have formed (like your image shows - which doesn't work when I try to play it). The oil level light is the last light to go 'out' but the beeping has stopped by then.

There are a lot of beeps and bongs that emanate forth from a PHEV and it's not always apparent as to what they might be trying to tell you. If you're concerned then it would be worth asking your nearest dealer (assuming there is one near you) although in my experience they're not always able to explain everything. When it comes to some of the more obscure and finer points of the PHEV on occasions in the past I've had to explain things to them. The last time I went to a Mitsubishi dealer they asked me if my PHEV was a manual or an automatic.

Chances are if there is any sort of real problem the warnings will be loud and obvious (as I mentioned previously WARNING! words as well as bings and bongs). Could be that some sort of electrical strangeness may have developed though, so worth confirmation I would think.
 
I noticed a similar sound when the oil pressure light went out - it was the Bluetooth pairing of my mobile 'phone, not the car!
 
The quickest way to eliminate beeps and bongs on start up is to make sure you have your seat belt on when you press the button, with it undone it sounds like a 1970's clock radio, with it done up I get one beep...unless I try to select drive too quickly then I get two beeps...and yesterday found a new beep (car moving in N), I was on a slope put it in to D too quickly so it went into N and the car began to roll which I took to be it pulling away...Beep!
 
Hi all. I just bought a second hand 2017 PHEV. I have also found that the oil level is well over the F mark, it looks just like the picture from the original poster. It had been on a level ground, sitting for an hour when I checked it.
Can you confirm if this is "normal" or not? I'd like to hear you before I contact the seller, in case they come up with some bullshit.

Thanks!
 
The way you test is that you take out the stick, wipe it clean, put it back, remove immediately, and read.

The car should have been idle for a little while - a couple of minutes is enough unless it's very cold.

If it's too low - fill it, and check after a week or two.

If it's way too high, take it to the garage and ask them to pump some of it out and check for water/coolant contamination.
(Or do it yourself, water isn't that hard to detect, petrol contamination is trickier to notice but I don't think it's that common. )

If it happened only once, then I'd blame a sloppy mechanic. If it's happening often, go to the dealer and ask them to sort it out.

If it's only a little too high, again blame the mechanic and just monitor. I don't think it will self-destruct like a diesel engine running on oil...
It's also possible that the oil have absorbed a very small amount of water from condensation if you haven't run it (much) for a while - it might vaporize after a longer trip.
 
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