Hello everybody.

Wife drove the car into work today and noticed oil light flashing with a message saying 'Change oil'.............The service is not due for another 5000 miles. Now then, can I change the oil myself without invalidating the warrenty? Or should I just take it to the dealer to change the oil?

1 other question......Should we stop driving it until the oil is done? I was hoping to drive 400 miles to Scotland tomorrow in the 500......should I not?

Thanks in advance

Your car has a DPF. The oil needs changing at a dealer, and the oil quality indicators reset in the computer. I guess the car does a lot of city driving?

Virtually no city/town driving at all. 90% of its life its on the motorway....pootling along. I'll take it to the dealers for a change......trouble is I can't get it in till Friday.......wonder if I can get away with a 400 mile journey.......?

I shall ponder....

It says in the manual:

"Warning: Exhausted engine oil should be
replaced as soon as possible after
the warning light comes on, never more than
500 km after the warning light first comes
on. Failure to change the oil within the first
500 km may result in severe damage to the
engine and will result in forfeiture of the
warranty. Remember that when the warning
light flashes, it does not mean that the level
of engine oil is low, so if the light flashes you
must not top up."

I'd ring the dealer and ask them if I were you.

Excellent.

Many thanks for your help, I didn't have the handbook to hand.

Thanks again.

SmoothHound said:

I'll take it to the dealers for a change......trouble is I can't get it in till Friday.......wonder if I can get away with a 400 mile journey.......?

I shall ponder....

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SmoothHound, this has happened to me on several occasions so I can only suggest that you ponder the words of wisdom below before you make your decision as if you do decide to "take a chance" and anything untoward happens you could come unstuck.

D4nny8oy said:

Oil degradation is calculated using an algorithm in the Engine ECU, based on number of DPF regenerations, driving style, conditions the engine is operated in, etc. Once the oil is calculated to be approx 1000 miles from 'degraded' it will inform the driver by flashing the oil pressure warning lamp usually with a "have engine oil changed" message on the display.

If an owner decide to continue driving with degraded oil it's upto them, but the ECU logs the distance driven since the oil lamp began flashing

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Thanks for that. Duly noted!

I will not drive it until its changed. Don't want to risk it.
Thanks everyone.

SmoothHound said:

Wife drove the car into work today and noticed oil light flashing with a message saying 'Change oil'.............The service is not due for another 5000 miles.

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Does this mean that you have done 13000 miles?

I would be exceptionally pleased if this was the case as I have done about the same mileage and I am about due for my fourth oil and filter change.

SmoothHound said:

Thanks for that. Duly noted!

I will not drive it until its changed. Don't want to risk it.
Thanks everyone.

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You can still drive it, the engine won't blow up or anything, just don't go ignoring it for months and months

I've done 12100 miles on it and this is the 1st warning light/issue I've had with it.........Although the lady I spoke this morning did say that Fiat are investigating an issue with the oil lights on the diesel.....specifically when they come on......She didn't have any further info, but i'll interrogate the service dudes this friday!!

you've had alot of oil changes.....mind you I did read all about the problems you had. Hope they are sorted now?

SmoothHound said:

I've done 12100 miles on it and this is the 1st warning light/issue I've had with it.........Although the lady I spoke this morning did say that Fiat are investigating an issue with the oil lights on the diesel.....specifically when they come on......She didn't have any further info, but i'll interrogate the service dudes this friday!!?

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There was an official update of the DPF parameters, perhaps this is what she was referring to if you haven't already had this done.

SmoothHound said:

you've had alot of oil changes.....mind you I did read all about the problems you had. Hope they are sorted now?

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Thanks.

I will know after the 19/05/2010 if there is any significant improvement as I am asking for a printout re the condition of the oil when it is serviced. This will give me an indication as to how much further the car would have travelled before triggering the warning. The dealership I am currently using "ALWAYS" change the oil on a service, they don't refer to the info displayed on the the examiner screen relating to to it's condition.

I am hopeful that it will significantly improve on the last three times, ie. 3 X oil/filter changes in under 10000 miles.

If so I will owe D4nny8oy a pint as he has passed on some very useful info regarding how best to drive a DPF car.

It doesn't need an "Italian Tune Up" like the petrol engines but works better with a steady speed of about 1800RPM. Accordingly, I tend to stay in third gear a lot when in town as that equates to approx 30mph and 40mph in fourth gear is about 1900rpm.

:hm:memo to self: Make sure that the DET/TECH resets the degradation counter afterwards. I know that this should be automatic but it is easy to forget (unless the car is in specifically for this work) in case he just resets the service indicator.

306maxi said:

You can still drive it, the engine won't blow up or anything, just don't go ignoring it for months and months

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We've already replaced one engine that chewed the big-end shells, though the customer insisted it "only came on a few days ago".

To be fair though, there was an underlying DPF sensor issue at the time which resulted in regens every 5 mins.

SmoothHound said:

Although the lady I spoke this morning did say that Fiat are investigating an issue with the oil lights on the diesel.....specifically when they come on......She didn't have any further info, but i'll interrogate the service dudes this friday!!

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Fiat are currently asking Dealer's to record all ECU parameters on 1.3 500's and Doblo's during service to monitor DPF operation and oil degradation- this means the oil change won't be a waiting appointment unless you've plenty of time to spare!

They have also released another ECU update (to be downloaded at the same time) regarding what happens when the oil lamp begins flashing, along with an update to the owner's manual and FAQ letter to be printed out and given to the customer. However, the Server we download from has been down for maintenance recently, so we haven't been able to do the update and will have to rebook customer's back in when it's up again.

grimwau said:

If so I will owe D4nny8oy a pint

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Mental note- holiday in Bournemouth asap.

Fair play to FIAT for trying to screw this one down!

D4nny8oy said:

Mental note- holiday in Bournemouth asap.

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LOL. Don't forget to bring your tools, ........... Oh! :chin: ..... and an examiner.

OK, girlie question coming up!! Does all the stuff you've said above only apply to diesels? If the oil warning light comes on in my 1.2 should I still whisk her off asap for a full oil change?

No abuse please!!

MetalPetal said:

OK, girlie question coming up!! Does all the stuff you've said above only apply to diesels? If the oil warning light comes on in my 1.2 should I still whisk her off asap for a full oil change?

No abuse please!!

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There is no oil degradation light on the 500

MetalPetal said:

OK, girlie question coming up!! Does all the stuff you've said above only apply to diesels? If the oil warning light comes on in my 1.2 should I still whisk her off asap for a full oil change?

No abuse please!!

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306maxi said:

There is no oil degradation light on the 500

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However, the question is still valid. However, in your case Petal it would be more likely caused by low oil, so if it happened to you then check the oil level and top up with the correct type. If level OK or if light still on after topping up don't drive it any more and call the AA.