I had an '88 560 SEL and now have a '92 600 SEL. Both had a low oil level
warning light in addition to the oil pressure gauge. The low oil level light
worked very well? Especially during cold weather as the light would come on
while the engine was cold from the oil sitting on top of the heads. On the
600 SEL the light means your two quarts low out of the 10 it holds.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
David Beierl
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2012 2:35 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Oil pressure gauges and engine life

At 01:20 PM 5/9/2012, Don Hanson wrote:
>need to know.   Now they give us the wonderfull "Check Engine" light on
>newer cars, which means "Grab your credit car and your Smart Phone,
>call

Be fair, that's sort of like the Master Warning Light on a fighter aircraft
panel - says that one of two hundred or so things has gone out of spec
somehow.  So you stick a code reader on it to find out which.  If you had
gauges for all of them the car would look like a fighter aircraft, and
probably cost like one as well.

They still give you all the warning lights for OIL/ALT and such that they
used to.

I was recently reading about a BMW though that I found a bit scary.  No
dipstick for oil.  If the low oil light comes on, a) add some oil.  If it's
still on, b) drain oil and replace with correct amount.  If it's still on,
troubleshoot the warning light.  GAHHHHH!!!  To me there's something utterly
perverse in that, and I find it hard to believe that the same people who
built our vans
(RVC) did it.

Yours,
David