Red oilcan light flashing

Deep Owl

Deep Owl

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Bessacarr E582
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2011, 11.6m cruiser on Thames for 5 years before
Advice please. We have a 2013 Ducato 2.3 150bhp Bessacarr, 28k miles, and we are in Brittany.

The van is running and sounds fine BUT about 200 miles ago, the red oilcan light on the dashboard started flashing and still is. It says I need an oil change and dire things will happen before 500km are up, including “severe damage to the engine”.

I have taken it to 2 Fiat Pro garages en route; the first said keep going, we couldn’t even do it till next week; the second said you probably need a full service but we in Brest or our other site in Quimper can’t do it till next week, try the bigger one in Nantes!

I last had it annually serviced by my usual commercial van/ truck garage in August 2023; this was only 1800 miles ago. I also had the cambelt changed by them this April.

I had bought an OBD code reader from Aldi before we came away but am too frightened to plug it in! If it shows up this fault, could I reset and ignore it till we get home? Or do I go down on bended knee to a French garage man to have an oil change?
 
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I would plug in the obd reader and see if the fault comes up.if it was serviced and oil changed last August there shouldn't be much wrong.
It's fairly easy to change the oil yourself Just buy a bowl to catch the old oil in and fresh oil from the garage .
Failing that go to a local garage rather than a Fiat garage, they will probably do it while you wait. Its an hours job ,tops..
 
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The red lights are normally a critical warning, amber being for information.
You could get an oil change at any garage nearby.
Don't be afraid to plug in the obd reader, you can't do any damage.
 
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assume you have checked the oil level and general oil condition. After 1800 miles it will still look reasonablely clean.

I doubt with an Aldi obd reader you will be able to reset it.

My guess it’s a sensor issue , I believe the engine warning light will come on if there was low oil pressure.
 
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i would plug in obd ,,see what it says take a note of the code ,,reset it if possible ,if its a serious problem it will come back on immediately,, do you have a dip stick ?have you checked it ,,?

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Dashboard flashing means ECU comms problem, normally get it with air bag ECU issues.
 
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Sounds like a sensor issue to me.
A red oil can symbol is normally for pressure not quality of oil.
Yours serviced recently so should be ok. I assume the oil level is correct.
I could be a failing oil pump , it could be excessive wear or maybe a blockage somewhere. But these seem unlikely.
The OBD reader would help us to help you. Make sure it's plugged in carefully, they can be quite tight and let us know what you find.
 
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As others have said / asked.. Have you checked the oil level ??
It would be the most obvious, it could just need a top up.
If the level is ok the use the OBD reader and see whats happening..
 
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Have you checked it has not been overfilled? I have never had this but hear that strange things can happen if overfilled, such as the crank shaft whipping the oil into a froth. Also have you checked the garage used the correct grade of oil, modern engines seem to be very fussy about having fully synthetic oils starting with a 0 grade.

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I was chatting with someone in Spain who had a similar issue. Turned out the garage who serviced it a few months earlier failed to change the oil filter. They had another oil change done by a Spanish garage which sorted it.
Why not call your breakdown company & see if they can sort it.
 
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Thank you all. The oil level is satisfactory. I’ll try the OBD later when we’ve investigated the prehistoric site at Carnac, and report back.
 
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When this happened to my 2013 boxer is was that the service interval had not been rest at service and it was a indication that it thought a service was overdue.
There are two mileage "timers" one is oil and the other is service. Both must be reset at service in my case only one was rest.
 
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DavidG58 said:
Could it just be that the garage who did the work didn’t reset the service indicator, can you call them to check ?
Click to expand...
That may be able to be read on the obd the op has

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Only time this happened to us was in the middle of France. Two sensor changes later it was still happening despite the oil pressure being correct. Unfortunately the warning light was intermittant so not easy to replicate when needed by any garage. On getting back to the UK and several visits to our local Fiat garage, they admitted defeat and a Fiat mechanic from Southampton came up and eventually diagnosed a very small slit in a wire which shorted out when going around (some!) corners. Luckily the MH was still under warranty.
Good luck in sorting your problem Deep Owl.
Sue
 
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This I quite common, garages not resetting /forgetting to reset both counters.
This link shows the procedure I used to reset mine but you may need to search for the procedure for older models.
Good luck.
Dave.

How to reset the service warning light on Fiat Ducato?

Domanda relativa a Fiat Ducato - Spia service
www.scegliauto.com www.scegliauto.com
 
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Ho hum, I’ve put the OBD machine in and it reports NO CODES, but when I remove it and switch the engine on, it says “change oil”. I’ll try it again when we leave here in the morning and see what happens. Thanks for all your advice, anyway.

Incidentally, the rows of stones at Carnac are fascinating, but there is no explanation for what they are for except that they were put in place about 6000 years ago. The little town and La trinité sur mer are very pleasant as well.
 
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Just as an aside , take your filler cap off and have a look inside , it should be oily.
If it's dry you have a problem.
But this is very unlikely.

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There is a procedure to extinguish the oil change light. It involves using the ignition key, and throttle pedal, best look it up for your van, and get someone to read it back to you as you carry out the procedure. I had to do mine as I service the van myself, it's been fine since having now done 4k miles since the reset.
Mike.
 
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Have you seen my previous message?
 
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As others have said it’s the service interval warning, obviously wasn’t reset at the last service
 
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I will try the reset but I’m having trouble finding a campsite where I want to be at the moment. I will report back in due course!
Thanks to DP+JAY and Bouncyboatfolk for that suggestion.

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It works! I used the David Seamon’s YouTube advice and it works.
Many thanks for your support; it is quite scary to have a snag happen in a foreign country, especially as the Fiat Pro garages recommended something expensive (surprise, surprise!) when all they needed to do was what DPJ and BBF suggested.
 
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Deep Owl said:
It works! I used the David Seamon’s YouTube advice and it works.
Many thanks for your support; it is quite scary to have a snag happen in a foreign country, especially as the Fiat Pro garages recommended something expensive (surprise, surprise!) when all they needed to do was what DPJ and BBF suggested.
Click to expand...
We were returning to the UK after 3 weeks in Spain & France. All fine when we boarded the ferry in Dieppe. About 3 miles out of Newhaven the Oil warning light started flashing. I pulled over at the first opportunity to check the level. Seemed normal so decided to carry on keeping a careful eye on the dash. After driving for about 15 minutes I realised that warning light was actually reminding me an oil change was required, and not low oil pressure, which is what I originally assumed. Got home without any issues. The oil change had been done during the last service about 4K miles earlier. I followed the You Tube advice and warning light reset. Another bit of great advice from the forum. 😊
 
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