Hi newish member not long purchased a tdv6 2010 sport, absolutely love it, previously had a tdv8 l322 and an older td6 l322 but fancied a change...
but.... being in the motor trade and knowing these engine have a habit of failing and still purchasing one still scares me to death every time I drive it, does this ever stop? Today at work an old boy comes round in his disco 4 with a very heavy engine knock (suspect big end bearing) so we put it on the ramp and drained out only 750ml of oil, surprising when checking the oil level on the dash it stated below minimum but I was more shocked that it doesn’t pop up to add oil when low? Checked our auto data and says that it holds 6.75l from dry fill so although we hear about a lot of these failing, I do wonder how many have ran low on oil until failure??
Interested to here other people’s thoughts on this!

I would be absolutely reassured that it could run on 750 ml of oil. Think of the savings!  L405 P400e Autobiography (MY2020)... Silicon Silver / Espresso
RRS TDV6 HSE Lux (MY2011)... Nara Bronze / Arabica - now gone!

Exactly! He last had it serviced in may 2018 and never checked the oil since! It does make you wonder how many failures are down to lack of oil! Just fail to believe that the car doesn’t show any low level warnings for oil but it does when you check it with the dash menu!

https://www.rrsport.co.uk/forum/topic56744.html

Pretty much my thoughts too. Failures are mostly in car with low engine oil...

27 months with out checking the oil, I think this is a classic case of the dipstick behind the steering wheel being the problem, not the vehicle itself.

Cheers
Col

The service interval is given in time and miles for a good reason... 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

Many cars have 2 years between services these days, don't they? I don't know about this car, though. 27 is not much more than 24.

Also, I would expect a car to alert me to low oil. I do check the oil on the family's fleet, but most people don't. It is 2020 after all.

2 years between services is one thing, 2 years plus without checking oil level is just simply stupidity.

Cheers
Col

Surely with only 750ml of oil in the engine the oil pressure light would be on all the time or a least sometimes.

A young friend of mine driving a Toyota used to drive it until the oil light came on then fill it up - he thought the oil light was a oil level light not a oil pressure light - didn't seem to damage the engine  07MY RRS TDV6
Arctic Frost
Aspen Interior

Rusty Ranger wrote:

Many cars have 2 years between services these days, don't they? I don't know about this car, though. 27 is not much more than 24.

Also, I would expect a car to alert me to low oil. I do check the oil on the family's fleet, but most people don't. It is 2020 after all.

Does the sensor work, may pay on services when oil is being changed is to ask them to check that it works with half then at empty?

its better to check atleast once every 2 weeks due to the fact oil leaks and consumption occur all the time

Is the oil light on these vehicles not primarily a low oil pressure warning light, not a low oil level light to top it up as by then the damage could have been done. When doing a oil change on the facelift Sports and I assume the D4 as well L/R state on both the Maintenance Schedule and Vehicle Inspection Sheet as well as the W/Shop Manual to reset the oil level indicator on these vehicles, which I rightly or wrongly assume is a recalibration of it due to having the oil changed, this is done via the menu and cruise control buttons, just wondered if this is not done could it possibly give a false level reading? saying the level is o.k. when it is actualy low. I know L/R do complicate things somewhat but why would the dedicate several pages in the Workshop Manual to this if it was not necessary. If it is actualy necessary do some garages even know it should be done, just bring back the old dipstick, no problem then.

Cheers
Col

The sensor worked when checking it on the dash through the menu! Said below minimum ... I’m just really surprised that they don’t flag up when they go below minimum like most other manufacturers!