CLUE

My check oil light came on tonight when I started my car after work, I get off at 1:30am. Tonight, when I got off, it was around 3-4 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Farenheit), cold enough to fog up the windows. It's happened maybe happened 2 or 3 times, one time I did add a litre because it looked a tad low, but every other time the dipstick and dash oil level gauge were both normal. I changed my oil and oil filter new years and haven't put on much mileage at all (I used 10w-30 mobil 1 synthetic and a mobil 1 oil filter). I will see if it keeps happening and check the oil levels again. I googled the situation first and saw a lot of talk about oil sending units... and the usual 1'000'000 other topics, which didn't answer what I wanted to know, so here I am to ask them, where I can expect a decent answer:

Can cold weather trigger the check oil light on startup after the car's been sitting a while? (take tonight for instance, it sat for 10 hours, about 4-6 hours at 4* C.... or 9* Farenheit). It's going to warm up soon anyways, I'm thinking of switching to 5w-30 for next winter? Is it just the oil thickening up, making it harder to distribute? Is my engine getting oil on startup? From my understanding the 10w-30 should be good for down to -10 or better?

CLUE

I just went to get some gas and it's nice and warm outside today. The check oil light didnt come on when I started it, but it came on, on the way home. I'm going to go check the oil level again and go get some more oil. If that fixes it, then maybe I'm just burning some oil slowly, because I haven't seen any oil on the ground ever, or maybe the oil sender unit is going bad. I'll probably just grab a new oil sending unit if its only $20 or so. I'm going to look in the manual right now and see what it says. Where is the oil sender unit located? It goes in the oil pan right? I work in the morning, so I want to try and resolve this today if possible.

CLUE

I checked the oil, it needed a litre of oil and now all is good. This happened before as well, looks like I'm slowly burning some oil and it needs 1 litre added every 3-4 months. Not too bad I guess, but is this a sign something is leaking? I never see any oil underneath on the ground, so it's either slowly leaking out somewhere and burning off or it's just slowly burning.... is this pretty normal, or should I have my oil pressure checked?

mattdel

Probably burning it. Given your timetable I'll assume you barely drive it. Valve seals that dry out repeatedly tend to get leaky. If you ever replace them, try and start the car a few times a week instead of letting it sit.

Project 5.GO!

Some of that oil is likely finding its way into the intake via the PCV. I'm surprised how much my oil/air seperator catches.

xkape

move to Maimi where its never cold? problem solved.