[Senecio]

Hello ABerri007

All I can say is "You have company in your misery. Dealers do not care. If the problem is not fixed I shall trade my 2017 Touareg next September and go back to Japanese. At least if the engine keeps plodding along and it is just a sensor.

Good luck!

 

[yuyueyuyue]

I don't know where you are with this but I have a 15 Hybrid and same problem. Having gone back to the dealer 3 times now for the "reduce oil level" orange warning, all they seem to be doing is draining and refilling the oil and saying this time it should be okay because of whatever micrometer level they filled the oil to.

Last time I went, I mentioned to the tech that the forums mention changing the oil sensor sometimes work and this is a sign of an oil sensor going bad which apparently is very common on these VWs and Audis.

They gave me the truck back saying drained and refilled to the exact max line and drove the car around and no more light. And I'm like you didn't change the sensor?? They said no, sensor tested fine. Ok, I can open and close my hood (resets codes apparently) and the oil light will go away for a few days and then return.

So surely enough, my warning light came back on this past weekend two days after the dealer gave it back to me. Also, in doing more research someone else here in the forums said they had the same exact problem and changed the oil sensor, same problem, and until they changed the hood sensor, that's when the problem officially went away.

So now I need to convince my dealer to change both of these sensors and stop draining and refilling the oil. Besides, after 3 drains they've never reset my oil change reminder in the computer and never updated the service sticker in the upper left corner of the windshield. Shouldn't they have done that after each drain/refill??

I know OP is VR6, but just want to share my experience with the above Hybrid owner.

There's an error on the VW's official service manual. Some one from VW's back office copied V8's or tdi's oil capacity into the V6 Hybrid's manual... The V6 Hybrid replaces the V8 in terms of market position, but I'm pretty sure they come with different engines... lol

Oil level sensor and hood latch sensor don't usually go bad. Forum posts tend to magnify these two issues, but statistically these are low failure points. Most of the time it's servicing error meaning the oil level is wrong for real.

Ask the dealership how much oil they put into the engine. The correct amount shoudn't be more than 7.2qt(6.9Liter). I usually just put 7qt flat. Anything more than 7.2qt will be rightfully too much for this supercharged v6. I know one place have put 8.5qt in my engine... Then the remove oil light came on as it should. I started removing 50mL a time but the light kept coming back. I finally asked the place that serviced the car how much they put in, then realized I had to remove 1400mL...

Ask the dealership how much oil they put in... if they put 8 quarts or more... ask their technician if common sense tells them to put 8 qt into a 6 cylinder engine... or maybe not... this is mean... It's not the technician's fault, they need to stick to whatever the service manual states. But keep in mind this error is also referenced by every quick oil change shops around the world. So every time you go out for an oil change, remember to tell the technician to only put in 7qt.

 

[ABerri007]

I know OP is VR6, but just want to share my experience with the above Hybrid owner.

There's an error on the VW's official service manual. Some one from VW's back office copied V8's or tdi's oil capacity into the V6 Hybrid's manual... The V6 Hybrid replaces the V8 in terms of market position, but I'm pretty sure they come with different engines... lol

Oil level sensor and hood latch sensor don't usually go bad. Forum posts tend to magnify these two issues, but statistically these are low failure points. Most of the time it's servicing error meaning the oil level is wrong for real.

Ask the dealership how much oil they put into the engine. The correct amount shoudn't be more than 7.2qt(6.9Liter). I usually just put 7qt flat. Anything more than 7.2qt will be rightfully too much for this supercharged v6. I know one place have put 8.5qt in my engine... Then the remove oil light came on as it should. I started removing 50mL a time but the light kept coming back. I finally asked the place that serviced the car how much they put in, then realized I had to remove 1400mL...

Ask the dealership how much oil they put in... if they put 8 quarts or more... ask their technician if common sense tells them to put 8 qt into a 6 cylinder engine... or maybe not... this is mean... It's not the technician's fault, they need to stick to whatever the service manual states. But keep in mind this error is also referenced by every quick oil change shops around the world. So every time you go out for an oil change, remember to tell the technician to only put in 7qt.

Thank you very much for this info!! This is exactly the sort of post I remember reading when I first bought my truck in September of 2017 and having this oil light problem and I just couldn't remember where it was. Perhaps it was you who mentioned this back then as well. I will share this info with the tech when I go back into the dealership today or tomorrow and update everyone here how things turn out.

FWIW: I would not change the service interval or the sticker, unless I changed both the oil and the filter.

That is a lot of oil for someone to pay for. But, You should have the cleanest engine in the state by this point.

Good point, I doubt they changed the filter. I will tell them to just do a complete flush, filter change, and fill it to only 7qts this time.

Hello ABerri007

All I can say is "You have company in your misery. Dealers do not care. If the problem is not fixed I shall trade my 2017 Touareg next September and go back to Japanese. At least if the engine keeps plodding along and it is just a sensor.

Good luck!

Correct, dealers are just the same as any other mechanic shop nowadays except they have fancier facilities and charge way more money for nothing. Very hard for me to think about getting rid of the Touareg. I've driven so many other SUVs and nothing drives like this and the power is just awesome yet I still get MPG similar to that of Diesel Touaregs. I'm only thinking about finally letting it go because we really need the 3rd row now as we've been screwed many times with needing those extra two seats in the back.

2012-2013 BMW X5 35d, here I come...MAYBE :laugh:

 

[Jorge Ordonez]

Hi all; have a 2015 Touareg v6 lux regular gas in the USA and am new to the forum. After seeing the message “Please reduce oil level” I came to the dealership and they suggested a change of oil and got the same message again. Apparently VW has a bad database for Touaregs informing all service shops to put in 7.1 quarts of oil in the car while the actual capacity by design is 6.3 quarts. Therefore they are always overfilling the oil. Luckily, some old timer mechanic that works at this dealership knew of this error and they are now redoing the oil change at the correct 6.3 quarts. I had already an expensive engine gasket replacement in the past fortunately covered by warranty likely due to this same issue given ALL VW dealerships in the USA (maybe other countries) are mistakenly instructing all shops to literally overfill the Touareg engines on every oil change.

 

[New2Tregs]

Hi all; have a 2015 Touareg v6 lux regular gas in the USA and am new to the forum. After seeing the message “Please reduce oil level” I came to the dealership and they suggested a change of oil and got the same message again. Apparently VW has a bad database for Touaregs informing all service shops to put in 7.1 quarts of oil in the car while the actual capacity by design is 6.3 quarts. Therefore they are always overfilling the oil. Luckily, some old timer mechanic that works at this dealership knew of this error and they are now redoing the oil change at the correct 6.3 quarts. I had already an expensive engine gasket replacement in the past fortunately covered by warranty likely due to this same issue given ALL VW dealerships in the USA (maybe other countries) are mistakenly instructing all shops to literally overfill the Touareg engines on every oil change.

Did you get the oil/filter changed prior to the first "Please Reduce Oil Level" message or did it just come on out of the blue?
My '11 VR6 requires 6.7 qts. of oil to bring the level to full when changing it w/the filter.

 

[Jorge Ordonez]

Did you get the oil/filter changed prior to the first "Please Reduce Oil Level" message or did it just come on out of the blue?
My '11 VR6 requires 6.7 qts. of oil to bring the level to full when changing it w/the filter.

Yes, dealer always includes an oil filter with every oil change so they can charge more .
I verified the statement.
Yours is 4 years older. Different model years probably have some spec changes over time.
Anyway, after driving up and down Salt Lake area ski mountains for 2 weeks and checking the oil level every day showing normal, I can validate that indeed the 2015 Touareg only needs 6.3 quarts and the VW spec issued at 7.1 quarts is incorrect.