Rep Power: 0

If the engine oil level is low, the engine computer turns the engine light on (Code 1259) and does not allow the engine RPM to go above 4,000.

Could somebody advise how low the oil level needs to be for what I described above to happen? Half a quart below minimimum, 1 quart below minimum....?

I am assuming here that the engine light is coming on because of the low level oil and not because of something wrong with the VTEC. So my question is strictly about the oil level.

Thanks

 
Rep Power: 193

I've never had this happen but my sister did when her oil was 2 quarts low.

 
Rep Power: 518

The answer is not about oil level, all engines will be a little different.

The VTEC system depends on OIL PRESSURE to operate.
The system shuts down when the OIL PRESSURE is too low to sustain operation.
Low oil level may be the usual cause, but it is only one of several possible causes.
Oil pressure varies with viscosity, temperature, RPM, dilution, wear, and more.


The PCM limits the RPM so the operator is less likely to blow it up, and hopefully prompt the operator to seek help because there is something drastically wrong and the operator is far too negligent to take some basic care of an expensive piece of machinery.

Intentionally letting the oil level go far below the MINIMUM level just to find out an answer to the question as you wrote it, would cause me to tell you that you are an effin' idiot and you deserve to pay "the tax".

Explanation of "the tax":
We have one customer that brings their car in with this code about every 6 months now. The person pays the $110 checkout fee for us to diag the CEL code and say the oil is low---again.
(Can anyone GUESS how this fee could have been avoided?)
There is only about 1 quart or less left in this particular engine when the CEL comes on.
The person then pays for an oil change too, because it has been about 2000 miles since the last one. (The mileage between visits has been steadily dropping as the oil consumption rate increased. When I started in this shop, this car was coming in every 8-10,000 miles.)
Eventually this person will have to pay for an engine (more "tax"), because they can't be bothered to check and top off their oil on some sort of regular basis, nor change it without a harsh prompting. (Now that I think about it, I haven't noticed this car in the shop in quite a while. Maybe it blew up.)
Every time the oil is run LOW, the oil consumption rate increases.

Hope that helped.

 
Rep Power: 0

Noted. Thanks!

 
Rep Power: 0

Thanks for your reply!