[cbarrow]

An old thread resurrection, but after reading lots of conflicting reports on various forums, wanted to detail what I found here. It really just retells what others have said earlier but I hope it adds confidence to the procedure.

This was my first "sump plug out" oil change on my 2012 D3. (and filter change)

Removing the bottom engine cover is easy, (Torx 27). Only potential issue is corroded fasteners, but they screw into plastic rather than metal housings (thank you Volvo!) so can probably be teased out by rotating with grips.

Before the oil change the electronic level reading was showing "full". I let it drain for ages and refilled with 5.6 L. The level on the engineer's dipstick (at front of engine low down) was about 1/2 way up so happy "enough" oil in there. The electronic dipstick kept showing 'full' for around 3x 10 mile journeys, which was worrying, then eventually reset itself to show 3/4 full (what I would expect from quantity put in).

I've read that the often spoken about VIDA 'reset' of oil qty (I think this is in the ECM section of VIDA diagnostics) is to trick the oil system for the first few journeys into not throwing up false readings (ie it thinks the oil level has dropped etc). I once had the car serviced at an indie, and at the end of a journey was showing 'refil with oil' message. I guess now this was spurious since the system hadn't had time to reset itself and they had possibly cycled the ignition with the oil drained?

As previous posters have said, the oil level sensor should sort itself out after a few journeys. If it does throw up an error, you could check the engineer's dipstick on the front of the engine for reassurance? I think 'full' is 2/3 the way up that small dipstick. Mine has a small 'band' on the dipstick which seems to equate to 'full'.

Hope this experience gives others confidence to change their own oil. If I can do it, then anyone can!