Welcome to the Forum.
I've never heard of a vehicle not starting because of low oil. I believe that unless the oil pressure sensor is wired into the ignition, you should be able to start the engine with no oil at all. Not recommended though. The bigger question would be, why is the oil low in the first place? Are you constantly having to add oil? How many miles or on the vehicle? Have you checked the condition of the oil on the dipstick? If it is a milky colour it is contaminated and you have a water pump issue.
I hate being the guy that joins only to have his first post be about needing help, but I’ve been lurking here for the better part of a year and now have a depressing reason to reach out for assistance. This is long, so the summary is 1k miles over warranty, water pump failed without any check...
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Peter
Thanks for the response. To add a little context, the Explorer has about 110K miles. I have owned it since 40K and have kept it well maintained the last 70K miles with pretty much no issues. Recently I let my 16 y/o son start driving it, and that is when these issues have started. He is pretty responsible, so I don't think he is doing anything wrong/harmful, but given his inexperience, I think there may be other issues at play he is not picking up on. Problem is, while this issue has occurred 4 times (3 with my son, 1 with my wife), it has not happened with me in the car, so I am just trying to piece together what they have reported to me.
To answer your questions, the reason why I asked if the Explorer wouldn't start due to the sensor is that I know this same Explorer will disable other functions when it determines the car shouldn't be driven. A few years back, an issue occurred with the car, and the power steering was disabled. I thought there was an issue with the power steering, but later found out the root issue was not related, but the Explorer will disable the power steering to keep the car from being driven when this specific issue occurs. I thought something similar might be occurring with the oil sensor.
It seems to use a little oil, but not as much as would be needed to result in 4 non-starting issues in the last 6 months. When my wife or son have added oil to get it started again, they did not measure the before and after amounts, so it is hard to determine how much was added (and thus how much was used). When I checked the oil last night (after one of these issues), the oil looked normal and clean. We had the oil changed maybe 1000 miles ago, and then my wife added additional (new) oil, so if it was milky before, it might have been covered up with the new oil. I will keep the water pump issue in mind, and try to train my son and wife to both check how much oil is being added and also to take a photo of the oil on the dipstick to better determine what is happening.