Too much oil?

Hi all,

I think the apes at my dealership's lube operation overfilled my oil
when last I had it changed. The dipstick reads over the top level
indicator. My car is a 2003 Civic EX 5 speed. Will driving with too
much oil harm the engine?

Thanks,
CAB

 

How much over? A little is OK. If it is more than half a quart I
would take it back and complain. Yes, it can hurt the engine.

 

It will definitely cause a problem if it is too much. How much is too much
is not an exact science but it can cause cavitation with the crankshaft
resulting in whipped oil that has air in it. As we all no air is not a very
good lubricant in engines. Additionally it can start coming out the
tailpipe and screw up your convertor and o2 sensors.

CaptainKrunch

 

Have the apes fix it. If it's too high, it blows out the PCV vents and
into the intake manifold. If enough oil blows out at once, it will jam
a piston.

 

Thanks for the answers, all.

Crap! I've already put 300 miles on the car with the high oil. I
don't think that it is more than half a quart over. Is there any way
to know whether I've permanently screwed up my engine?

CAB

 

NOPE! But I wouldn't worry about it.


CaptainKrunch

 

I once got almost a quart too much. Instead of going back to the shop I
sucked out the excess through the dipstick hole with a polyethylene tube
(polyethylene is stiff enough to get it down there). As for engine
damage, there isn't much you can do about it now except removing the
excess oil and hope no damage was done.

 

I doubt its screwed, but sort it before you continue driving i would.

 

I made the mistake of telling my girlfriend to check the oil on her car and
add as necessary. So the dipstick was low and she just decided to add an
entire quart or more when I wasn't around.

This was in a 97 Toyota 4cyl automatic Corolla. When I started driving it,
it felt underpowered but I did not know she had added oil. As we are going
up the pass I look in my mirror and notice gobs of blue smoke are spilling
out the back and the car is gutless. I then pulled over and the engine was
hot as hell even though the idiot light hadn't come on. I immediately
checked the oil level and found it more than high enough on the dipstick.
After some interogation I figured out she had added lots of oil.

We were kind of in the middle of nowhere and several miles from any repair
shop so I managed to use my leatherman and some nice leather gloves to
remove the drain plug and drain some oil onto the ground. After that all
was well until she got t-boned a few months later at an intersection and it
was totalled. I had to drain the oil on the ground since there were no
places open and I didn't exactly have the containers to recycle it. I don't
condone dumping oil on the ground however and always recycle my own when I
do oil changes so don't try to flame me.

CaptainKrunch

 

....women....