Consensus is that a little over full is OK?

[Bluestream]

Overfilling is just not that big a deal. The mfg know these engines may be overfilled. The big question is why do people get so bent about it? This must be the most asked question on the web site.

Also, in this day and age sumps are designed to hold liters and not quarts. Even the British who invented the quart don't use it anymore

 

[teddyboy]

Originally Posted By: Bluestream
Overfilling is just not that big a deal. The mfg know these engines may be overfilled. The big question is why do people get so bent about it? This must be the most asked question on the web site.

If you're not at least a little ocd, you've got no business being here (petroleum engineers notwithstanding).

 

[k24a4]

Originally Posted By: teddyboy
Originally Posted By: Bluestream
Overfilling is just not that big a deal. The mfg know these engines may be overfilled. The big question is why do people get so bent about it? This must be the most asked question on the web site.

If you're not at least a little ocd, you've got no business being here (petroleum engineers notwithstanding).


Lol. How many miles on the '97?

Do you have access to rhino ramps? You could drive it up and drain a bit.
Give yourself some peace of mind.

 

[teddyboy]

Originally Posted By: k24a4

Lol. How many miles on the '97?

Do you have access to rhino ramps? You could drive it up and drain a bit.
Give yourself some peace of mind.


Just turned 233K on the 97. It's our extra car but still a great vehicle. I call it the football car because I drive it to college football games in the fall. We also leave it at the airport and take it when we drive uptown to parking decks with really narrow spaces.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I've reached a level of comfort with the slight overfill. Besides, for what I ended up paying for this oil change, it would be a sin to drain any out (just kidding on the last point).

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted By: dave1251
It should be fine. But who in the world would design a sump/engine that holds 3.7 qts?


That's what my Honda holds! And nobody can say that Honda doesn't know how to build reliable engines.

 

[ruxCYtable]

Originally Posted By: teddyboy
Dave, it turns out that 3.5L =3.7 qts. I guess that's where they came up with it. The vexing question for me has always been, why so little oil?
I wonder this as well. I once did a change for my bro-in-law's Sentra and I'm pretty sure it called for 2.9 quarts.

 

[mechtech2]

What are the possible problems of overfilling?

Well, it will take longer to get up to temperature with more oil.
Extra oil can cause more drag on moving parts [crank,rods, etc].
Oil control by the rings may be reduced if they are overloaded.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Some engines may have no problem with 1/4-1/2 qts overfill, but some engines do not like any overfill. My E430 does not like overfill by any amount, I added 8 oz VSOT to 8.5 qts capacity at oil change, the onboard computer complaints about overfill and demands siphon some oil.

 

[teddyboy]

Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
Some engines may have no problem with 1/4-1/2 qts overfill, but some engines do not like any overfill. My E430 does not like overfill by any amount, I added 8 oz VSOT to 8.5 qts capacity at oil change, the onboard computer complaints about overfill and demands siphon some oil.


Of course it's impossible to know whether the excess was actually causing an engine problem or if the computer was simply calibrated to bring even very small overages to your attention.

 

[gizzsdad]

My two VQ's call for 4 7/8 and 5 3/8 quarts. Makes keeping a top-off bottle a good idea. Sometimes 1/8 goes in, or 3/8 comes out - and on the rare actual top-off, 1/8 or 1/4 out.

IIRC, I was servicing a friends '93 (VG30 maybe?) that took about 3 1/4 quarts. Didn't seem like much to me.

 

[dave1251]

Originally Posted By: Patman
Originally Posted By: dave1251
It should be fine. But who in the world would design a sump/engine that holds 3.7 qts?


That's what my Honda holds! And nobody can say that Honda doesn't know how to build reliable engines.


ARCOgraphite may disagree with you.

 

[dave1251]

I am sure this lady is not amused by HONDA engineering also.

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2622286


But to each is there own.

 

[Bluestream]

Originally Posted By: mechtech2
What are the possible problems of overfilling?

Well, it will take longer to get up to temperature with more oil.
Extra oil can cause more drag on moving parts [crank,rods, etc].
Oil control by the rings may be reduced if they are overloaded.



1. Yes, it may take a min or 2 longer to heat the oil, but that would be negated by the fact the extra oil would make the oil temp cooler under adverse conditions.
2. Only more drag if the level is so high that the crank journals are contacting the oil. ( that would be several qts overfill)
3. No effect on the rings unless overfilled to the point the journals are splashing oil up there way.

 

[Drivebelt]

Engines always have a built in safety margin of probably close to a liter or more. They have to. One has to expect that the sump will be overfilled a little at least sometimes. No way even 1/2 liter of extra oil should be able to cause any real problems. Over the years I have overfilled the motor oil in my 87 Jetta 1.8 by close to 1/2 liter many times without issue. A little overfill shouldn't be any concern.

 

[raytseng]

I used to think too, that exact fill level was very important.

Then I thought a bit more and brought in the real-world that my car actually moves. It goes up and down hills, brakes and accelerates, so whatever oil in there is splashing around basically all over the place, making a mockery of the precision draining and filling i was doing.

Rumors that the crank is going to hit the oil and foam it up things of that nature, suddenly don't seem to hold true if your car is in motion.

Same reason why there's a range of Add->Max on the stick, so weird crankcase volumes like 4.2quarts don't matter.

With oil flying all over the place, everyone knows if you let the car sit the dipsticck level goes back up a bit, and applying the logic you can go down from Max all the way to the Add line.

 

[Stephen_G]

Personaly i would rather be over than under filled for oil.

My 2003 sable takes 4.5 quarts, and after reading Raytseng on his feel about exact fill nowadays, i probably won't be too worried if i splash a lil extra from a 5 quart jug in. I might even just dump all 5 quarts in next time just to get rid of the jug.

 

[raytseng]

yea,

Assume the Operating oil level is obviously a chunk higher than startup oil level.

And car is resilient enough to be able to run fine at startup and not insta-fail.

So if you overfilled a bit, perhaps now the new operating level is the same as the old startup level; but that's still an acceptable working condition.

Perhaps now startup level is too high, but that takes care of itself in a second or so.

 

[diddlyd]

you guys should just try removing the oil pan and take a look for yourselves. in my 98 integra, i recently did this to replace the pan gasket. i could see the dipstick pointing right out into where the pan was. the "full" line on the dipstick was at least a 3-4 inches below the bottom of the crank shaft. although i wouldn't recommend it, i think i could put 2 quarts or more extra oil in my engine before it would get to a level high enough to interact with the crankshaft or any other moving part.
i usually run 5 qts in my 4.5 qt recommended engine.

 

[SteveSRT8]

This advice is completely platform specific.

Car Brand A may run fine with two extra quarts, car Brand B may not.

In the old daze we used to run the oil LOW to pick up a bit of ET at the strip. It really worked... sometimes.

And I've seen many a car where the dipstick was not accurate, as in installed incorrectly or mis marked.