Oil 6 quarts over full!

[Gary Allan]

The engines that I've had issues with overfill typically showed it in windage and too much oil getting sucked up into the ring area on decelleration. My BMW would give you just a puff of oil smoke if the crankcase level was just a tad too high. Naturally if you didn't rev it to 5000+ and then let off the gas it wouldn't have been a problem.

The evolution to the "max overfill" warning on dipsticks appeared when the profile of the car began to lower and pans got compressed into smaller confines. At least that's the way I remember it.

 

[Laminar Lou]

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I wouldn't necessarily slam the lube tech too hard. I've seen exactly the opposite happen. We were in autotrans shop and the classmate working on his own car started pulling the engine drain plug instead of the trans drain plug.

If you do thousands of oil changes (for an outfit) you WILL have everything go wrong sooner or later. Someone is going to forget something.

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Sure, anyone can make a mistake. But they compounded the error by not doing the follow up work correctly either. They would have caught their error if they would have checked the dipstick.

 

[Cicero17]

250ml (HALF a US Pint) ....Actually just over a pint, but not arguing with the point made.

My daughter bought a Kia Sephia in 2000. When the time came, I was busy so my son, who is now an engineer, changed the oil for her. He drained the manual transmission and added 4 more quarts to the engine. She called me from work the next day and said her car sounded funny. I drove is a short distance and knew what the problem was. There was a local (not franchise) quick lube place real close by so I took it there and had them rechange the oil and fill the transmission. No apparent damage done, but it couldn't have done any good. Its a standard joke in the family now.

 

[blmqzjc]

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I'm curious what vehicle has a transmission drain bolt that can be confused with an engine oil drain bolt.
And what has the world come to when a clueless owner would rather check the electronic codes with a scanner than pull his own fluid dipstick?

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Happens all the time on VW's (Passat especially). The transmission pan and drain bolt are readily visible (never mind that they are too far behind the engine). The oil pan is not visible because of the belly pan; i.e. you have to remove the belly pan to get to the oil drain plug.

I've read many horror stories of people draining the ATF by mistake. When I first got under my Passat, I took a hard look at the transmission pan and decided to call VW service tech and ask him how you get to the oil drain. Unfortunately, you gotta take that ________ belly pan off, with all 10 fasteners.

 

[Auto-Union]

With an oil extractor, belly pan can stay on and you don't even have to put a knee on the ground. Oil filter can be reached from above, right under the coolant tank if you loosen it.

 

[Roy Gutfinski]

I have been a probation and parole officer here in the State of Maine for 28 years. Typically our "clients" have in the past found jobs in food service, janitorial work, etc. When the new breed of "quickie" oil change shops came along, I noticed our "clients" started to get hired as "lube technicians" in these shops. It used to be that I didn't "eat out" and never trusted my health to the cleaning habits of others. Needless to say, now I also do all my own oil changes!

 

[Roy Gutfinski]

Wouldn't you think he would have noticed that the oil was not jet black like used crankcase oil? That would have been a wake up call for me that what I was draining was NOT engine oil.

 

[Cicero17]

'Wouldn't you think he would have noticed that the oil was not jet black like used crankcase oil?"

He was 17 at the time. Any other questions?

 

[blmqzjc]

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With an oil extractor, belly pan can stay on and you don't even have to put a knee on the ground. Oil filter can be reached from above, right under the coolant tank if you loosen it.

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Yeah, I know. I usually loosen the coolant tank and remove the hose to the throttle body so I can get at the filter with a gallon milk jug, to collect any spillage from the honker filter I use (it holds a quart of oil). Haven't tried an extractor yet, though I have thought about it. Since I only change the oil every 6 months (it's a low use vehicle), I generally like to get under the car and "look around" while the oil is draining and check out other things. It would be nice if that belly pan had a trap door on it so you could get at the drain plug without removing the pan. Some guy over on Passatworld or VW Vortex actually built one IIRC for this very reason.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[Al]

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It's right about the end point of this conversation when the realization should strike: hmmmmmm --- good time to call the lawyer!

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Hahahahahaha..I would expect that from you.

Can't say I disagree.

 

[Blue99]

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Cyprs,

Having 250ml (HALF a US Pint) overfilled will not hurt any car engine.

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Bob

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I know a group of Bitoger's are fussy(anal) on this oil level issue, but, I agree wholeheartedly with Bob.

Most oil additives are in the 8 oz. to 16 oz bottle size and are designed to be added to an already full crankcase.

If any foaming issues were to arise, the lawsuits would have been flying years ago!

 

[flatlandtacoma]

Yes, if the exact full oil level was so critical that 8 oz could cause a problem, you'd better only drive on level ground and accelerate verrrry gently.

 

[Drew99GT]

Maybe I'm just anal, but just giving a quick scan and doing a tiny bit of comprehension will allow one to deduce that "this" here piece of cast steel is the oil pan, and "this" here other thingy is the trans pan. I could see getting that confused if you're totally braindead and working on a transverse fwd configuration, but on a rwd Superduty truck with trans behind engine???

 

[Drew99GT]

Oh, one other thing.......if you can't tell the difference between engine oil and auto transmission fluid then you should not be able to work in the automotive industry in any capacity! The instant the fluid started draining, it should have been blatantly obvious.