Engine oil overfilled after service?

[Domin007]

Hi all 

I had my annual service at a dealer, checked my oil next day to see where its at and it looks to be overfilled. They said itll be fine, but i just want to figure out how much they overfilled by and probably drain a bit.

What do you think?

Has anyone has this happen? 

[Linas.P]

I would take it back to the dealer and request them check level and if needed to replace oil again. Not even sure how you would go about "draining some", I guess you can try to suck some out, but you need special pump. Overfilled oil could cause catastrophic damage to the engine and it being dealership - there is absolutelly no excuse for overfilling. 

I have slightly overfilled the oil, because IS250 is annoying to check the level. You have to check it on the warm engine, but at the same time oil need like 15 minutes to drain back to sump after engine is stopped. So ideally you should have long-ish drive to really heat the engine-up well, then park and set 10-15 minutes timer (if it is not very cold 15 min is enough for oil to drain, but not enough to cool), then check level. What I did was checking oil level maybe 2 minutes after stopping the engine, the level looked low, so I filled 0.5L, checked again next day and it was just over the max. Something like that:

Because that car used to burn a little bit of oil I left it as it is and nothing really happened, but I was maybe 0.3-0.4L over. Based on your dips stick I would assume it is like 1L over, which is quite a lot for the car that takes ~6L of oil. I can't say if it will or will not cause damage, but again - last people who have any excuse to overfill are the dealers. So get them to sort it out for you. Let them check the level, maybe they going to find explanation as to why it shows wrong on the dipstick and if they can prove that level is right, then fine, else is their responsibility to resolve it. 

To be fair I don't even understand how this could have happened and I don't want to start conspiracy theories, but maybe they forgotten to replace oil filter or something like that, really not confidence inspiring work. Not to mention checking oil level after service is one of the checks, so not only they should have filled it correctly, but as well they should have double-checked the level. Other theory - they sucked the oil rather than drained it via drain plug, I never liked this method, but many dealers does it as it is quicker, maybe they failed to suck all the oil and that resulted in some remaining and then causing overfill. Who know... but they now need to put it right. Their service is £300-600, so they better do it right at this cost!

[HPS13]

Dom

I would recommend to return to the dealer. Your oil has been overfilled by approx. 1/4 litre. 

A mechanic will put the car on a ramp and then loosen the sump plug enough to allow a small quantity of oil to drain. They will then recheck the level and hopefully it will be no higher than the max mark!

It's a 5 minute job for them to correct for you. 

[GMB]

I have had lots of different cars that have been overfilled by myself and by garages and despite the horror stories no problems. The biggest problem was when taking my BSA bantam to Charlie Robinson's garage for a service. They drained the gearbox oil but forgot to put any new oil in. After a week of running with no oil in the gearbox I took it back because it was getting so hot. They just topped it up and sent me on my way. Mind you, I was only 16 and did not have the confidence to cause a big fuss about it.

The isF is still about  a quarter of an inch over the dipstick max level but absolutely no problems to report. Runs like a dream as usual.

I think if you really overfill the car it will probably blow it out but certainly not recommended. What the true tolerances are - I don't know.

[Jgtcracer]

44 minutes ago, GMB said:

I have had lots of different cars that have been overfilled by myself and by garages and despite the horror stories no problems. The biggest problem was when taking my BSA bantam to Charlie Robinson's garage for a service. They drained the gearbox oil but forgot to put any new oil in. After a week of running with no oil in the gearbox I took it back because it was getting so hot. They just topped it up and sent me on my way. Mind you, I was only 16 and did not have the confidence to cause a big fuss about it.

The isF is still about  a quarter of an inch over the dipstick max level but absolutely no problems to report. Runs like a dream as usual.

I think if you really overfill the car it will probably blow it out but certainly not recommended. What the true tolerances are - I don't know.

I’m actually inclined to agree with the above.  Clearly the textbook answer is to remove some until it’s within manufacturers recommendations but in reality I’m sure it will be fine.

 Also 100% agree that severe overfilling will damage an engine, don’t think you are in that situation though.  That being said, do what sits right with you, garage should sort it if you ask them.

[Spock66]

2 hours ago, GMB said:

I think if you really overfill the car it will probably blow it out but certainly not recommended.

Yes but that could well destroy the Catalytic convertor.

[Linas.P]

12 hours ago, GMB said:

I think if you really overfill the car it will probably blow it out but certainly not recommended. 

I think this may be true with older (i.e. not modern) cars, where tolerances and compression is low. But if you do it on modern engine, chances are your rod will upgrade themselves to wireless functionality. Basically it is same as hydro locking, oil cannot be compressed, tolerances are tight so what gives... pins, rods, maybe even rings, something will.

Now I said that myself - I had overfilled this engine just slightly and it was okey, how much tolerance of overfilling could it tolerate... I doubt anyone knows. If it would be myself who overfilled it I may think about options, but as it was dealer - I would let them handle it, they have to, answer "it will be okey" is not okey, because if you come back with blown engine I doubt they will say "oopsie we will cover it".

[Domin007]

I did contact the dealership, they said its fine but if its bugging me to come back. As its quite far away and it was bugging me, i got help from a friend who had a long hose and a syringe so we just sucked 300ml out and it seems to be dead on the top dot when i checked on warm engine. I will have another check on cold tomorrow. I guess mistakes happen but while paying over £500 you do expect things to be like they should, mind you iv'e never had issues at this particular dealer before and they are normally super helpful.

[DavidCM]

I suggest you put the whole thing in writing to the dealer and send it recorded delivery.That way,if anything goes wrong you have a paper trail.

[Linas.P]

1 hour ago, DavidCM said:

I suggest you put the whole thing in writing to the dealer and send it recorded delivery.That way,if anything goes wrong you have a paper trail.

E-mail usually does the trick 🙂 

It counts same as recoded delivery in court as well, not that I suggest taking anyone to court over some extra oil!