Oil Overfill

[Gambit]

what happens if u overfill it by say a litre?!?! std 16v fill is 4.5ltr with a new filter aint it?

the problem occured as follows:-

my car never had the little orange dipstick collar on it, it had been broken, so the dip stick was going to far into the sump

so i went and got a new collar for it, put it on, this moved dipstick about an inch higher, so much so that the oil didnt register on the dip stick at all!!

so i dropped it of at my mates on the way to work today and told him to change the oil, and give him a filter also, picked it up there & he told me he'd put 5.5ltr in it!!

so alarm bells started ringing!

will i just get a very messy air filter in a week or two?? or could there be even worse consequences?

[Ant]

AFAIK (and I ain't mechanically minded) it will be worse, the oil will get forced out of the seals, not a good idea.

Either drain through the sump (I think you'd have to drain the full oil this way cause trying to put the plug back with oil still coming out would be messy) or you can get a manual pump which you stick down the dipstick tube (less mess and easier just to pull approx a litre) A garage might be able to do this for you.

[Gambit]

suppose i could always drain the oil out then just put 4.0 litre of it back in yeah seeing as i wont be removin the oil filter

[Ant]

Would probably be the best, might be worth waiting for someone with more experience to make a statement, there might be another way.

[Gambit]

i guess if you want something done right your always best doing it yourself! at least then you can only blame yourself!

[golfvr6]

Overfilling the oil could cause any of the oil seals to fail, on cat engines it will destroy the cat. You can drain a bit out of sump (cold) or syphon some out of the oil dipstick.

[mk2driva]

i did the same thing. put the oil in ran the engine, let it sit, checked it then as it was below put more in and ran it, lets it sit then checked it again and it was well above :-[. didnt have time to drain it so ran it for a week with to much in and the head gasket went  :'( as well as my air filter getin all oily. i would drain it asap just to be safe

[Gambit]

i just drained a litre & a half out last night, i can breathe a little easier now