oil

Okay so this morning I had a hunch to check my oil cuz its getting time for a new change so I pulled up to pep boys and wiped the dipstick off and pulled it back out, it was empty! So I put 5 qrts of royal purp in and now it is waaaaaay over the nitche. What kinda damage can be caused by too much oil, or can I just expect it to burn down to normal? I'm guessing when I checked the dipstick didn't get a good reading, I had just turned the car off so the oil probably didn't settle. I know, dumbass move. I have sensors but have had trouble installing them, does anyone know of a good way to install them so I can use my guages?

 

It was low so you put in a full serving??? Yikes! I don't know bro but that doesn't sound good... Next time slowely add/check, add/check.. I'd recommend you don't drive it and change the oil completely or drain until the levels good, lets see what the resident experts say though...

 

This is a great article on Oil: The Engine Oil Bible
http://www.carbibles.com/engineoil_bible.html

I recommend getting the fumoto drain valve which replaces the oil pan plug, that way, you can release just a little bit of oil if you are over full.

Below is an excerpt from the link above:

What happens when an engine is overfilled with oil?

"So you topped up the engine when it was warm after getting a faulty dipstick reading, or you put too much oil in when you changed it yourself. What's the worst that could happen? Well the problem with this is that the next time the engine is run, the windage in the crankcase and other pressures generated by the oil pump, etc. place a great strain on the seal on the rear main bearing.
Eventually, often much sooner than the ordinary man in the street might expect, the rear main bearing seal ruptures, and the engine becomes a 'leaker'. If you've got a manual gearbox, this means one thing: this oil goes right onto the flywheel and the face of the clutch disc. A lubricated clutch is A Bad Thing. If this still goes unnoticed, the front seal is the next to go, and the engine then becomes a 'gusher' (or to be more colourful, it starts pissing oil all over the place). As well as smothering the clutch with oil from the rear, the oil now coming from the front leak will be neatly distributed about the engine bay as it hits the front pulley - often propelling it out as far as the brake discs. At the same time as this Hollywood disaster movie is unfolding outside the engine, things aren't working out any better on the inside. As you can see from the diagram, the correct oil level is really close to the rotating crank. Overfilling will mean the crank dips into the oil and churns it into a froth. Froth is good on certain types of coffee but not good in an engine. The mixture of aerated oil will be forced into the bearings and in case you didn't know, air is not a lubricant. Typically this means that bearing damage will follow quite rapidly, especially if you are driving on a motorway. You'll know bearing damage when you get it. The engine smells like a garage mechanic cooking over an open flame and the noise coming from the engine is the sort of thing you'd normally hear in vaudeville plays when a piano is pushed down a flight of stairs. As if that all wasn't bad enough, the excess oil gets thrown up into the piston bores where the piston rings have a hard time coping with the excess oil and pressure. It gets into the combustion chamber and some of it will get out into the exhaust system unburned resulting in a nice patina of oil all over the platinum surfaces of your catalytic converter. This renders it utterly useless for good."

 

never check the oil when its the car is running or when it is warm and expect to get an accurate reading!!

i had a similar problem tho. i checked my oil 3 1/2 hours after driving and there was no oil in the pan. so i added 5 quarts. checked it again the next morning and found 10 quarts in the engine. immediately drained the oil, in other words thats what you NEED to do as well.

 

Yeah, I don't believe that the dipstick being dry equates to no oil in the car. I'm pretty sure it more just indicates a couple quarts off from the correct amount.

 

Nothing on the stick means 2qts low.

Even after driving/when engine warm, you should be ABOVE the full mark. There's a dot/hole/notch ABOVE the F that indicates the proper oil level when the engine is at FULL OPERATIONAL TEMPERATURE.

If you are BELOW that when at op.temp....ADD. When cold...oil temps below 120*F, it should be AT the F mark.

 

(If this is referring to what I wrote)

I don't think you get what I meant. All I was saying is that the length of the bottom of the dipstick doesn't represent the whole amount of oil. For example, if the dipstick reads halfway down, it doesn't mean that you're half empty on oil. The same as if the dipstick is dry, your engine isn't completely void of oil (necessarily), but rather just as little as a quart or two low.

Or at least that's been my experience. And I'm not saying that being low a quart or two is alright either.

 

Exactly.

I was just pointing out that nothing on the stick means its 2qts low.

 

Thanks guys. Another noob question: I found the dipstick to the manual tranny oil and it is low too. The car has been sitting for along time while I let the engine oil drain and I looked it up and it says if low insert oil through the dipstick. How much needs to go in there? I really don't want to over do it again. Thanks!

 

I don't know how much goes into the manual tranny, but I accidentally overfilled mine when I changed fluids, and I was not about to drain the whole thing again. So I got a hand pump from a lotion dispenser and a bottle. Lotion dispensers have thicker tubing and make the job easier than a thin on from a windex bottle. I simply pumped out tranny oil until I was exactly at the full mark.

 

ok. how much did u put in before it was too much? I'm having my clutch changed this week so the dealership will properly fill it I assume. I wonder how long it has been empty and if this is why I have trouble going into reverse (a little tougher shifting than usual, I know reverse is common)

 

I didn't overfill by too much, less than half a liter.

I have heard that simply changing gear oil will make shifting better, but I have never had any problems and I did not notice any difference when I changed my oil.