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Too much oil in engine. A problem?

Sonority said:
Stopped, bonnet up, and there was the air filter blazing away.
Filter had filled with oil somehow from PCV, caught fire, and thankfully, a bus was driving by who had an extinguisher.
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This is going a bit off topic and won't help The Mullman too much, but we used to carry out a specific test on the cars to check for oil being pulled up into the intake system, if the oil in the sump was violently flung about.

The Oil Pullover Test basically specified doing the worst things possible to the car on a test track, so cornering at max adhesion, in lowest possible gear, then lifting off the throttle to generate maximum suction through the intake system and therefore the oil breather system. Or driving at fixed speed on a steering pad, or flat-out around a tight figure-of-eight course etc.

In the worst case, even with the correct oil level, liquid oil(instead of oil vapour) could be sucked up from the sump into the intake system, burning the oil and potentially emptying the sump of oil in a few seconds.

I never had a case of the oil "pulling over" but potentially could happen if the oil level was too high combined with aggressive cornering/braking etc.

As described above particularly risky with a diesel engine.

But I don't think this is likely to happen to Mull's daughter.
 
stevec67 said:
Just looked again, does D sport mean diesel? If so then yes, I'd be going over to check.
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I did a quick search and think D for Diesel, but this is Citroen so quirk may rule.

Either way second check on the dipstick to see if there's actually a problem would be next step for me.
 
PaulMB said:
Get the biggest possible syringe from a pharmacy, put a couple of feet of plastic tube on it (the pharmacy might have that too, I don't want to know what for) and draw it out. I did it when I overfilled the gearbox on my motorbike.
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Agreed, I have a Pela and also syringe and tubing (for mixing up dilutions of car cleaning and garden feed, weed etc) and I would do exactly what you describe for her peace of mind. A 100ml syringe and 5mm tubing will soon take some out. Even a 30mm syringe.
 
Mullardman said:
Daughter has overfilled her Citroen DS3 DSport 1.6.

She got a warning message, not a light, on dash saying to top up oil. But..she had difficulty 'reading' the dipstick and has put about 1 litre of oil in for a top up. Now says she thinks it's reading 'a couple of Cm above full'. She's done several short journeys since without mishap or buzzers/bells going off, but since the owner manual insists on getting main dealer involved if oil level is above or below 'normal' she is panicking.

Does anyone have an informed view on whether this is a serious issue..which would mean me going over and trying to 'drop' a bit of oil from the sump, or is it safe to continue using the vehicle?

What, if any, detrimental effect, does 'a bit too much oil' have?
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How many more miles does she have before her next scheduled oil change?
 
Paul R said:
I did a quick search and think D for Diesel, but this is Citroen so quirk may rule.

Either way second check on the dipstick to see if there's actually a problem would be next step for me.
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I checked, there is one diesel and one petrol, both 1.6, both called D Sport. As in DS - D Sport, etc.
 
Ok, modern hatchbacks are complete mystery to me. Still, experienced eye on the dip stick before getting out the turkey baster.
 
I also once overfilled oil, put in extra 2 litres in 2litre petrol engine. Did not notice much wrong in those few days till I get to service to take it out. Light come up on panel, did not went away after first litre, and not after second litre. As it happen on move, checking level with stick was no use. Later spoke with service, that light come up because of some problem with oil presure, not oil level. Different lights, bit stupid on me.
 
Thanks for all replies I sorted it out earlier and have not long been home.
To save the potential hassle of removing the sump plug, I looked at local Halfords and so on for some sort of pump but nothing suitable.
Then remembered that I had a 'Trico' 12 v screenwasher pump sitting on the shelf in the garage. It's been there for at least 40 years. I think I took it off a Simca 1100. IIRC, it works on the 'peristaltic' principle. Whatever...it was about to finally fulfil its destiny and 'come in handy one day..' Quick check showed it still worked when held onto the conveniently spaced contacts of a 4 AH sealed lead acid battery. Sadly the metres of small bore green plastic tubing which was in the way for years has disappeared.
So, down to B&Q. Their 'off the reel' 5mm (internal) tubing fits the pump perfectly, but was looking likely to be too big to feed down the dipstick hole. Fortunately their 3mm pipe fits inside the 5 mm, solving that problem, so bought 2m of the 5mm and 1m of the 3mm.

Daughter isn't daft and knows the 'remove, wipe, replace, remove, read' way to read a dipstick.
When I looked the problem revealed itself. The dipstick is exceptionally difficult to read and even with over 50 years of fiddling with cars, I struggled. I ended up having to 'swab' along the stick with kitchen paper to confirm the oil I thought I could see... It's basically a long coil spring which seems designed to hide the oil on its surface.
Eventually decided that she'd overfilled by a couple of inches on the stick and used a bit more than a litre of fresh oil.
Not prepared to risk that, I rigged my lashed up pump. As expected, only the 3mm pipe would pass the dipstick hole, but, after priming the system by sucking on the pipe, I fired up the mighty Trico...
It took about a minute to get going but once the oil stream was fully through the pump it worked steadily. Took about ten minutes to pump about 1/2 litre of oil out.
Checked again and concluded that the stick was now reading midway between Max and Min. Switched engine on and ran for a couple of minutes...No warnings, so decided to leave it at that till she gets it properly serviced.
The oil in the car was smelly and very black...much more than I'd expect and I'm not convinced the oil was changed, or changed properly, at last service...unless it's a particularly dirty engine..
Still..can relax now. Binned the fiver's worth of plastic pipe, but will endeavour to clean out the little Trico tomorrow . It may come in handy again in another 40 years :)
 
I had a 1982 Lancia HPE back in the day that had a hollow dipstick with a tube on the end! Took me a few minutes to find an old style manual washer knob on the dash. Just push and it drew oil up through the dipstick and gave a level on the display. Having just bought the car it got an oil change and from memory the gauge wasn’t far off at all!
Quite a modern feature for a 1982 Italian:D
 
misterdog said:
Sporty Lancia's were fine until all the exhaust manifold bolts sheared off.
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When they're as good looking as this, you can forgive them for the occasional 'design feature'.

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misterdog said:
Sporty Lancia's were fine until all the exhaust manifold bolts sheared off.
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Or everything less than 3 feet from the ground sheared off. A mate of mine bought a 1980 car, a Beta HPE, by 1984 he was into a MIG welding marathon for the MoT. He sorted it out and ran about in it but sold it within the year. He loved his car repairs and was a great mechanic but that one was too much trouble.
 
Many moons ago an ex colleague of mine, a new driver, had a low oil warning on her old fiat 127. Not knowing anything about cars, she topped up the oil until the level was just below the oil filler cap. Unsurprisingly, the car woild not start any more.
 
Quite some years ago, a pal of mine borrowed his moms car to go somewhere. When he and his GF was ready to go and seated in the car his mother shouted. 'You have to check the oil!'
My pal went to the nearest service station, opened the hood and unscrewed the oil filler cap. He looked down into the hole. Well, yes, it seemed to need some oil! He bought a liter, poured it into the engine, looked again. Hmm, not enough!
Another liter was poured in. Another look, still not enough... But, he decided, can't spend more money on that shit car.
He happily drove away. The car coughed and stuttered, no not well. After some miles there where a BIG bang. His GF looked behind them, a heavy cloud of smoke, out of it came another car, completely blinded.

The car was a Mazda, it survived!
 
RJohan said:
Quite some years ago, a pal of mine borrowed his moms car to go somewhere. When he and his GF was ready to go and seated in the car his mother shouted. 'You have to check the oil!'
My pal went to the nearest service station, opened the hood and unscrewed the oil filler cap. He looked down into the hole. Well, yes, it seemed to need some oil! He bought a liter, poured it into the engine, looked again. Hmm, not enough!
Another liter was poured in. Another look, still not enough... But, he decided, can't spend more money on that shit car.
He happily drove away. The car coughed and stuttered, no not well. After some miles there where a BIG bang. His GF looked behind them, a heavy cloud of smoke, out of it came another car, completely blinded.

The car was a Mazda, it survived!
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Wow. On a more positive note, and showing the occasional benefits of life skills over a formal education, there was a girl I knew from school, Gillian, who was never going to get beyond basic secondary education. She got a job at the local Volvo garage and fuel station. My mate's mum had an account there. One day she was gettig it filled up and while chatting to Gillian said "Oh, I usually get one of the mechanics to check the oil, would you mind asking for one?" Turns out the mechanics were busy doing servicing. "No problem Mrs A, just open the catch for me, I'll sort this out." Bonnet up, dippy out, "Hmm. Yes, I think you could do with a pint or so in there." Over to the counter, top up bottle procured and poured in. "That's better. I'll just add that to the account, shall I? Yes, say hello to your Robert, hope he's getting on OK with his A levels." Gillian was a resourceful soul, she was never going to be held up by something as simple as topping up a customer's oil.
 
Brown Bottle said:
Mrs BB once filled her car up with oil and then forgot to screw the filler cap back on. There was no way anything under that bonnet was going to corrode.

Cheers BB
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I did the same on a Renault 21, company car. Car stopped with all lights on like a Xmas tree in the middle of the M40 on our (pre marriage) way to Glyndbourne on Sunday. What an incredible mess under the bonnet! The RAC hired an Omega for me to continue and despite an insane 120mph on the M25 I still missed the first act. Got changed into black tie gear in a lay by. This was before mobile phones were common - I had one - but my friend with the tickets at Glyndbourne had no way of knowing what had happened until we turned up. And we had the food. Still, we had a good picnic and the rest of the day was very good.

The Renault required a very, very (I was told anyway) expensive engine rebuild. Seemed none the worse after that and ran very well until I got upgraded to a senior management car, a Toyota Camry.
 
NeilR said:
Many moons ago an ex colleague of mine, a new driver, had a low oil warning on her old fiat 127. Not knowing anything about cars, she topped up the oil until the level was just below the oil filler cap. Unsurprisingly, the car woild not start any more.
Click to expand...

I found an as new Honda lawnmower in the bins at work. Took it out, looked at the oil level,saw that it was full to the brim. Emptied out the excess, still using it 10 years later (though it is now as rusty as a Lancia)
The 1st owner must have just emptied the entire bottle of oil which comes with them into it....
 
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