Oil overfilled by about 2 quarts and driven 1000 miles. Worries?

[KraZe]

Service station messed up my last oil change and overfilled it 1000 miles ago and I finally noticed it 2 days ago during a routine fluids checkup. There is no oil leaking or fumes or anything of the sort, my FiST has always been driving normally and still is. I reckon it was about 50% overfilled so ~2 quarts over the MAX line. I have already drained the excess amount.

My worry is if there is some hidden engine damage caused by the excess oil that will show up in the future? Like a weakened gasket or something. Should I be worried?

Picture of the dipstick before draining the excess, driven like this for 1000 miles:

 

[CanadianGuy]

How are you figuring 2 quarts? A little over max is maybe 1/4 quart. I've done it so I know but 2 quarts would be much more.

 

[MKVIIST]

I don't think it's possible to put two extra quarts in there without oil leaking everywhere. Your picture didn't show for me.

 

[KraZe]

I figured 2 quarts but I could be dead wrong. Since the picture doesn't show, imagine the oil dipstick: The distance between MIN and MAX is exactly how much over MAX it was.

I drained about 1/2 a Dasani water bottles' worth of oil to bring it down from the "M" of MAX to the actual MAX line. The rest was dumped by the mechanic so no real idea of the actual amount but it was quite a lot.

 

[me32]

Lol yeah no way it would be 2 quarts. Also a little over full shouldn't hurt it.

 

[Rhinopolis]

It's instances like this that keep me doing my own fluid changes on my own vehicles. It's not hard, it doesn't take that much time, and for me the peace of mind in knowing it was done correctly is worth the little bit of extra effort.

Quick story: I bought a brand new 1999 civic si in August of 1999 and on my 21st bday. Back then I had never changed my own oil and that was my 1st brand new car. I wanted "the best" for it and the internet wasn't like it is now and information was harder to come by.

There was an oil change shop in the small town where I lived that sold Royal Purple (Walmart and auto parts stores didn't carry it back then), and I trusted the shop to change my engine oil to Royal Purple and as I paid them to do about every 3.5k miles.

Fast forward three years later and when the car was at 60k miles, the engine started making a bad slapping noise. I took it in to the Honda dealership to have their techs look at it, and besides needing a valve adjustment they showed me that the oil was sludged from not changing it frequently enough. Turns out that the oil change shop had been charging me but not actually changing the oil as frequently as what I had been paying for.

I had it out with the shop, they denied any wrong doing, and I learned how to do it on my own from then on. Since that time I have also learned how to do a lot of other stuff on my cars too, and it always makes me feel better doing it myself.

 

[Crooked Letta]

I figured 2 quarts but I could be dead wrong. Since the picture doesn't show, imagine the oil dipstick: The distance between MIN and MAX is exactly how much over MAX it was.

I drained about 1/2 a Dasani water bottles' worth of oil to bring it down from the "M" of MAX to the actual MAX line. The rest was dumped by the mechanic so no real idea of the actual amount but it was quite a lot.

The add mark is 1QT. I doubt you can use that in terms of overfilling due to differences in capacity packaging but I would say it would be close. 1QT sounds more like it as I'm sure if it was 2QTs and you really drove 1K miles there would of been signs and oil most likely would of started being pushed out of places especially if you like to rev. Either way I would say your ok and not to worry.

Excessive oil can cause seals to blow, oil consumption, and aerated oil. The latter is the one to worry about as it basically negates the purpose of oil.

 

[Joker328]

If it is overfilled and the pressure gets too high, the filler cap is designed to pop off to relieve the pressure before stuff starts pouring out of other places (ask me how I know). If that didn't happen, then you were probably OK.

 

[Strife]

While we're on the subject, if someone poured one of those 5 quart Ford Motor Oil jugs into their FiST, how negatively could this affect their car? Considering the manual says the motor requires 4.2 quarts..

 

[KraZe]

While we're on the subject, if someone poured one of those 5 quart Ford Motor Oil jugs into their FiST, how negatively could this affect their car? Considering the manual says the motor requires 4.2 quarts..

That's probably what happened. Mechanic might have poured in a 5qt bottle cuz he couldn't be bothered to measure out 4.3 as per the manual. I would 100% do my own oil changes but since I'm not an ASE certified mechanic my warranty would be in danger... I'll probably just shell out the $60 per oil change at my nearest Ford dealer to avoid future headaches from now on.

 

[CanadianGuy]

That's probably what happened. Mechanic might have poured in a 5qt bottle cuz he couldn't be bothered to measure out 4.3 as per the manual. I would 100% do my own oil changes but since I'm not an ASE certified mechanic my warranty would be in danger... I'll probably just shell out the $60 per oil change at my nearest Ford dealer to avoid future headaches from now on.

Unless you used the wrong filter, wrong oil or did not tighten the filter or plug they cannot void the warranty without cause. If you are concerned keep detailed records of when the oil was change (time/date / ODO) and the receipt for filter and oil.

 

[Strife]

That's probably what happened. Mechanic might have poured in a 5qt bottle cuz he couldn't be bothered to measure out 4.3 as per the manual. I would 100% do my own oil changes but since I'm not an ASE certified mechanic my warranty would be in danger... I'll probably just shell out the $60 per oil change at my nearest Ford dealer to avoid future headaches from now on.

This is what happened the last time my oil was changed. I checked the dip stick today and it's precisely at the "max" level, so I'm not terribly worried. But I'm tempted to drain a little bit to get a nice warm and fuzzy feeling about it.

All of this because I live in an apt. and had to get the oil changed else where. I typically do it myself, but legally cant do it in my parking lot.

 

[me32]

This is what happened the last time my oil was changed. I checked the dip stick today and it's precisely at the "max" level, so I'm not terribly worried. But I'm tempted to drain a little bit to get a nice warm and fuzzy feeling about it.

All of this because I live in an apt. and had to get the oil changed else where. I typically do it myself, but legally cant do it in my parking lot.

Did you check it on 100% on level ground and check it warm?

 

[Strife]

Did you check it on 100% on level ground and check it warm?

Checked it on level ground with a cold engine.

 

[me32]

Checked it on level ground with a cold engine.

Your oil level will be fine then.

 

[Strife]

Your oil level will be fine then.

Thanks. I was pretty sure it would be, but hearing it from somebody else gives me the warm and fuzzy feeling about it that I needed. I should be buying my first house soon, so I wont have the issue of somebody changing my oil and doing a bad job again.

 

[Intuit]

Where does the crankcase vent into the intake? There's probably some element there that tries to limit how much "oil vapor" enters the air intake. The "crankcase breather element" for my old car was merely a little oil-resistant sponge.