200 miles in car with double the engine oil onboard. Risk of damage?

Johnny Storm

I got my car serviced about 2 weeks ago and have done about 200 miles since then. For no particular reason I checked the oil level this morning while the engine was cold. The level is about double the way up the dipstick from where it should be. I.E. the actual oil level is about twice the distance from the end of the stick to the upper dot (ie EDIT it is double the max level).
Obviously this could screw up the main bearing seals and other gaskets.

The garage wont be open till Tuesday.

I have 2 questions which I would appreciate any input on:-

1) How likely is it that damage could have happened during the 200 hundred miles I have driven?

2) What should the garage do to fix the problem? IE do they just drain off the excess or should they replace the whole lot? or anything else?

Any help appreciated.

C_Breeze

if the oil level is at the actual Max line , youre absolutely fine. It will only cause damage if its actuall litres above what it should be (ie most engines take 4 or 5 litres ... if it was more then its bad)

Johnny Storm

C_Breeze wrote: »

if the oil level is at the actual Max line , youre absolutely fine. It will only cause damage if its actuall litres above what it should be (ie most engines take 4 or 5 litres ... if it was more then its bad)

To clarify it is TWICE the Max line :eek:

it is twice the distance from the end of the dipstick to the Max line

C_Breeze

Johnny Storm wrote: »

To clarify it is TWICE the Max line :eek:

it is twice the distance from the end of the dipstick to the Max line

Wow how the hell did they manage that, in that case its definitely bad... I definitely wouldnt drive it until its sorted.


Im sure you could drain a bit of the oil yourself thorugh the sump plug but thats not the point... a very strong word with the garage involved is in order id say.

as for the type of damage caused in 200 miles if any , i wouldnt really be sure

testicle

Johnny Storm wrote: »

To clarify it is TWICE the Max line :eek:

it is twice the distance from the end of the dipstick to the Max line

The end of the dipstick does not measure the bottom of the oil.

DublinDilbert

testicle wrote: »

The end of the dipstick does not measure the bottom of the oil.

Beat me too it!

Yea the bottom of the dip stick would typically be at aprox 3L and the top at 4L of oil in the sump in most smaller cars, in larger cars it would be about 3.5L at the min and 4.5L at the max...

From what you say i'm guess it's about 1L above the max mark... so you possibly have 5L of oil not 8L!

Most poeple will say to drain off the extra 1L, i probably wouldn't be to worried if its running ok... now if there was 8L in there i'd be very worried and drain right away...

Alun

Had a similar problem with my car after a service once in as much as the oil was right up to, or very slightly above the maximum mark on the dipstick, but the garage said that on my car (Focus C-Max TDCi), the difference between the bottom and top of the dipstick markings is actually only about 0.4 litres, so nothing to worry about really.

Johnny Storm

Thanks for that, everyone.

A picture is worth a 1000 words they say: -


the two dots are the Min and Max levels.

It looks pretty extreme to me. (I think it's a bit more than one extra litre)

EDIT: And yes, I did wipe off the dipstick fully before I took that photo and the car is parked on level ground and the engine has not been started since yesterday

pwee

Thats chronic alrite. What type of car is it? Not much dif between your max and min on the dip stick.

Biro

That's way over full. Too much oil will damage the catalictic converter. You should get it drained.

Johnny Storm

I defo will be getting it drained as soon as the garage opens on Tuesday.
Its a 4.0 Jaguar v8 and according to the manual the oil capacity is 6.5 litres.

I want to know what I should be getting the garage to to to fully fix this. Could there be damage already to seals, gaskets, catalytic converter? Could they just have put the new oil in without first draining the old?

Any help appreciated.

macnab

[QUOTE=I want to know what I should be getting the garage to to to fully fix this. Could there be damage already to seals, gaskets, catalytic converter? Could they just have put the new oil in without first draining the old?[/QUOTE]
IMO the garage will drain the oil until the correct level shows up and do a visual check for leaks. Yes there could be damage done already, it would show up as an an oil leak, a smokey exhaust, oil in the coolant, coolant in the oil, lack of power, excessive engine noise, strange smell from the exhaust or all or a combination of these faults. But there may not be any damage at all. I would guess by looking at the photo that the oil is too new looking to have old oil mixed with new. They just made a genuine error. Get them to admit that and ask them to promise to fix any knock on effects. Get it in writing if you can.

dubambman

Was it a JAG dealer, if not, i would get the other garage to fix it, then bring it to a JAG dealer for a full inspection.

Johnny Storm

Thanks. It was the Shaguar dealer