Pre-NCT mishap - put too much oil in car - failed on emissions

James 007

NCT Results
Low Idle CO 3.86 vol%, HC 559 ppm
High Idle CO 3.86 vol%, HC 559ppm, Lambda 0.89
Repeat emissions test

As I left the NCT test centre this morning, just 30 seconds gone, a yellow warning light appeared on my dash to indicate an emissions issue. I have never seen the light on my car before and I have the car for 10 years. Brought the car to a garage today and when he asked is it burning oil I said no, but did mention that I filled it up less than 2 weeks ago putting a 5 litre woodies drum into it, stupid of me, I know:(. In the past I always topped up using a 1 litre in the typical station on the side of the road.

Anyway, at the garage today the mechanic used a hand mechanism pump to remove the oil, removed 1.5 litres, but then i left the car with him to drain it as he suggested. Drove the car home from work and again for a period around the city, all is fine now, no warning light.

The plan again drive to work, less than 1/2 hour & 1/2 hour home & do another 1/2 to 40min drive tomorrow evening & recheck the emissions on thursday. How long would one expect this to normalize & should I now use something like CataClean. I do plan to do a 400km trip on Friday provided the car is okay to drive in the first place, comments welcome.

greasepalm

I had a car in last week with excess oil in sump and he had put in a 5ltr can.Drained oil into a large container which overflowed.He was later told engine was gone due to metal particles in the oil filter possible from big ends.
What make of car is it as you might be lucky as 10 years ago we had a polo in with overfilled engine oil which entered combustion system and got hydraulic lock,drained oil and filled to correct level,sucked oil out of plug holes and had to drill holes in exhaust to drain oil which was seen at rear pipe.
Thursday sounds too soon as the amount of oil in the exhaust system will need a good roasting to get most of it out,no harm throwing in Cataclean.You are lucky car is driving ok and how smoky is it out on the motorway.

James 007

I kind of new when I brought the car back to work I left the engine run & I could tell it seemed to be a spluttering noise from the exhaust, and last week I did see smoke when reversing from a carspace in work.

Its a Volkswagen Jetta 2006, petrol. Would a 200km run with the CataClean & return same journey clean it all out. Is there any risk I could still do the enginer harm, as I said I am not getting any warning light now. The mechanic said that I was lucky that I didnt blow the engine, I assume he is truthful with that remark. Thanks for the comments thus far.

greasepalm

Think you were lucky as he was right in engine damage with too much oil,if car has dipstick one uses it as electronics i dont trust.Thats a nice drive and should clean most of it out of exhaust,overfilled engine oil will can damage cats and throwing in the cleaner should help.
When down there and before coming back recheck oil level as long journeys can burn oil.
The polo i had took a month to clean out but was due nct later on in 3 months and the car passed,any other poor guy would have failed.

What is your cut off reading 0.2 or 0.3? before a fail.0.2 is harder to achieve that limit as a seat corboba we had in was over the 0.2 limit.

James 007

No problems, I think I will buy two bottle of the Cataclean. One for the journey down and one for the way back. They seem to recommend to put in one bottle per 1/4 tank of fuel, so does this mean I should put in two bottles on just over half a tank which is what I would probably have.I dont want to put too much in, I think I have learnt that lesson already now:rolleyes:

Low Idle above 0.3%
High Idle above 0.2%

The engine warning light is gone now, is it likely the car is fine now, I suppose this 200km trip concerns me if it will come on again.

Wibbs

Sounds like you got lucky J. I know two people whose engines were ruined because of adding too much oil. Easily enough done too if you're not into cars.

James 007

Yes, I hope you are right on this one. I got 2 bottles of CataClean today, the tank is approx. 2/3 to 3/4 full, should I put both bottles into the tank, based on this quantity of fuel.

greasepalm

I have only used 1 bottle per 1/4 tank as its stronger and more potent for cleaning.I dont think i would put second bottle in until next fueling or if still smoking heavily

iamtony

If you put in 5 litres on top of the oil already in the car and the mechanic only took out 1.5 litres something isn't right a, are you sure he didn't take out 4.5 litres?

greasepalm

First post states car was left with him to drain oil as suggested.

iamtony

greasepalm wrote: »

First post states car was left with him to drain oil as suggested.

Oh sorry my bad. I jumper the gun when I read that and posted without finishing reading.

iamtony

Your not as bad as the guy on here before(think it was here) took the cap off and kept filling till he filled up the entire engine:D

Anyway I believe the real problem with an overfil is that the crank shaft and rods actually whip the oil into a foam and they can't do their job properly which then leads to extreme wear very fast. You may have permanent damage. Fingers crossed you don't.

Spook_ie

They aren't supposed to run NCT emissions test if the oil is above the maximum.

wonski

I think they check level on diesels only, but could be mixing things up here...

9935452

James 007 wrote: »

No problems, I think I will buy two bottle of the Cataclean. One for the journey down and one for the way back. They seem to recommend to put in one bottle per 1/4 tank of fuel, so does this mean I should put in two bottles on just over half a tank which is what I would probably have.I dont want to put too much in, I think I have learnt that lesson already now:rolleyes:

Low Idle above 0.3%
High Idle above 0.2%

The engine warning light is gone now, is it likely the car is fine now, I suppose this 200km trip concerns me if it will come on again.

if it was me id put the fuel in after the cataclean.

Reason being it dilutes down the cataclean .
If you put the cataclean in in one go it might not mix as well