Oil Overfill on VW

[mike5757]

On a 2001.5 VW Passat 1.8T. I'm not sure how much of an overfill this is, or if it's even worth worrying about.

 

[boomerang]

Don't worry about it. That's not enough to be concerned about.

 

[tortillasoup]

Are you checking the oil on level ground? On a cold engine? Make sure the car is parked on absolutely level ground, wait over night and check the oil level again. I'd say it's 1/3 over filled if and only if that's a true measurement.

But again, it's really easy for people to screw up reading a dipstick either by reading the wrong side, or if the engine was recently operated, etc. etc. Jiffylube guys don't even bother with dipsticks, they just carefully measure how much they're putting in.

 

[mike5757]

I waited around 30 minutes after shutting off the engine to check the level. The dipstick seems to be pretty consistent when I use it. Every time I get an oil change, except for this time, it's at the max level inside the indented part of the stick. And whenever I check it between oil changes it's at that same level.

I suppose this could just be 5 quarts of oil in an engine that takes 4.6 quarts. But it's also possible that they put 6 quarts in.

 

[tortillasoup]

Welp I guess you'll need to remove some oil from the engine somehow.

 

[Mide]

that looks over. I'd drain some

 

[yhelothar]

Not worth risking it. Having oil foam up from overfilling can cause serious damage.

 

[LTC8K6]

Change the oil filter. That will remove enough oil.

 

[tortillasoup]

I was thinking that, that if he changed the filter, that would work, only thing is it's kinda bothersome to think of the car running with out any oil in the filter for some time before it gets primed. Depending on where in the oil circuit the filter is, the oil pump may be sucking air for a bit of time before it gets oil to the parts that need it.

 

[LTC8K6]

I was thinking that, that if he changed the filter, that would work, only thing is it's kinda bothersome to think of the car running with out any oil in the filter for some time before it gets primed. Depending on where in the oil circuit the filter is, the oil pump may be sucking air for a bit of time before it gets oil to the parts that need it.

That happens at every oil change with a new filter.

Practically no one fills the filter with oil when they change it, except a few board members here, and sometimes you can't.

 

[boomerang]

That's only a little more than a half a quart over. It won't make a bit of difference. No engine manufacturer designs a wet sump engine that can't be run that much overfilled. No crankshaft is going to be whipping up the oil in the oil pan that is that amount overfilled. Apply some common sense. Do car manufacturers tell us only to operate their vehicles on straight and level roads? I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

You have two choices. Leave it or correct it. Those are going to be your responses. LTC8K6 has offered up the easiest solution if you feel you must correct the situation. And don't listen to people who have no practical knowledge that there are cars out there with oil filters that mount sideways or even upside down on the top of the motor that can't be pre-filled with oil. Sucking air until the oil gets to the pump... Nearly unbelievable.

Edit: I'm going to add to this. As I have mentioned before, I crewed on a three car team of Corvettes that at the end of my tenure were racing in the Speedvision World Challenge GT series. On really hot days when the temps were in the high eighties or nineties, we'd overfill the engines by a quart to get the extra cooling effect. Think about the conditions the race cars were being operated under and how your passenger car is being operated on the streets.

 

[JCH13]

I don't mind if my cars are over by that much. As mentioned above, running race cars a quart over is not an uncommon practice either.

I wouldn't take any corrective action.

 

[LTC8K6]

Don't full race cars have dry sump systems?

 

[JCH13]

Don't full race cars have dry sump systems?

If class/series specific rules allow them and the owners have money burning a hole in their pocket.

 

[Squeetard]

I don't mind if my cars are over by that much. As mentioned above, running race cars a quart over is not an uncommon practice either.

I wouldn't take any corrective action.

Yes, but they have windage trays, baffles in the pan and crank scrapers to stop oil from splashing around the crankcase. The smart ones do. You can lose a lot of ponies to this, enough to put you at the back of the pack.

 

[Denly]

I also drive a AWM 1.8T passat. My guess is either
-The shop fill the whole 5L(or Quarts) jar into it, normally need 4.5
or
-They used the smaller version of oil filter which is 1/2 the size of the suggested filter so more oil in the pan

AWM burn shit load of oil anyway, nothing to worry about.

 

[JCH13]

Yes, but they have windage trays, baffles in the pan and crank scrapers to stop oil from splashing around the crankcase. The smart ones do. You can lose a lot of ponies to this, enough to put you at the back of the pack.

In a spec series having 4-5% cylinder leakdown instead of 2-3% can cause the same thing (dropping several places in the pack). No one on the street would give a shit though.

More to the point - on the race track there is MUCH more opportunity for the oil to be sloshed around, what with all the serious cornering, accelerating, and braking. On the street oil sloshing just doesn't happen (save emergency situations) so it's not a concern.

If the crank was actually whipping through the oil in this situation OP would likely have detected issues already, likely including frothy oil on the dipstick.

 

[tortillasoup]

And don't listen to people who have no practical knowledge that there are cars out there with oil filters that mount sideways or even upside down on the top of the motor that can't be pre-filled with oil. Sucking air until the oil gets to the pump... Nearly unbelievable.

you absolutely can pre-fill an oil filter prior to installing it on a car even if the filter is installed upside down. Screw Can Oil filters have check valves to prevent the vast majority of the oil from leaking out, that's by design. The older design Oil filters where the filter and holder are separate pieces and you only recycle the actual paper filter itself, most of those are installed such that the filter is on the bottom of the engine, not on the side. Top and side mounted oil filters should be "can" type as they have check valves to prevent oil from leaking down into the engine.

 

[mike5757]

I also drive a AWM 1.8T passat. My guess is either
-The shop fill the whole 5L(or Quarts) jar into it, normally need 4.5
or
-They used the smaller version of oil filter which is 1/2 the size of the suggested filter so more oil in the pan

AWM burn shit load of oil anyway, nothing to worry about.

Mine actually just started burning oil around 105k miles. I'm at 106k now. Maybe this will be very convenient.

The first bit of information on oil overfill while I was researching it that mentioned a specific engine that was problematic mentioned the VW 4 cylinder. I'm not sure if they meant the 1.8T. It was back in 2001, so maybe they meant one of the older engines.

 

[tortillasoup]

make sure your PCV system has been serviced/cleaned etc. that will cause a car to begin burning oil.

 

[LTC8K6]

you absolutely can pre-fill an oil filter prior to installing it on a car even if the filter is installed upside down. Screw Can Oil filters have check valves to prevent the vast majority of the oil from leaking out, that's by design. The older design Oil filters where the filter and holder are separate pieces and you only recycle the actual paper filter itself, most of those are installed such that the filter is on the bottom of the engine, not on the side. Top and side mounted oil filters should be "can" type as they have check valves to prevent oil from leaking down into the engine.

I don't think the anti-drainback valve will help when changing the filter, since it only blocks one side of the flow path? Isn't oil still going to run out of the center hole?

 

[LTC8K6]

Many newer engines are using the paper only filter types. The Chrysler Pentastars being one example. Paper cartridge only, holder mounted on top of the engine.

BMW uses them as well, but I believe they bottom mount the holder.

 

[tortillasoup]

I don't think the anti-drainback valve will help when changing the filter, since it only blocks one side of the flow path? Isn't oil still going to run out of the center hole?

When you prime the oil filter, the paper media absorbs the oil, yes there will be a point where when you fill up the filter, if you flip it upside down oil will come out. So you can add oil just until it gets to that point. If you side mount the filter, you can add more oil than if you mount it upside down and obviously if you mount it on the bottom then you can fill to the top.

As for the paper cartridge in the pentastar engines,

This one is mounted on top of the engine but as you can see, you can not only prime the paper media with oil but you can fill up quite a bit of oil into this one before putting the cap on top of the oil filter. Also it's entirely possible that the design of where the oil is routed in this engine makes it so it's less critical if this oil filter isn't continually primed. Though knowing previous engineering fuckups up chrysler vehicles and other makes and models, nothing surprises me.

 

[LTC8K6]

I think that's just unnecessary, though.

I know people who would disconnect their ignition and crank the engine over for 10 seconds after changing the oil. This was supposed to prime the system and fill the oil filter.

People often seem to think they know better, I guess.

 

[tortillasoup]

I think that's just unnecessary, though.

I know people who would disconnect their ignition and crank the engine over for 10 seconds after changing the oil. This was supposed to prime the system and fill the oil filter.

People often seem to think they know better, I guess.

Some people are very fastidious with their vehicles, maybe I'm one of them. As for cranking the engine with no ignition, not entirely a great idea as you're injecting fuel into the engine w/o spark, so polluting the oil... now removing the fuse to the ECU, that's a different story. Also I'd think priming the engine prior to use after a long period of time of non use is a good idea, no?