over filling oil

R

rbrignell

Member
ooops!
Dashboard oil indicator came on today, so bought 2 litres of 5w-40 synthetic.
Dip stick shows no oil, so put in 1 litre, still no oil on stick, so another 1/2.
Then oil above the upper mark!! in fact very unclear on dip-stick but looks well above! does this matter too much?
 
rbrignell said:
ooops!
Dip stick shows no oil, so put in 1 litre, still no oil on stick, so another 1/2.
Then oil above the upper mark!! in fact very unclear on dip-stick but looks well above! does this matter too much?
Click to expand...

If possible, leave the car on level ground overnight then dip the oil and clean the dipstick several times until you get consistant readings. I can't find anything official but would guess 1/2 litre overfull would be ok. Anything more and there is a risk of the oil foaming as the crankshaft dips into the oil. This reduces oilflow to the bearings and is definitely bad news, specially if the car is driven hard or for extended periods.

If there is too much oil in the sump its a case of finding a garage with syphoning equipment which can extract oil from the dipstick hole or dropping the undertray and drainging oil from the sump plug (very messy)

Cheers Spike
 
ok, thanks Spike.
Actually, I've only put in 1L, but its now reading well over.
Bit confused why the low oil display appeared and just to add to my confusion, dip-stick is tricky to read. That long plastic stick does'nt strike me with confidence! You get the fealing its not fed into engine properly.

Rob
 
I've got the car back from two services with too much oil. I'm getting really annoyed but that's another story...here some info reading regarding draining oil:

http://www.a2oc.net/forum/showthread.php?t=11440

PS. When checking the oil level I rotate the dip stick a couple of turns when fully inserted before I pull it up to check the level.
 
Oil check

Hallo everyone.
I 've had the A2 for few weeks now. Yesterday the oil indicator flashed: "oil min." so I bought SAE 0W-30 as from the instruction manual (which should correspond to the 503 00/503 01. It was difficult for me to read the dip stick so I decided to add about 0.5l and checked the oil. I couldn't see any change so I added about 100-200ml extra. I am now concerned whether I had put too much oil because of the severe consequences. Will anyone please advise on this? And please anyone explain how to read the dip stick properly.
Regards
 
Most other cars I have owned recommend checking the the oil level when the engine is warm. This is so that a consistent reading can be taken regardless of whether you live in Finland or Spain.

When the oil is warm it will have expanded by approximately 5%. So if you checked the level when it was cold and saw it was low, then filled up, on a warm engine it could well then read as being over filled.

Just a thought...
 
"Most other cars I have owned recommend checking the the oil level when the engine is warm. "

Hmmm, that doesn't sound right. The engine is full of pipeworks that tend to "keep" oil in them during engine operation and cause a wrong oil level reading when engine is hot or running. That's why you have to leave your car for a few hours after driving it so that they drain and settle, and only after that read the level, with the car on a plane place.
All the cars i've own and serviced require cold engine oil level checks.
 
Sorry, I meant to clarify, hot but not a running engine. Leave it to stand after running for 5 minutes and the oil will drain back in to the sump.

If you check the engine when cold, then every country's definition of cold will be different. Finland -15, Spain 20 celsius. With a 5% variation in the oil volume that can mean the difference between minimum and maximum on some small capacity engines.

Every car is different I appreciate, but from my last 2 Mercedes I have owned, both stated that the engine oil needs to be warm.

EDIT: just checked the UK Audi A2 handbook. Page 248: 'After stopping the engine, wait a few minutes for the oil to drain back into the sump'
 
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Well, you learn a new thing every day.:)
Unfortunately, my owners manual and related paperwork is written in german, so i can only look at it and stare at the beautiful pictures.:rolleyes:
 
Although it slightly contradicts Will's comments, this is my experience on checking oil levels.
Leaving the car to stand overnight on a level surface gives the best chance of getting an accurate dipstick reading.
Its true the oil will expand when hot but the sump only holds approx 4 Litres so 5% expansion of this volume equates to 0.2L.
If the engine has been run then briefly stopped, approx half of this will still be held up in the cyl head and oil galleries as it has not had time to fully drain back.
So we have an extra 0.1L in the sump - and this small volume spread over the surface area of the oil pan would equate to less than 2mm.
If you can get a clear reading when the oil is warm thats fine but I find I get the most consistent readings after the overnight stop, even allowing for that couple of mm difference between hot and cold oil.

Cheers Spike
 
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