Looks like I may have a (hopefully slightly) overfill situation on my '13 Civic Si (K24z7 engine). I can't find documentation on the dipstick readings, but if the L/H marks represent 1 qt, it looks like it's about half a qt full. I imagine that's immaterial and there's tolerence built into the specifications, but I may be wrong. Thoughts on if I should bother doing anything?
Overfilled oil...problem?
- Thread starter climhazzard
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It will be fine
If you added the amount listed in the owners manual, there is no problem at all
If you added the amount listed in the owners manual, there is no problem at all
Patman
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Shouldn't be a problem at all, I have often run my Civic with an extra half quart of oil. (I know it's not the exact same engine but it could be similar in it's oil pan design)
Thanks guys. I'm starting to wonder if the H/L really is a full quart, or less. My friend helped me with the oil change and knows what he's doing (professional tech). The only thing I can think of is he put in 4.5qt (calls for 4.4, but I always do 4.5) and we didn't let enough drain out. Highly unlikely we put a full half qt too much in there, but who knows. It was 1200 miles ago and I hadn't really given it much thought till now.
If that much overflow caused problems, engines would be blowing up right and left. Leave it in without worry. Something I wouldn't have believed twenty years ago.
Worst case scenario is the crank hitting the oil in the pan, increasing windage and power loss. That's not damaging though.
An amusing story about overfilling. Years ago, my neighbor asked me if I would look into why her car wouldn't start. She said she added oil to it and now it won't crank over. Puzzled, I pulled the dipstick and oil came gushing out of the tube. I hastily shoved the dipstick back in. I removed the oil cap and oil was full up to the cap. She told me she opened the cap and didn't see any oil in there, so she kept adding oil until it was "full." She completely hydrolocked the engine in oil. I must've drained at least 10 quarts out of that engine. I put new plugs in it, and after some reluctance it fired up. It smoked up the neighborhood for a few minutes and idled awful but eventually cleared up. I then had a talk with her about how to properly check her oil. It runs fine now over 100k miles later.
An amusing story about overfilling. Years ago, my neighbor asked me if I would look into why her car wouldn't start. She said she added oil to it and now it won't crank over. Puzzled, I pulled the dipstick and oil came gushing out of the tube. I hastily shoved the dipstick back in. I removed the oil cap and oil was full up to the cap. She told me she opened the cap and didn't see any oil in there, so she kept adding oil until it was "full." She completely hydrolocked the engine in oil. I must've drained at least 10 quarts out of that engine. I put new plugs in it, and after some reluctance it fired up. It smoked up the neighborhood for a few minutes and idled awful but eventually cleared up. I then had a talk with her about how to properly check her oil. It runs fine now over 100k miles later.
To add to 69Torino's reply... my '07 Accord is pretty fussy about being on level ground to get an accurate oil dipstick reading. The reading can be off by close to 1/2 litre (or quart), while my '05 Buick's reading is only off by 1/10 litre while parked right beside the Honda on the same slightly inclined driveway.
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Yep I checked both at home and the gas station - reading is consistent.
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