My Alfa is a diesel; I had it serviced a few months back at a well known Alfa specialist, and the car came back showing “max” oil the dashboard oil indicator. Fine I thought. Today, I noticed the oil indicator wasn’t ast max, so decided to top off the oil a bit. 250mls went in, no real change on the dipstick or dash indicator, so a bit more went in, and then a bit more, to a total of 1 liter. Then I got hold of a owners handbook which says it shouldn’t even be at “max”… Went back to check the car, and the indicator indicates max, and the dipstick is about 8mm past max level…
In a petrol car, wouldn’t really worry about this, but I hear in diesels this can be more of a problem. Should I worry about it, and get the excess sucked out? Or not worry about it. Can’t say when the specialist serviced the car, how much he filled it to.
Isn’t the problem that you might knacker the cat? I’ve got a Pela 6000 pump that’ll fit down the dipstick which is a cracking bit of kit. If you were nearby you’d be welcome to borrow it?
You should get this sorted out ASAP. Overfilling can cause all sorts of problems. Until you have drained some oil, I would drive the car trying to keep the revs to a minimum. Most quick change tyre companies have a pump that will fit down the dipstick like the one mentioned above and I am sure that they will (for a small fee) drain some out for you.
Sorry to be the profit of doom BUT drain the oil out ASAP, as diesel engines have been known to suck the engine oil into the combustion chamber and use the engine oil as a fuel and YOU wont be able to turn it off the engine races away past the red max indicator and in the process usually blows the engine up thats how you stop it. So drain the oil and the level, which I think should be half way between min and max on the dipstick.
I had this happen to me on a Type 25 VW camper with a 1.6TD engine in it. Started it one day, vast clouds of white smoke pouring out of the exhaust straight into the old people’s home across the road, engine racing to redline. I turned the ignition off: no change, engine still racing and smoke pouring out. I had a few seconds of “what the fuuu…?” before I had the presence of mind to pull the clutch, stick it in top gear, and dump the clutch to stall it. Could have been very nasty if it’d grenaded. In my case it was oil leaking past the turbo that did it.
The pump mentioned above is what I’ve got - mine’s a Pela 6000 which cost about 35 quid. Allows you to poke springloaded tube down the dipstick and suck out oil by vacuum. Works great.
Well, having chatted to a mechanic about this, he suggested because the sump has a 4.5 liter capacity, I’ve probably only overfilled by half a liter or so. He doesn’t think this will create an immediate problem, but an early oil service is on the cards. The running-off-engine-oil scenario typically happens when you grossly overfill the engine, and if the crankcase breather is blocked.
Running off the lubrication is only likely when as you say it’s either been hugely overfilled, the rings are so shot that it can draw oil up past the piston or the head gasket has gone and allows oil to pass from the oil passages between head and block and into the cylinders.
However… there are other risks with overfilling and these are becoming worse on modern engines where tolerances/clearances are tighter.
If the level has come up enough you can find the crank dipping into the surface of the oil and turning it into froth. Oil pumps are not good at sucking froth and the bearings suffer as they don’t get oil - by the time the oil pressure warning light comes on it’s too late. If it doesn’t get to this extent you often get increased smoke as the bores get splashed with more oil than the rings can cope with and some of it does end up in the cylinder (by-bye catalyst). You also get increased crank pressure as the contents of the lubrication system aren’t as compressible as before (more oil and less air) this tends to promote leaks from whichever seal or gasket is weakest - it’s usually the “rear” crankshaft oil and results in oil getting onto th clutch too.
I’m failing to see how it’s not worth spending the 10 minutes to drain some oil off from the drain plug? even if it’s just for peace of mind.
This is usually prevented with a windage tray beneath the crankshaft. Any froth remains on the top side of the tray and the oil pump pickup pipe is below the bottom side of the tray.
Isn’t the easyest cure to locate the sump drain plug, undo whilst the engine is cold (you will get VERY warm fingers if the engine has been running - been there, do it all the time) and drain out a decent amount of oil. Then add oil at a sensible rate and check via the dipstick until the right level is reached. Do not re-use the oil you take out, use new. No need for any fancy pump contraption.
Actually, it was rather easier just to pop along to my local National Tyres for a 30 quid oil change. No sense getting mucky with tools and whatnot. This is not a car I’m bothered about investing much time in.