Did I put too much oil in my car? (2014, valve, engine)

[ncole1]

2014 Ford Fiesta, 50k miles on odo.

I saw the oil level appear to be almost 1/2 quart below "full" or so I thought, so I put about 3/4 of a quart in. I figured a little overfill wouldn't hurt anything. Checked it again and noticed the dipstick level is a bit uneven...the oil on the bottom of the stick is about 1mm thick and a thin layer extends further up the dipstick on one side. Am I reading it wrong? The main part at the bottom appears about 1/2 quart too much and there's some oil going further up. Am I at risk for engine damage? I checked this morning after driving about 1-1.5 miles and then shutting the engine off and looking. I saw two small froth bubbles on the dipstick but no "real" foam.

Do I need to drain oil out to avoid ruining my engine?

[BostonMike7]

I'd probably pull the filter, drain it, and then reinstall it. That might take out 1/4 of a quart depending on how big the filter is. This is the method I use if I don't want to just drain all the oil and refill..such as with synthetic oil that I just put in.


I'd let the car sit an hour or so and then check the level. Pull the dipstick, clean it, and insert it halfway down so it doesn't go into the oil. Hour later, come back, wipe (to to ensure it's clean), then insert and read. If it seems high, drain the filter and then repeat after starting the engine and letting it sit.


As to if the amount of oil is too much...really depends on the arcitechture of the engine. Some position the crank very high,and an extra 1/2 quart is no big deal, others have it fairly low and just a bit over will have the crank slapping the oil level. I don't know enough about that particular engine to venture a guess

[mclasser]

If you added .75 qts to a .5 qt low engine, you have a .25 qt overfill, which, IMO, is no biggie. Dealerships usually overfill by that much anyway as a safety margin.

Make sure you're checking on level ground. Some dipstick designs suck so you need to check both sides and do multiple pulls for an accurate reading

[Coldjensens]

DID you check the oil with the car running? If so, that woudl explain the dipstick condition. Turn it off on level ground let it cool and check it several times. An LED Flashlight can help to see where ti really is if the oil is very clean. Wipe the dipstick off before checking it. Don't just pull it out and look at it.

If you still cannot be certain, lay a piece of paper towel on the ground, pull the dipstick and lay it on the paper towel and lift it immediately back off, Then lay the dipstick next to the splotch. It will be a little off from wicking, but not much.

I have seen some cars massively overfilled, the worst thing that ever happened was some oil spewed out the filler tube of the PCV valve or elsewhere and got on the engine and burned up making a big stink and a risk of fire (but no fire happened).

I prefer to just loosen the oil drain plug and let a little run out into a catch pan than to take the filter off. I would never re-install a filter once the seal has been made and then broken, unless it was on the engine only a very short time. It is too easy to get a bad seal at the filter, and for $13 or so dollars (whatever a filter costs these days) it is not worth risking your engine.

[Ollie4]

Check the oil with the engine off, level surface, preferrably first thing in the morning... when it's all in the pan... and not all over the inside of the engine, including up in the head..