Minor Oil Overfill - Longterm after effects?

[edwardw]

Hello everybody - thanks for all the help on my last post! Now I have only owned my Octy a short period. I bought it from a dealer who serviced it before sale. As soon after I bought it I drove over 100 miles home and parked on my steep steep drive - checked the oil and it was ever so slightly over the max. I thought nothing of it as it was on a reasonable gradient (doh - I know..). Now I immediately  then had to travel on holiday, take my fiancée to Uni and back 2x to move in etc. etc. Anyhow - to cut a long story short I drove about 2000 miles in the space of the next month. At this point I found it wise to check the oil (in my previous car used to check it weekly as it drank a pint a day getting me to work and back) and it was still over the max mark. This made my bum flap a little bit  - I had it drained out and the garage who drained it reckon it was maybe 250ml over the max or if I'm super unlucky a little bit more than that - possibly even 500ml. (Drained it into an already full container so couldn't tell exactly). Now my car has no oil usage whatsoever - I've done 1000 miles since draining and used no oil and I drive in a rather spirited fashion for the most part. I've been told if it was to do major damage then I would know by now... however it has made me unsure about my plans to remap the car. It only has 68k on the clock and I would love to get a Shark map but I don't want to end up with blown oil seals everywhere etc. or even problems with the crankshaft and so forth. Anybody have any ideas? Should I leave the map or will it be alright to go for the Shark Stage 1? Sorry for the essay - feel free to drop a mark out of 12. 

[Rooted]

So you have the correct quantity in now, and the correct oil.

The gamble is yours, let sleeping dogs lay, or take the gamble, spend money and risk spending more.

 

Best leave it a few thousand more miles and see how you get on, and remember, check oil at operating temperature and on the flat.

& if draining oil, be sure to use an empty container or ask those doing it to & see just how much does come out.

[edwardw]

Yeah all correct now - I think I'll leave it standard! As you say let sleeping dogs lay... I imagine it can't have done any damage assuming there is a reasonable clearance between the oil sump and crankshaft 500ml shouldn't have raised it too much. I had low crankcase pressure actually at the same time as I had oil leaking from the oil filler cap - which I guess could have been my saving grace. If it's leaking from there I can't imagine it would have built up enough pressure anywhere else to cause my oil seals any problems. 

[KenONeill]

@edwardw - I was always taught to check oi level on flat ground, engine cold, and preferably after the car has been left overnight, so that the oil has drained back from the return galleries into the sump.

 

The biggest issue with over-filling is actually when/if you reach the point where the big ends are whipping air into the oil in the sump, so you get airiated oil being fed to the pump, and hence to the bearings (and a loss of power but the loss of lubricity is more of an issue).

 

As to draining oil, my preferred method is to fit a new oil filter, which removes about half a litre of oil in a controlled manner, and fitting a new oil filter is rarely to never a bad thing.

[edwardw]

If I’ve been driving I leave it 10-20 minutes before checking but I normally check before leaving so it’s been left overnight to drain back into the sump. Do you know if there is much clearance from the sump to the crank? I can’t imagine a couple mm being enough to collide with the crank and cause foaming?

[STSKODA]

I really wouldn't worry about it

 

just drive and keep an eye on levels and for leaks, it's not like you can do anything more than that about it now...

[KenONeill]

@edwardw - I don't positively know how much over-fill it takes before crank whipping can occur, but my experience is that both limits on the dipstick of a production car are conservative. Post #4 para 2 is there to explain why extreme overfilling is a bad idea. I'd be surprised if 500ml over max was enough for crank whipping to occur.

 

At 68k miles, a good VAG engine will use more oil being dipped every week than it will burn at ~1_000 miles per month.

[edwardw]

Thank you for all your help everybody! I'm going to stick with it as standard - I love it to bits how it is anyway. Again thanks for all being so helpful 

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

3 hours ago, edwardw said:

Thank you for all your help everybody! I'm going to stick with it as standard - I love it to bits how it is anyway. Again thanks for all being so helpful 

 

Hello matey, and welcome to the forums, and Octy ownership. I hope you get many years of satisfaction from the car, and from posting on here!

 

Ok, I hope I can help put your mind at rest and stop you worrying - but 250 to 500ml of oil overfill will NOT have made a jot's worth of difference to the engine or ancillaries - let alone caused any damage. To cause serious issues you'd have to go bananas and overfill by litres, not parts of litres. I know it says not to overfill or serious damage will occur but trust me, that's fine.

 

I might qualify myself by saying that I've had many years of building engines - mostly for the racetrack - so I know mainly what does and doesn't cause engine damage. And as has been said by a previous poster, the dipstick markings are pretty 'safe' - mainly to cater for dumbasses haha! (I didn't mean you obviously )

 

The things that DO cause engine damage with regard to oil is using cheap / poor quality oil, not changing it frequently enough, letting it run really low, and not letting it warm up properly before using high loads and revs. Don't foget that the coolant temperature gauge comes up to temperature far more quickly than the oil does - it takes a good 15 minutes of running to get it up to over 90 degrees, which is where it is working properly in the engine. It's not all about revs either - high loads actually cause more damage on a cold engine - so after starting up, drive the car but only tickle the accelerator pedal. It's ok to use revs - but avoid pushing the pedal down hard, especially at low RPM.

 

Use a really good quality synthetic oil - again, we've tested lots, and only use Mobil 1 in our car engines, and Fuchs Silkolene in our bike engines. This is after stripping down many race engines and seeing for ourselves how different oils perform at preventing damage and promoting efficiency. The guys at Silkolene know their stuff, we've had many chats with them over the years and it pays us to learn about how oils work, and what is good and bad for engines.

 

I also subscribe to the quality of genuine part oil filters too. We've tried many aftermarket filters on engines over the years, including things like K&N 'highflow' filters, and we concluded many years ago that you can't go wrong with an OE filter in a genuine part box for reliability.

 

Is yours a turbocharged engine? if it is, then one final tip is to warm up properly as above, but also cool down properly too at the end of a run. When you stop, allow the engine to idle for a few minutes before turning off. This is because the turbo is very hot and still spinning at a high rate, and only gets an oil feed when the engine is running. So you need to let it spool down, and the shaft and shaft bearings cool off properly.

 

Lastly - stop ****ing about and get the thing remapped asap! Your engine is fine, and will also cope with a stage 1 reliably for many years to come. For example, I bought my Mk. 1 VRS with 70k on the clock, remapped it with REVO software, and when I sold it recently it had 160k on the clock. The engine was still going perfectly, using no oil between oil changes, and showing no signs of trouble. I just recommend fitting one grade colder spark plugs. But the remap really does transform the car, and actually gave me better fuel economy to boot.

 

Enjoy, and let us know how you get on!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[edwardw]

You sir are absolutely bloody brilliant. Thank you for your help and that has massively put my mind at rest - and dumbass isn’t far off!

 

I have actually just saved your list of tips onto my notes too. What a gent - I’m a bit of a worrier when it comes to car problems (I have a habit of buying lemons - regardless of how many checks and independent examinations I get done on the car first   ) so this has absolutely put my mind at ease. Thank you! And I’ll update if I do/don’t go ahead with anything! 

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

12 minutes ago, edwardw said:

You sir are absolutely bloody brilliant. Thank you for your help and that has massively put my mind at rest - and dumbass isn’t far off!

 

I have actually just saved your list of tips onto my notes too. What a gent - I’m a bit of a worrier when it comes to car problems (I have a habit of buying lemons - regardless of how many checks and independent examinations I get done on the car first   ) so this has absolutely put my mind at ease. Thank you! And I’ll update if I do/don’t go ahead with anything! 

 

You're more than welcome my friend. That's what these forums are for, aren't they? We all help each other! I am far from some kind of expert guru - but I do try and pass on my own findings and experiences with things if it helps others. But we must all make our own decisions too. That said, we're fortunate that the internet gives us the ability to find out so many things now and seek advice, right?

 

Be good to hear how you get on. And a picture or two of your car wouldn't go amiss either! Come on, show us yours haha!

 

[bspman]

Awesome response @Ray Luxury-Yacht .

 

Now I'm considering switching from Castrol to Mobile1 at the next major fill too. 

 

[edwardw]

Only got the one decent photo unfortunately. These forums are life savers although sometimes it can be a bit like when you google your cold and come to the conclusion you have a brain tumour! Thankfully you come across a mind easing post like this every so often... I've always been a Castrol edge man but perhaps it might be time to make the swap.