Oh-oh: too much oil?
 

I had a local shop (not dealer) change the oil and filter. He might have overfilled it.

He was very conscientious and filled it with only 8 litres to begin with; saying that the preferred to do that, start the engine, let the oil filter fill up and then measure and top up. After I started it up after 8 litres the electronic gauge was only 2 bars above the minimum line.

So he added more, this time relying solely on the dipstick. He kept filling and measuring and he went past 9 litres. It was nicely topped up to the top of the dipstick measurement (he showed me because I was watching nearby).

This morning with the engine cold, the electronic gauge showed 1 bar OVER the MAX fill line. And the dipstick showed almost the whole red plastic thing covered in oil.

Am I in trouble now? Should I get him to drain out 1/2 a litre?

MNBoxster, whose opinion on this forum I trust, has said that my catalytic converter could be at risk.

The only thing I could think of that went awry was that he was filling and then measuring quite quickly, thus not letting the oil drain all the way into the pan.

Any advice would be welcome.

Trust the stick not the digital gauge. Let the car sit overnight and check the oil. If the oil is right on the stick then forget the gauge. A mechanical measurement is much more accurate than what the digital gauge will give you.

Also when you fill the car it always reads low on the digital gauge because the oil doens't seep to the pan very quickly so it's gonna look like it's low regardless.

I drain my car for about an hour and fill it with 9 litre's of oil. The book says 8.25 but the fill line on the stick took the full 9 so I went with that. My digital gauge shows right at the max line but not over. If he filled over 9 litre max you might wanna take a bit out. Unless you seriously overfilled the car say by 10% or so you shouldn't run into problems with smoking out the cats.

As usual, I agree with Jim. Stick with the stick!

Is there an easy way to drain out 1/2 a liter?

By my calculations, he used 2 x 4.4 litre jugs and 3/4 of a liter bottle = 9.5 liters.

When I said that with the engine cold, the oil level "covered the ENTIRE red plastic blob on the dipstick", it should be mentioned that the Max fill line on the red plastic blob is somewhat LESS than the whole length of the blob. So it is definitely overfilled.

The oil was drained during a brake job so it was completely drained (1 hour of draining on a hoist). So I'm figuring it's borderline overfilled.

I wonder if Porsche designed some idiot-proofing into the dipstick level. That is, I pretty sure it's 0.5 litres over. But if this is within an acceptable tolerance, I'll leave it. If not, I'll have to get it out somehow. Anyone know?

Hi,

I once overfilled mine and rather than open the Drain Plug which is difficult at best to control, I used a MityVac with a Catch Jar and Surgical Tubing inserted in the Dipstick Tube. Took a little time, but was neat and clean and very easy. Hope this helps...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

If this was done within a matter of minutes, it's time for a new mechanic. Any mechanic should know better than to start the engine and then check it immediately. If he had waited 20-30 minutes, he would have known it was fine or not very low at all.

Yes, the mityvac is the deal.

Agreed. The mechanic was either a newbie or incompetent. After the engine is started a good deal of oil is not in the sump but on the internals of the engine. Certainly more than enough to influence the reading. Always, always, check the engine when it is cold if you want an accurate reading.