Hi everyone, today I do visit a local garage by changing the engine oil, I bought a total of 5.4 liter of Mobil 1 5W30 oil (a tank of 4.4L and another 1L just in case). When the technician (young and new guy) filled up the engine oil, he thought the bottle of 4.4L engine oil is 4L.... Then he ends up put all 5.4L engine oil into my engine(which he thought the total is 5L)... I tell him that my Mini manual only recommand 4.5L maximum of engine oil, but he said it should be fine...

May I ask if it will be ok? Or should I take another visit tomorrow by take off some engine oil?

Thanks for any information.

 

Not sure about the MINI engine but in general I've always read too much engine oil is worse than being a little short. If the oil level reaches the crankshaft it will turn into the equivalent of whipped cream and engine damage will surely result. Maybe you can thread a clean plastic tube down the dipstick tube and syphon out the excess. I think I would try that before driving any further.

 

Yeah, I definitely recommend getting that extra oil out before driving anywhere...especially at high rpm's. You can try one of those syphon things down the dipstick (should work) or maybe even unbolting the oil drain for a couple seconds. Just make sure you do something. Driving around with 1 qt over is not good.

 

Thanks for all the information, much appreciate, but at the same time, I feel very sad about it.

Do you think if I can buy something to drain the engine oil back from the engine? Do you think if I can drain the engine oil from where you put the engine oil into?

Sigh... I am so worry, since I did push my car hard while I drove back home. :impatient

 

I don't believe that .5 liter overfilled will hurt anything. One way to check is to pull the dipstick after driving & inspect the oil. Is it foamy with bubbles in it? If not you are OK. If it does then drain a bit out. As long as the crankshaft isn't whipping the oil up & caveatting it you are OK.

 

you should check the dip stick to see where the level is. it needs to be in the hatch area. if it is way above it, then yeah some should be drained out (through the drain plug) and fixed to the correct level. i normally add 5 qts for an average oil change. i run 5 1/4 to 5 1/2 in my car due to track days. basically i run it high on the hatch marks. good luck.

Chad
Detroit Tuned

 

It is SO easy to remove the oil drain plug, 13 mm head on the plug, make sure you have a clean pan, and if you take too much out just add it back in. Check for correct level on the dipstick.

 

Chad, do you do that so you don't expose the oil pickup to air under high lateral G conditions? Way back when, I had to do that with my race car to keep from seeing the oil light flash.

 

yeah. to make sure your always pumping oil and not air. several conditions can make this happen, hard cornering or high speed long straight aways. you can actually pump the oil fast enough, so that it is all in the top of the engine, before it can reach back to the bottom of the pan.

 

I can see where a windage tray can help with the G loadings sloshing the oil about, but pumping all the oil into the top end seems hard to control. Guess that's why dry sump systems are so good. Takes care of both problems at once.

 

Thanks so much for all the information! Much much appreciate. I just check the oil level (after stop the car 3 hours ago), I can see the whole dipstick is all wet... I try to clean the dipstick, but it still looks oily... I do not see any bubble though, does it mean "ok"? Because after all, I am planning to drive back to that garage and have them to fix it (16KM from my home). Hope it will be fine.

 

Fresh oil is very hard to see on the MCS dipstick. I recommend squeezing the dipstick with a rag and then comparing the oil mark on the rag to the dipstick to get a good idea of how high up it is. Running a 1/2 qt over is probably ok but you said he put in 5.4 qts. That's almost a full quart over.

 

But also remember, the MINI only holds about 12 gallons of fuel and i have filled the car with well over 14 gallons before... so even tho it says 4.8 qts, i add a full 5 qts or more with all the oil changes i do to bring the level into the hatch mark range. a lot of it depends on when and how your drain the oil out. hot oil will drain better, and if you let it drip for a while it will need more oil also. if you let the oil drip for an hour, after draining it while hot, it could see putting close to 6 qts into it. you really need to know how to read the dip stick. read the owners manual.

 

Thanks again, but the problem is, the tech did put in 5.4L of engine oil, which is equal to 5.6~5.7 quarts of oil if I calculate well... I will try the methods that you all mentioned, will let you know how it goes, you all are very helpful!

 

Anything over is going to hurt because it makes the engine work harder and puts added stress on everything