Possibly over filled my engine oil.......

[robbosliding]

I wheeled my pride and joy out yesterday and found a stain of oil on the floor in my garage.....around where the RMS would leak.....set me thinking.

I topped the oil up approx 10 days ago and have hardly used the car. I checked the oil level prior to topping it up on the instrument panel and dip stick and filled it with 500cl to account for the two bar drop on the level check.

I have rechecked the oil level today (having heated the engine up to around 80 degrees as I always do) and the digital display is showing one bar above full so I am guessing I over filled it slightly.

My question is this; Is there a over fill pipe on the car which is leaking out oil to prevent damage (it is very clean oil that has leaked out) or have I produced an over pressure to push it out through a seal.......embarrasing either way.

Hopefully someone is going to tell me there is an over flow pipe and to be more careful next time.......

 

[Richard_Hamilton]

AFAIK there isn't any overflow pipe. If the oil on the floor is clean, could it be spillage? The filler tubes can split, but that often causes a rough idle or elevated idle speed.

 

[robbosliding]

I certainly didn't spill any when I was topping up the oil. The initial pool of oil was abot six inches in radius so it was a fair amount of oil, that was a static car for 10 days. The day after the pool was a 2 inch radius, very clean oil. I measured the oil properly and found it to be one bar over the recommended limit and showing just fractionally over on the dip stick.
I think the error I made was not warming the car up sufficiently to get an accurate oil reading. I took the car out yesterday and took it for 100 miles drive. The oil pressure gauge didn't go over 5 when being pushed though I took it steady in the main. I checked the oil when I returned and found the level had dropped to inside the top bar (potentially 250 ml as each one indicates) and this morning there is no oil on the garage floor.
Is there no overflow or breather pipe at all on the engine?
Failing that I will have to get the RMS and other seals checked but a drive an da burn of some oil seems to have done the job.....

 

[Richard_Hamilton]

You really need to check the level under exactly the same conditions to get a representative comparison. Best bet is to check it first thing in the morning after the oil has drained fully back into the sump. I would not consider one bar over the maximum mark to be a significant overfill, or anything to worry about.

There is no breather or overflow pipe - it is a closed system. Hence, a split in the filler tube, broken filler cap seal, or ruptured air/oil separator, etc, will draw air into the system and increase the tickover or cause rough running which I mentioned before.

Personally, I would just keep an eye on it, and take regular measurements - but use the overnight readings to assess consumption, and intermediate readings to check that it is safe. I would also get someone to get it up in the air and check that there isn't something obviously wrong. If it is an RMS or IMS seal, it should be evident to the trained eye.

 

[robbosliding]

Thanks for that Richard, I would hope it is not the RMS as it was done on the car 3000 miles ago so should be fine. There is no rough running or increase in the idle so hopefully it is nothing to worry about. I will keep an eye on it over the next few days before I start poking around underneath and rattling the warranty tin......thanks for your input