I changed my oil and filter this morning. I started the car and let it idle for 5 min, and then put it back in the garage.

5 hours later, I checked the oil level in my car. I am 3mm over the High Mark.

So folks... how bad is this? Should i redo my oil change? Anyone know a good technique for extracting a very small amount of oil (~150ml). Is 3mm over not that big of a deal?

Its an 05/MT Coupe. If I drove it for 250 miles, I'd burn the 3mm off no problem.

 

How much oil did you put in? The dip stick in our cars suck. It's hard to get an accurate reading of the oil level.

 

5 1/2 quarts.

I've put 5 1/2 in every oil change before this one, and never been over. I guess I failed to fully drain my oil this time.

I'm confident about the reading i'm getting from the dipstick, its over. I've got an oil consuming engine, so I check it alot!

 

Well, our motors only hold 5 quarts. Anything else is over.

 

^^ Yup, 5 qts exactly with filter change. If it were me, I'd take 10 mins and drain 1/2 qt.

 

over filling oil can reduce power at best case, and blow a gasket at worst case. just unsrew the drain bolt and let out the excess.

 

^ Yea, too much oil is never a good thing.

 

I tried to unscrew the drain bolt to allow the excess to drain off - no such luck. I was getting too close to the end of the drain bolt threads and no oil was draining out.

I'm afraid of the mess involved with pulling the drain bolt out all-the-way and trying to get it back in there w/ oil flowing out. And... I only need to remove a very small amount.

 

i always thought with a new filter it was a little more than 5qt?

 

Nope, 5qt with the filter, less if you don't change the filter (I think around 4.5 qts).

 

5 quarts w/ filter leaves me in the middle of L & H marks on the dipstick.

The space between L & H marks (24mm) represents 1 quart of oil. Thus, 5 1/2 quarts will leave you on the H mark. It has for me on all my previous oil fills.

If you have any OC'ing engine, this means more time before adding oil.

Except for today...

 

I go by the owner's manual, which specifies that quarts should be put in when the filter is changed. I've never been able to get a reading off the dipstick that I'm comfortable trusting.

 

Ok - I fixed it. For anyone that makes the same mistake, here is how I drained a small amount of oil.

On some cars, partially unscrewing the drain plug will allow some oil to drip out. If that is the case w/ your ride... do that and catch whatever comes out. No cleanup required.

For my car, partially unscrewing the drain plug didnt allow any oil to drain. So I full unscrewed the drain plug, but held it in place with my right hand. I basically 'throttled' the flow of oil from the pan by slightly pulling the drain plug out of the hole. To catch the oil, I held a cup in the left hand, with the mouth of the cup under my right hand. The oil flowed down my right hand (holding the plug) and into the cup. My hands got a little oily, but no big deal.

For what its worth, I'll be filling up w/ 5 quarts in the future. I'd rather no do this again.

 

I highly doubt ~150ml of extra oil will have any negative effects. A little extra is better than being low.

 

The easy way would be to loosen the oil filter... Just crack the seal and oil starts coming out - then it's real easy to stop it too.