D’oh.....!!!

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Old 11-17-2018, 09:31 PM
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D’oh.....!!!

So, since I have owned our ‘08 Taurus I have always added 6.5 quarts of 5W-20 at my 3000 mile oil changes. Glancing through the owner’s manual this evening, I noticed that the fill capacity is actually 5.5 quarts.....

I haven’t noticed any performances issues because of the over-fill, but anyone have thoughts about possible repercussions? I’ve been running it this way for 2-3 years.....
 
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Old 11-17-2018, 11:54 PM
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Hmm - you never checked the oil level after the change?

Overfills can be tough on seals, and also if the crank gets down into the oil it could whip it up and make foam.
 
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Old 11-18-2018, 09:49 AM
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Originally Posted by glc
Hmm - you never checked the oil level after the change?

Overfills can be tough on seals, and also if the crank gets down into the oil it could whip it up and make foam.
I‘m still trying to figure out how I made such a bonehead move to begin with.....

The car only has 24,000 miles on it, so to be honest I don’t think I’ve ever checked the oil level between changes since there are no leaks and no reason to think it would be burning any oil with that low of mileage - especially with an aggressive 3000-mile change interval. I guess if it was going to cause problems it would have shown up by now - just aggravating since I am so diligent about maintaining my vehicles and then do something stupid like this.....
 

Last edited by ddellwo; 11-18-2018 at 09:52 AM.
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Old 11-18-2018, 11:50 AM
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It's hard to say.

The major problem with running too much oil isn't as much as the foaming issue, but as the excess oil burns, it has to be processed through the cat converters. Gas cat converters are not designed to be cleaning up oil and they will get clogged. Similar if your engine is running rich.

Each engine is different too in terms of tolerances and a slew of other parameters, such as well working PCV as to how much oil will be getting out.

At this point, you can't "undo" your mistake. Might as well live with it.
 
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Old 11-18-2018, 02:56 PM
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If 2 or 3 yrs with no problems I'd say you lucked out!!!
 




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