I did an oil change. Thought the car took 4.4 quarts but it only takes 3.7 quarts. I poured in slightly under 4 quarts. The engine is a 1.5 in-line turbo (Honda Civic Si). It’s reading past the fill line slightly. How bad is it? Do I need to pour some out? What am I risking? What symptoms should I be looking for?
When it’s still somewhat reasonable “too much”, as opposed to flooding the entire engine block with oil, the worst case scenario is that the piston rings get damaged, resulting in small amounts of oil making its way into the combustion chamber and gets burned off. Long term effects of this is that the engine consumes a little bit of oil.
In your case, I think you’ll be fine. It’s so little over, that I wouldn’t worry about it. You might see the engine burn off some oil and eventually stabilize on a more healthy level. Check the dip stick or whatever it’s called in English regularly, and see if it decreases (slowly) to the correct level.
Not decreasing: It’s fine
Decreasing and stabilizing: Best case scenario
Decreasing and doesn’t stabilize (not likely): Damaged piston rings. Slightly reduced engine performance, and your car has an mpg for oil now. Otherwise it’s fine. It’s worth noting that damaged piston rings is common in old cars, and it may have been like this from before.
Source: I am no expert, so take what I say with a bucket of salt. I did experience the last scenario myself about 15 years ago. I still drive it with no long term effects.
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Had an old accord that started burning oil at about 100k miles. Lasted another 100k with only a handful of oil changes (I think none in it’s last 50k, just topping it off as needed). Still worked perfectly fine besides very slowly burning oil when I totaled it at 200k miles.
I miss that car. I’m convinced I could’ve gotten at least 300k miles out of it.
I hope the shopping cart that dinged your bumper was okay…
Oh trust me, if It was drivable, I would’ve kept it.
Unfortunately a younger, much more sleep deprived me flipped it one morning.
Loved that damn car