Rep Power: 0

When I bought my Civic 2 weeks ago I was told by a friend that they normaly take a quart of oil per cylinder. So when I changed the oil I placed 4 quarts and a new filter into the engine. I found shortly after the the car was 1/2 a quart over the full line. One week later I read in the civic manuel that they take 3.5 quarts and that I put in 1/2 a quart too much. A diffrent friend said that having too much oil is bad because it could place unnessisary pressure on the seals and break them. My question is would having a 1/2 quart over full cause any damage to my engine and if so would it cause damage in as little as the week that it was over full? If there would be damage would it be to the seals alone or any other part? Thanx

 
Rep Power: 390

First off take the half quart out. Second dont listen to your friend.

Manual > friends

A half quart is pretty much the limit on what you should worry about. If you fill it up too much you have to worry about the oil pressure, and will actually give you less lubrication, confusing right.. If you fill it up too much, aka half quart+, the oil will start covering the crankshaft and it'll get whipped up. The oil and the small air bubbles will get pushed around and decrease the oil pressure to the moving parts. Result is wear on parts and lower fuel economy amongst others. Yeah you can have problems with your seals as well. Also "hydrolock"- basically the oil prevents the compression/decompression of the cylinder.

Its easy to take oil out. You can try draining it from the bottom and make a mess, or you can put a small tube down the dipstick space and carefully suck it till u get a flow and drain into a pan or bottle, then just raise the bottle above the cylinder head to stop the flow for a messless way to reduce the oil. When you drain, make sure the oil cap is off so it doesnt glug. Also if u think ur good, wipe the dip stick off, stick it in (with the tube out) and check the level. Should be dead center.

 
Rep Power: 330

My experience has been that a small amount of overfill (<1/2 quart over) will not hurt anything.

It reaches a point though, where the oil reaches the height of the rotating crankshaft, and this whips the oil into a froth. Oil with lots of air in it does not lubricate well. The result can be the same kind of problems you would have running a car without oil...e.g. bearing failure, catastrophic damange.

I personally am not familar with leaks resulting from overfilling. Can anyone who has seen these first hand please give us any details.

 
Rep Power: 425

I overfill it for the track, because beating on the car will burn a little off and it keeps the pickup submerged even in hard corners. I dont see 1/2 a quart hurting anything, but for reference, rules of thumb are useless, especially when there's a precise amount of 3.4 quarts for LX/DX and 3.7 quarts for the EX written in the owners manual.

 
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good stuff.... thanx

 
Rep Power: 267

I alwyas put 4 quarts into my car...and no its not a quart per cylinder..my old v6 took 5 quarts for example

 
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nothing wrong with 4 quarts

 
Rep Power: 250

i always did 4 quarts in my d17 when i had it, and when i'd check it, the oil would be right on the top dot and not past.