What Happens When You Put Too Much Engine Oil in Your Vehicle?

It' a simple question, but it's quite interesting: What happens when you put too much engine oil in your vehicle?

Ironically, it won't do what it's supposed to do in the first place: lubricate your car's parts. When there's too much oil going around, the rotating crankshaft will force the oil and surface air to meet and mix together. This makes the oil frothy--even foamy--and will thicken as they circulate throughout the engine.

What happens when the oil gets thick? It will cause small air pockets to form in the oil. This affects engine circulation, making it slower and less efficient in distributing the oil throughout the engine's parts so it remains cool.

What's more, car lubrication becomes less effective if those air pockets contain small debris. So aside from your car's engine circulating at less optimized levels, the engine's parts slowly corrode from not getting enough lubrication. The final result? A damaged car engine.

What Should You Do When You've Added Too Much Oil in Your Vehicle?

Here's a simple way to do it: just consult your car manual to know the exact engine oil to put inside your car.

If not, then you can just check your oil level to see if it is way past the "MAX" indicator on your car's dipstick.

Note, however, that this feature isn't available in some newer vehicles. The more modern ones use sensors to check if you're getting way off the mark, and informs this to you via the instrument cluster.

But What if You've Already Added Too Much Oil in Your Car?

The good news here that you can drain off the excess car oil from the engine easily. All you need to do is to ramp up your front tires to find the drain plug underneath the oil pan (located below the engine). Get a container and place it below the drain plug, and unscrew the drain plug so the oil comes out. Once you're finished draining it off, just tighten the drain plug back in once again.

Final Word

Just as the engine overheats when its parts don't have enough oil to lubricate them properly, "over-lubricating" can also cause engine damage when done regularly.

The solution here is simple: Just make sure to use the proper levels when filling your car with engine oil. It won't take a lot of effort on your part, but the results are worth it in the end.

Also Read: How To Check if Your Car's Engine has the Right Amount of Oil Four Things to Consider in Choosing the Right Engine Oil for Your Car