(G) HELP!!! Too much Oil.

After putting too much oil in my Brava this morning and not realising so. The car has lost power. She still runs but acceleration is weak and she rumbles a fair bit. Mechanic thinks the catalytic convertor has gone but I did not realise I had put to much oil in at that point. Is this the problem? and has the oil caused this too happen? Should I drain?

How much too much?

Not sure about the rest, but yes, you should drain all the oil, then refill with a know quantity.
If you overfill by a large amount, I believe the crankshaft impacts with the oil, with then turns the oil into a foam, which isn't too good at lubricating your engine...
H

I have put in about twice the ammount you are supposed too. Do you think this would have had any effect on the catalyct converter or is this just coincidence?

Don't do any work on the cat until MOT time. Until you have a fail cert with high emissions you can ignore the cat.

As said above. Drain all the oil and start again.

i dont even want to know how you managed that, but for future reference the dip stick is there.

overfilling often damages oil seals. you should fill to the correct level and then monitor the level regulalry for a couple of thousand miles, if the car is using oil it means you've damaged oil seals causing the engine to burn oil. emissions will be worse if you burn oil, but i've passed mot's with bad oil burners so dont worry about it, and as for the cat, its like hellcat says- dont waste your time or money until the failure sheet is in front of you next MOT.

Have your oil between the two marks on the dipstick because oil expands when it gets hot.

Hi, i think i have done the same thing as you and over filled my oil. I only managed to do so because my oil light stays on permanently and i have put in about 3 litres of oil in it. The dipstick when cold is covered in oil far beyond the little indicator part of it. How do you drain your oil? and does anyone know what could be wrong with my oil light indicator? Many thanks

were you topping up without checking the level?
2 methods to drain,remove the sump plug and drain or syphon it from the dip stick tube

Hi yea i was, i used to dashboard oil indicator as an indicator to tell me when i have filled up too much oil. By syphon from the dipstick, do you mean suck it back up using something? where is the sump plug located? Many thanks

plug is right under the car,12mm allen IIRC.
yup you can put a pipe into the sump via the dipstick but wouldnt recommend it using your mouth.some garages do that using a pump.

surely it must have been more difficult to fill using the oil light rather than the dipstick.
the low oil light is probably on because the sensor connection is rusty. dont know what engine you've got but if you look in haynes it will tell you where the sensor is. check it out. if its not the wiring thats the problem you can go scrapyard hunting for a replacement part.

Punkchambers, I might be getting too old , but I thought your oil warning light meant low oil pressure, not low oil level. In this case, if you wait until it comes on before you top up your engine, you risk damage. That's why you have a dipstick (had to repeat this because it is quite important). Also (Laserboot) if your warning light is on all the time, you might want to consider a blockage or failing oil pump. Hopefully its just the pressure switch.

with bravo/as isnt the pressure switch only on diesels? on petrols it means low oil rather than pressure. not sure on that but thats what i though.

i've always said every car should have oil pressure and temperature gauges.

Hi, i had my car serviced therefore they sorted out the oil. They also did an all round check and found nothing wrong with the car apart from arching spark plug leads, this is a bit of a surprise cos i dont understand what part of the leads could be arching, and what they are arching against? So i guess the oil light is just a short circuit on the dashboard or a similar problem. Many thanks.