Anyone know about car oil please?

[user1188]

Sorry random title but I'm in a rush.

I've just taken my car for an mot and it's passed but they've said it had over a litre more oil in it than it should do.

I had it serviced about 8 weeks ago from the car manufacturer (Kia) who will have made this mistake.

I'm aware I need to take it back and I've phoned Kia and explained it needs sorting. They cannot get me in for 3 weeks.

The mot place has said it's not massively urgent and will be fine but it will do damage over time if it's not sorted.

I have a mate who's a mechanic who I've also phoned and he's told me I need to get the car in today and demand it be sorted before I do any damage whilst driving.

Who is right please lol?

Different cars are different - excess oil is more serious on a diesel in general.
Can't the garage who MOT'd it drain the excess? It's a 5 minute job (15 at most).

Really odd MOT too - oil content isn't part of the MOT so not sure how they noticed.

It's a diesel engine. No I asked that and he said something needed changing - sorry I'm completely clueless when it comes to cars. He said it was worrying though

It's generally bad to have too much oil - but it depends on the car/engine.
If it was me I'd get it done asap - any garage should be able to drain a litre out - there's a drain plug on the bottom of the engine - but a lot of places now have a pump that can suck oil out that they use for oil changes.

The reason it can be bad for a diesel is that in extreme cases the car can start to run on the engine oil (use it as fuel) which causes damage. That is a very unusual outcome though.
Other things it can do is damage seals and engine crankcase breather systems - having too much can gum things up, but different engines have different systems and some can tolerate it better.

Most commonly excess oil will result in your oil filter wearing out a bit faster and maybe a bit of black smoke coming out of your exhaust.

The other thing that can happen - it's very rare, and most commonly with turbo diesels - is you get into a feedback loop whereby you cannot turn the engine off aka engine runaway.

Long story short, don't leave it 3 weeks. If it comes to it just drain it yourself.

They dont check the oil on an MoT, they aren't allowed to change anything or replace anything as part of the MoT, which means they cant remove the dip stick to check and why would they, its not part of the test

He said its worrying.................... as he has to pay for his holiday and needs some extra cash quickly

@junglejane66 he's not doing the work. He told me to take it back to the manufacturer

I asked my mechanic friend who also said this but he said you could probably see the oil so that's why it was noticed...

The car may have the oil level on the dash when you start it. Does it have a dip stick? Easy to check yourself or take it back to the dealer, but they may charge if there isnt a problem

One of the emissions tests for a diesel is the smoke test and it gets revved quite high for it. The testers are expected to check oil level before doing it, it's totally normal.

I stand corrected, however if there was a chance it was over filled and it could damage the engine then surely he wouldn't have then tested it by revving it fast and possibly damage the engine? After all it was him who told the op it could damage the engine.

So I tested it was the dip stick and it about 12 mil over the mark that points to full.

I rang the Kia garage and just asked if I could drop it off until whenever they look at it and I've got a courtesy car. They weren't impressed though...preparing for them to come back and say I've done it myself.

What type of driving do you do ?
Are you just pottering about locally ?
It might be that the DPF isn't regenerating so dumping diesel into the oil raising the oil level.