Overfilled oil

04TOYO

MEMBER
2004 TOYOTA COROLLA
4 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
32,000 MILES

Concerns with overfilled oil.
I took my car into the dealership for scheduled oil change. 660 miles and 31 days later while driving on highway a very large plume of white smoke exits my car. Upon examination I found the dipstick to register 3" above the highest mark for oil level. No water appeared on dipstick. Dealer has towed car to service. The car seems to run and idle ok but I am concerned with current and 'long term' damage caused by overfilled oil. Dealer recognized on phone that they may have overfilled and has been cooperative to this point. What are the mechanical concerns and what action would you expect the dealer to make. 2004 Toyota Corolla 32K miles.

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,916 POSTS

Not sure I'd be too worried. Assuming it really is oil, the crankshaft would whip up the oil that it hit and could introduce air bubbles. That would make it sneak past the piston rings easier and be burned, but that would create blue smoke, not white. White smoke is a sign of coolant. My first reaction is you have a leaking head gasket, coolant went out the tail pipe, and some is leaking into the oil causing the level to go up.

Part of an oil change involves checking all the fluid levels, and I find it fairly unlikely they would have left you go with too much oil. Not that it can't happen, but even if it did, I wouldn't expect that to cause other problems.