[John 070]

a) drain the extra out
b) drive hard, until all the blue smoke goes away
c) add more oil, because the motor only likes to have multiples of the correct amount?

My choice is a.

I did something really dumb on my other car and added a quart for no good reason, and so I was out there at 23:15 EST last night with my COB led worklight draining a qt. of oil out

I don't think 1 qt. necessarily blows out your rear main, or front main, etc., or even froths up, but it was a peace of mind deal....what a moron..lol

[Kernel Kurtz]

Had an 07 328xi and the oil level sensor failed. Kept telling me it needed oil, even when I knew it didn't.

Never overfilled it myself, but read horror stories at the time about people who just kept adding whenever it told them to........

Still think these cars should have old fashioned low tech dipsticks. Not everything needs to be computerized.

[andas]

Originally Posted by Kernel Kurtz

Had an 07 328xi and the oil level sensor failed. Kept telling me it needed oil, even when I knew it didn't.

Never overfilled it myself, but read horror stories at the time about people who just kept adding whenever it told them to........

Still think these cars should have old fashioned low tech dipsticks. Not everything needs to be computerized.

Oh fu** can this be my problem? Add oil message was comming up every 500 miles, i kept adding. Now after 100 i checked the level and it aays to add 1 more.. Can the sensor be bad? What are the symptoms of bad oil sensor? Will it still diaplay oil level but wrong one?

This electronic dipstick is bullshit

[BeastMode335i]

Originally Posted by andas

Add oil message was comming up every 500 miles, i kept adding. Now after 100 i checked the level and it aays to add 1 more.. Can the sensor be bad?

Originally Posted by andas

What are the symptoms of bad oil sensor?

Answered your own question bro..

[andas]

So its probably the sensor and not the engine burning it? Because that amount would mean its basically flowing oil in there? Should I tell the mechanic that I think its the sensor or will he will find the reason?

[John 070]

good luck getting it checked. imho one way to know for sure, say you do your oil change and put just over 6.5 qts in, and the electronic dipstick shows down a qt., you know the sensor is wrong.

My scenario, I removed my wheel to spray PB Blaster at the brake hose fitting. Decide to check the oil while the car is jacked up...holy sh** it's down a quart! Fill it up. Then start thinking, whoa, that's probably because the RF of the vehicle is jacked up, not that it's really low. When I dropped it, yep, it's over max, by the distance of the H and L i.e. range. Stupid.

I was gonna leave it and then get this bright idea at 11 PM that I better drain a quart out

[techwhiz]

One extra probably won't hurt, but don't take my advise.
Had an E30 M3 where it was recommended to run +1.
Car suffered from oil starvation on hard rights.
Either get a baffled oil pan or run the extra quart.

[galahad05]

If I were a bettin' man, I'd say that ~1 quart over is right at the limit of what would be...."okay"....to live with in our ~7 quart oiling systems.

You'd probably see excessive oil consumption for a while as you have increased blow-by, but I'd think you wouldn't have main seal issues.

Of course, this is just a thought experiment; it's not MY car with the extra quart floating around in it.

[larrysing]

Reminds me of a story with a Geo Prizm I once owned. Had a coupon for an oil change at a place I had never used before. Took the car there about a half hour before closing time on Friday, and they changed the oil, and I paid and left. Driving away, I noticed a little hesitation and thought that was weird.... A few blocks later, I noticed EXTREME levels of white smoke coming from my car !! So I whipped back over there, and they were already closed - but luckily, two employees were sitting in the parking lot bullsh@tting. Told them my story, and turns out that TWO of them had added oil to the car !! It had almost 8 qts in there !! They drained it, refilled it, and the car was never the worse for wear.

But for OP, personally, for me, if this were my car, I'd drain the extra and get the level correct.

[twinboost_MD]

... maybe check for leaks..? drop the skid plate

[b1mmr]

Originally Posted by andas

Oh fu** can this be my problem? Add oil message was comming up every 500 miles, i kept adding. Now after 100 i checked the level and it aays to add 1 more.. Can the sensor be bad? What are the symptoms of bad oil sensor? Will it still diaplay oil level but wrong one?

This electronic dipstick is bullshit

If you seriously suspect a bad sensor, try an oil change to confirm it

[John 070]

Originally Posted by galahad05

If I were a bettin' man, I'd say that ~1 quart over is right at the limit of what would be...."okay"....to live with in our ~7 quart oiling systems.

You'd probably see excessive oil consumption for a while as you have increased blow-by, but I'd think you wouldn't have main seal issues.

Of course, this is just a thought experiment; it's not MY car with the extra quart floating around in it.

For me, I agree, we're pretty confident it would be ok--there has to be some tolerance of user error in the design.

But since many of us DIY a lot of things, imho the best course of action is to remove the excess, just makes a person feel dumb

a) wasting good oil
b) wasting labor on something like that

But there are worse things in life, and draining the oil out buys peace of mind...

[Efthreeoh]

You can always just drain the oil into a clean pan, remeasure 7 quarts and pour the used oil back in the engine.

[John 070]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

You can always just drain the oil into a clean pan, remeasure 7 quarts and pour the used oil back in the engine.

True, I tried to do that with the coolant when I replaced my Nissan's radiator, because the system had just been flushed 5 mos. prior....but it got messy and I gave up....and now that pan is used for oil, meaning I only have 2 drain pans that are for used oil....

[Boland01]

Our 335i is doing the same thing. A new sensor is around $190.00 which is ridiculous. There are no oil leaks so it's either burning a ton of oil which I doubt since there is smoke coming out of the exhaust or it's the sensor.
This weekend I'm going to jack up the car and check to make sure the connection to the sensor on the oil pan hasn't come loose somehow.

[b1mmr]

Originally Posted by Boland01

Our 335i is doing the same thing. A new sensor is around $190.00 which is ridiculous. There are no oil leaks so it's either burning a ton of oil which I doubt since there is smoke coming out of the exhaust or it's the sensor.
This weekend I'm going to jack up the car and check to make sure the connection to the sensor on the oil pan hasn't come loose somehow.

The pcv system is wasteful as well. An external catch can proves this.

[lichtgelb]

True story....

When brought my E90 home the first thing I did was drain the oil. I bought it at a salvage action and it had been in a front end collision. You never know what you're going to get at the auctions. Anyway, I put a drain pan under there and take off the drain plug. Oil comes rushing out and was still flowing quickly as the pan was nearing the top. So I ran across the garage and grabbed another pan. The oil finally stopped draining when that pan was nearly full. I didn't even know what size pan I was using so I look on the side and it says 7qt. So nearly 14qts of oil drained out of that N52.

The valve cover and oil pan were both leaking at the time. I don't know if both failed due to being overfilled, or if it was over filled because they were leaking. After changing those gaskets, and replacing the entire CCV system, the engine has ran fine. It did seem to burn a lot of oil in the first 3000 miles after I put it back on the road but now that seems to have tapered off.

So, I wouldn't worry too much about a 1qt overfill. It's not good to overfill any engine but I can say for certain an N52 will still be ok after running 14qts but I have no way of knowing how many miles it might have been driven like that.

[Dark_Knight_335]

Pray, mostly. Then I'd break down and cry.

That's why the dealer does it.