Dipstick Query

[Marty Funkhouser]

Car: '63 plate fiat 500

Checking the oil today and the oil is clearly half way up the dipstick. I dont mean half way between the minimum and maximum points, I mean about 150mm north of the max. The car has been running with no problems and is used regularly. The bonnet hasn't been open since the last time I checked about 2/3 months ago. Is this some sort of weird oil trap in the pipe? WTF?

[steveo3002]

check it again after its stood overnigtht?

[Marty Funkhouser]

Its hasn't been driven since Friday. would the fact that its on a slope cause it? The front higher than the rear...

[rigga]

Marty Funkhouser said:

Its hasn't been driven since Friday. would the fact that its on a slope cause it? The front higher than the rear...

Yes obviously, it should always be checked on a level surface..

[steveo3002]

yeah needs to be level...although halfway up the stick sounds a bit extreme

who tops it up ? do you trust them?

[Sheepshanks]

Standard drill is hot engine, level ground and a couple of mins after turning off - as if you'd stopped at a filling station and had just refueled.

If the level really was 6" too high, the engine would be half full of oil.

[NGRhodes]

Marty Funkhouser said:

Its hasn't been driven since Friday. would the fact that its on a slope cause it? The front higher than the rear...

Maybe 5 or 10mm, but not 150mm.

Im not sure its even possible to get an accurate reading that high because the sumps are not that deep, sometimes you get this when the dipstick does not seal at the top, sometimes because of excess crankcase pressure. Worth giving the dipstick a wipe before you check the level.

[Sheepshanks]

NGRhodes said:

Worth giving the dipstick a wipe before you check the level.

I skipped that bit as I thought it would be insulting to a 12yr plus member. But you ever know!

[Equus]

Sheepshanks said:

NGRhodes said:

Worth giving the dipstick a wipe before you check the level.

I skipped that bit as I thought it would be insulting to a 12yr plus member. But you ever know!

As you said yourself, 150mm. above the maximum mark and the engine would be swimming in oil.

By far the likeliest possibility is that the dipstick needs a quick wipe and/or is picking up a smear of oil as it's drawn up the tube.

False reading.

[Ron240]

I wish I had a dipstick on my engine...

Have to say though...absolute schoolboy error checking oil level with car parked on a slope.

[voram]

If the oil level is increasing of its own accord then it's either petrol getting past the piston rings or water from condensation (if you do nothing but short journeys).

In itself, high oil level isn't a problem until the crankshaft starts dipping into the sump oil. This will then be whipped into a froth of oil containing a great deal of air - which the oil pump can't pump - and the engine will die from lack of lubrication. Oil fill level has to be set pretty conservatively to allow for parking on slopes, driving up hill etc. Even oil slosh under cornering and braking can be significant - hence use of "dry sump" for many high performance cars.

Wet sump engines which are mounted at a slant, of which the most extreme are boxer (horizontally opposed) engines, will always be particularly sensitive to any over-filling of the oil.

[littleredrooster]

Petrol or diesel, OP?