engine oil overfill

[vrex]

I recently purchased a 2002 c4s 6 speed. i received the vehicle with apparently to much oil in it. sometimes on startup it belches a decent cloud of purply smoke, smelling of oil (mostly when its cold). as of late it hasnt had the smoke (ambient temps have been going up), im guessing a lot is getting burned off. i've had two instances where the vehicle smoked to the point where i thought i blew something up while driving; the first time was taking a steep downhill left, and accelerating out hard, im guessing oil was sucked in through the PCV due to lateral load, and again the same with an uphill highway entrance ramp that can be taken with some good speed. it cleared up right away when on the straight. the oil dip stick indicates oil is overfilled, but i cant find a correlation between how overfilled in volume, as compared to height above the max dot on the dip stick. either way, its overfilled. my vacuum pump finally came in, so ill have the oil cleared out to the proper level ASAP. what i want to know is, what kind of damage could this have caused? im guessing oil fumes will have gotten all over the intake tract, so the MAF may not be 100% accurate, injectors are probably dirty, as are the valves. alot of oil being burned could foul O2 plugs, cats. but presumably time will resolve these issues? i dont know... could i have put my car in serious danger?

input is appreciated.

Cheers-

[larez2]

Congrats on your purchase... in the future be sure to always try the search feature first, much of what you are asking has been covered in previous posts.

How many miles are on your car? It sounds to me like it's your AOS - Air Oil Separator that needs replacing.

What are you seeing on the digital indicator (on your dash) for the oil level when the car is warm? Of course you have to check it with the car off. Each bar is about 4oz of oil.

If you don't have the check engine light on or any codes, you probably haven't done much if any damage. Your MAF, Oxygen Senors and catalytic converter could of gotten damaged.

You should also check your coolant for oil contamination and your oil for coolant contamination - hopefully it is neither of those!

Happy Motoring,

Larez2

[Ahsai]

Between Min and Max is about 1.33 quart (see attached from an '03 coupe manual. Should be similar). There's also a dot like 1/4" above the "Max". Between that dot and "Max' would be about 0.33 quart (based on my estimation from my car's oil consumption). BTW, anywhere above Max is considered overfilled.

Edited March 18, 2009 by Loren
made image viewable

[phillipj]

Vrex,

I had similar smoking issues with my old 996.

First do a test to see if it may be your AOS. Take off your oil cap while the car is running. Is it extremely difficult to take off? If you can get it off place your hand over the filler tube and see if there is a lot of suction. A little is normal but a lot could mean that your AOS is bad. . Next check your throttle body. Open the butterfly and see if there is any oil built up there. If there is oil it's another sign your AOS is bad.

On the other hand I had a similar situation to yours on my 996........

It was creating the same smoking symptoms that led me to believe it was the AOS. I did the oil-fill suction test (normal) and looked for oil in the throttle body (there was none.)

Once I discovered there was over-fill in the crankcase (after an oil change) I drained out about a quart and all smoking issues went away.

Just my experience.

Phillipj

Edited March 18, 2009 by phillipj