Has anyone ever experienced oil being overfilled? Thought I cooked my 1.8T 1bar Wett Ram filter this morning, check engline light came on, started missing, restarted while hot and smoked white something bad. Checked all fluids when it cooled down, everything looked fine oil may have been a little high (waiting for it to cool to check again). Tested it at noon, seemed okay. Started heading home tonight and ran fine until warm, stopped for gas and it smoked again. Started missing real bad. Haven't had a problem with chip in over 15 thousand miles just had it in Friday for 20k checkup/oil change. Could a small amount of overfill followed with some hard driving and braking cause this? I've been on synthetic since first oil change.

Confirmed the oil is at least 1/2 quart overfull. Since I bring in my own synthetic, I know they only used 4 quarts of my oil - maybe they didn't change the filter? Anyway, has anyone had this happen? Am I in for a long process while waiting for them to get a part? or can the clean the old cat? Think it's okay to drive to dealer so I can pick up a loaner from rather than using roadside assistance?

My Audi mechanic has overfilled my crankcase about a quart the last three services in a row. I believe he did it intentionally (see my post of last week: "Dissed by my dealership; what would you do?")<p>StevenN '96 2.8 qm emerald green mica

My dealer svc guy overfilled my oil at the 1st oil change by over 1/2 qt. I checked AFTER I had put over 1K miles after the service. I brought the car in and the tech said that the amt of overfill was not a problem, but I asked him to drain it to the correct level anyways.<p>The only thing I have noticed that may be unrelated to the overfill is an intermittent (1 every 10-15 sec) "uneveness" in the idle. I will ask about this when I go in for the 10K svc.<p>the owner's manual specifically warns against overfilling as it may damage cat. From what other folks on forum have posted, you gotta replace the whole cat which is very expensive (several $K).<p>Here is what Steve Shupe, Audi Service Tech at Carlsen (SF Bay Area dealer) had to say about overfill --<p>"Usually the problem with overfilling is that the crankcase pressure can<br>force the oil past the oil control rings on the pistons and then the excess<br>oil that didn't get burnt would go through the exhaust and then into the Cat.<br>The excess hydrocarbons would cause the Cat to overheat and burn up the core<br>element. The second problem would be that the excess oil again could be sucked<br>up by the PCV system, go in the intake and then into the combustion chamber<br>and on to the Cat. Because of the nature of the fuel injection system some<br>excess oil could be tolerated to some extent. Another key would be if the<br>check engine light came, during the time that the oil was over filled. If the<br>light came on the engine may have set a fault code for too rich a mixture,<br>engine miss, and possible O2 sensor fault. These faults would indicate a<br>mixture that was too rich and the computer was unable to compensate for it.<br>You shouldn't have any damage if the light didn't come on."<p>Also<br>One note, there was a<br>comment on the Bulletin board (A4.org) that it is okay to over fill the oil in<br>your car by one quart. (on any car). This isn't true. some cars can take an<br>overfilling by a little bit and not be hurt, others can be damaged even to the<br>extreme case where the engine could "hydro lock" from the excess oil in the<br>crankcase. Engineers have designed engines for a certain amount of oil.<br>Overfilling can cause oil splashing by the crank and cause aeration of the<br>oil, thus reducing the lubrication of engine componets by the trapped air in<br>the oil."<br>"<br>

I've asked before, I'll ask again: where precisely is the "full" mark on the dipstick? Is it the top of the hatchmarks or the bottom of the orange plastic?<p>The manual suggests "full"=top of hatchmarks. But my car arrived new with oil up to the orange plastic. Moreover, the manual suggests it is OK to add half a quart whenever the oil level is between the top and bottom of the hatchmarks. But when I added half a quart with level showing midway in hatched area, the resulting level was up to the orange plastic.<p>Does anyone know where "full" really is???