How Not To Add Oil To Your Car

By Marion / Ponder IMO

Avoid overfilling the oil in your car. How do I know? I overfilled mine.

Everything I read said, “Do not drive.” I tried a siphon pump, but the hose was too large. Then I tried attaching a little aquarium hose. Apparently, the tape and silicone I used were no match for oil. Who would have guessed? Argh!

I ended up finding ramps and a sweet 81-year-old man who went under my car in 90-degree Texas heat to drain about a quart of oil.

Want the point without the whole adventure? Skip to the last paragraph.

The whole story:

I heard my car ticking. I was going to check the oil, but I didn’t. The next day, the oil-pressure light came on.

A lesson to add here: that light is a warning to stop safely and turn the car off immediately. It isn’t a reminder to check the oil whenever you get around to it.

I use Pennzoil High Mileage—the oil in the yellow jug.

I went to get my five-quart jug of oil and my funnel. Couldn’t find the funnel, so I tried a hack I had seen: cut the bottom off a water bottle and use that.

The car wasn’t hot, so no problem. Right?

Wrong.

I cut the bottle too tall. There I was, pouring from a heavy five-quart jug into a flimsy plastic funnel. The funnel folded. Oil spilled all over my clean engine.

Soo… get paper towels. Wipe it off. I still needed to add oil.

I estimated it was about three-quarters of a quart low. I held the funnel and started pouring again. The jug was heavy, my grip slipped, and I tipped it too far.

More oil on the engine. AND too much oil inside it.

I estimated I had overfilled it by about a quart. The clear measuring strip on the jug showed that more than two quarts were gone. Not all of that reached the engine, of course. Some of it was decorating the outside.

Two quarts. At over $8 a quart.

What I should have done:

Tow to a professional to help to remove the excess oil and check the level before driving. Whether they extracted it through the dipstick tube or drained it from underneath, the goal was the correct oil level—not just guessing how much to remove.

What I could afford:

Pray that I could find someone to help.

My car sits low. The siphon hose wouldn’t fit through the tube where you check the oil. I even called auto-parts stores looking for a smaller hose.

We ended up using ramps, and I almost drove off one. That part was frightening, and it is not something I recommend repeating.

Jim, bless his heart, went underneath and slowly drained the excess oil.

Thank you, Jim.

The whole ordeal took about five hours, partly because we waited for silicone to dry on a connection that didn’t work anyway. That newly purchased oil came back out and had to go into the used-oil recycling container. Money down the drain—figuratively, please!

I’m telling you my mistakes because I have added oil myself many times without a hitch. I have only had the oil light come on twice before. I check it every time I fill up. I plan to keep doing what I can for as long as I can.

Or until I win the lotto.

It could happen.

Here’s the point: My lesson learned: for topping off, don’t buy the big jug. Get a quart bottle instead—it’s easier to handle and pour from. A quart bottle doesn’t mean the car needs the whole quart! From now on, I’ll keep a real funnel with my oil supplies. I’ll add a little at a time, let it settle, and check the dipstick with the car turned off and on level ground. No guessing from the jug. No flimsy water-bottle funnel. A few minutes getting the right supplies would have saved me five hours, wasted oil, and a whole lot of aggravation.