Oil overfill on TD5?

Hi,

I have just bought a td5 disco series II. The garage said they would do a full oil service, so I just looked under the bonnet today to check it has actually be done.

I noticed on the dipstick that the engine oil has been overfilled quite a way. It's probably as far over the "full" line as the distance between the "low" and "full" lines. Does this matter? I've driven it ~100 miles like this and no problems or do I need to do something about it?

Thanks!

PS - I've read about the speed-lock feature is disabled by default and that only a main dealer can activate it. Does anybody know what they are likely to charge to do this - or maybe its free?

That overfill sounds pretty bad. I would be careful there. Too much oil can burst seals etc due to too much pressure. Take it back to the garage and get them to fix it. It could be that they didn't bother to fit a new filter and put in the correct amount giving an overfill. Not sure if that would account for such an overfill though.

I have a plastic siphon pump that I got from a motor factors for less than a fiver. If it was me I'd likely pump the excess out through the dip stick hole rather than risk driving it.

Cheers

Andy

You will be OK with this amount of an overfill, when you do your next oil change don't overfill it as much.

Generally you don't want to overfill an engine because the piston skirt will slap the oil on the way down causing damage (over time) and more oil to get sprayed onto the cylinder walls so the oil ring on the pistons have to do more oil removal, and if at this stage it will lead to a bit of blue smoke - so unless you have blue smoke... leave it be.

I would generaly overfill my oil because when offroad all your oil shoots to one end of the sump, very steep hill and your oil pickup could be left high and dry...

My TD5 dipstick sounds similar to yours, is over the full mark. Mine too was done by a garage. Which garage was it done at? I havent done anything about mine, assumed it was fine as the usual garage did it, Indi, not stealer. I have probably done about 3000 miles now with no problems. You have me worried now!!

Thanks for the comment guys

I've just run the engine for ~10seconds (was totally cold when I posted before) and the oil level is now at "full" so I guess it's OK!

Ah No blue smoke, so will leave it. Thanks for that nice bit of info, saved me getting the spanners out