I recently got my first oil change on my HCH II. Since then, I have noticed a smell like burning oil at times. I took it back yesterday and was told the unit is leaking Trans fliud. Upon return to the dealer I was told it was residual oil from the oil change (2 weeks prior, hos is this?). It appears the oil chage place added a full 4 quarts of Mobil 1 0W-20, too much. Will this damage the seals or cause problems? Anyone else experience this?

 

Oil change places tend to do those sorts of things.. Overfilling the oil can possibly cause foaming which will reduce lubrication to some parts of the engine, mainly the main bearings. There may be other effects that I'm not aware of.

I really don't trust the quick lube/oil change places. Every time I brought my other cars in they would always spill old oil on the exhaust system and it would take a couple of days to burn off, not to mention the time they stripped the threads on the oil pan. Not good for the environment either.

I've had good luck with my local honda dealer but time will tell.

 

Take it back at once to the idiots who over filled the sump and stand over them while they drain and refill correctly. Cost free of course.

 

At $5 per quart, that was mighty careless of them! Are you sure they used the Mobil 1 0W-20? If they were dumb enough to overfill by 118% (7.4 quarts instead of 3.4 quarts), then I'd be wondering if they even put the right stuff in there!

How much did they charge you for the oil change? If it was a $19.95 oil change special, you can almost be certain that they put the incorrect oil in. No way you can get Mobil 1 for under $4.95 a quart!

The incorrect oil will really mess up your MPG. It's a low friction engine, and needs the 0W-20 to run properly.

 

I actually brought them the Mobil 1 0W-20 and I watched them put it in. My Honda dealer is 35 miles away so a time crunch led me to let my local shop do it. $ quarts shouldn't have been that much, or so I would think.

 

I don't think it is possible to add 4 quarts of extra oil, I think it is a total of 4 quarts instead of the 3.7 quarts called for. Hopefully this is not enough to have much of an impact.

 

How much of a potential hazard is this in terms of possible damage to the vehicle?

 

Oh... my goof! If you brought them four quarts and they used all four (instead of just the 3.4 it needs)... DON'T worry about it. There will be NO harm from 0.6 qt being overfilled! six tenths spread over the full surface area of the oil pan sump won't amount to more than a quarter inch rise in the overall oil level. That won't do ANYTHING significant. I can't see any additional foaming due to the crankshaft counterweights churning into only 1/4" of extra oil. On the positive side, the engine will run minimally (VERY minimally!) cooler and the extra half quart will dilute contaminants a little.

This overfill error certainly would not cause any external leakage and/or the burning smell you mentioned. If, however, the shop spilled some oil onto the exhaust while pouring it in, yes... that would smell for a while!

 

I have an Insight and had the same problem. Fractional quart fills seem to throw the oil change folks for a loop.

I suppose you could fill a bottle to 3.7 (or about 2.5 in my case) and give that to them.

I just started changing my own oil.

 

Ur right. I had my mechanic at the public works garage look at it and he said it was just that--oil spilled that took awhile to burn off. Thanks for the help everybody!