Cautionary tale: Oil Pressure

[VVC-Geeza]

I had a very similar experience with my Rover 45 and it's 1.8K engine.I could barely see any oil on the dipstick so urgently filled it with around 3lts of oil.Next time I went out my journey included several miles of dual carriageway.I put my foot down to overtake and as I glanced in the rear view mirror saw a blue smoke screen James Bond would have been proud of.It completely filled both carriageways.Luckily there was an exit about half a mile further on where I was able to leave and limp home.My mind was working overtime imagining all sorts of catasrophic failure.I decided to ask sworks (Mark) for his opinion.The first thing he asked was had I overfilled it,and he suggested I drain and refill it from scratch.Sure enough I had massively over filled it.I put in the new oil who's level was much clearer to see on the dipstick now, and changed the filter.It's been absolutely fine since.At no point did the oil light stay on.It was a lesson to me not to take this simple task for granted.

[Theodore]

Yeah, but it says something when you need a manual just to check the oil. In the old days it was a simple two second job. But as I said, either way under or over filled, it waited 2.5hrs of motorway travel before light came on?

[SCP440]

I have a lady customer who until a couple of years ago has always driven old clunkers, she had always put in a pint of oil every month as it usually had drunk that much due to leaks and general ware and tare.

Anyway a couple of years ago she got a new man in her life and he bought her a 3 year old Focus, spotless and obviously well looked after.

After she owned it for a few months she came to me complaining about the smoke and how difficult it was to start some times. I checked the oil level and it was well above the max mark. I drained some off and after a couple of runs down the bypass the smoke cleared and it was obviously running a lot better.

I told her what I had found and she admitted she had been putting the pint of oil in probably out of habit. Sadly the excess oil had damaged the catalyst so when she had it MOT'd it needed a new one to pass emissions ( £850 ) . I did try an Italian tune up but no luck.

[Theodore]

Originally Posted by SCP440

I have a lady customer who until a couple of years ago has always driven old clunkers, she had always put in a pint of oil every month as it usually had drunk that much due to leaks and general ware and tare.

Anyway a couple of years ago she got a new man in her life and he bought her a 3 year old Focus, spotless and obviously well looked after.

After she owned it for a few months she came to me complaining about the smoke and how difficult it was to start some times. I checked the oil level and it was well above the max mark. I drained some off and after a couple of runs down the bypass the smoke cleared and it was obviously running a lot better.

I told her what I had found and she admitted she had been putting the pint of oil in probably out of habit. Sadly the excess oil had damaged the catalyst so when she had it MOT'd it needed a new one to pass emissions ( £850 ) . I did try an Italian tune up but no luck.

Mercifully, we had it tested and it passed the emissions and i've caused no damage...yet! But as I said earlier & off topic, the rusting jacking point and split bushes are both an MOT fail, which were obviously present before I bought the car yet somehow got through last year's MOT.