QuestionI own a 2001 Ford Escape and had an oil change at the dealship.The next day I noticed a small amount had leaked on my garage floor and this continued for about a week. When a checked the oil level the dip stick had oil on it about 2 inches above the full line. It appeared to me they had added to much oil which was causing the oil leak.
I took the Escape back to the dealship yesterday and they addmitted to much oil had been added but the leak was from the bad gasket on the oil pan.
Questions:
1. What damage can occur from adding to much oil?
2. Could the leak in the oil pan gasket be caused by the excess oil? Note there was no oil leak prior to the oil change.
3. Could the excess oil cause a loss in gas mileage?
Thanks for your help in this matter.
AnswerHello and thanks for the question...I'll try to help.
It would seem to me that the dealership screwed up. Under NO circumstances should the oil be 2" over filled. Besides that, IF the gasket was in good order, it would/should do it's job and keep the oil IN THE ENGINE. I would suggest that it be changed as a parts failure. As far as damage, nothing much is going to happen by over filling it. You MIGHT get blue smoke out of the tail pipe until the oil burns out, but that's about it. In the extreme.......if this persists, you could damage the cat converter and THAT would kill the gas mileage........but that is a long way off.
I would tell them to pay atttention to what they are doing.
Hope this helps,
Erik
