So I drove from my home in Munster, Indiana to South Bend to visit a friend of mine this weekend and was notified by said friend’s father (via phone) that my car had been leaking oil onto his driveway. On my way home I stopped at the local brand name mega-mart and purchased two quarts of 5W-20 and a bottle of stop leak fluid so I would be good for the drive home.
Upon reaching home and notifying my parents of the condition of their car, we discovered that not only was the “leak” actually just condensation from the AC unit, but they had just gotten an oil change and a tune up in the past few weeks.
So…what have I done to the car? It ran fine during the entire 100 or so mile trip. Do I just need to bleed out some oil?
Too much oil is a problem when the crankshaft rotates in the excess oil and causes it to foam. I would drain the oil to the proper level and hope from there. All is probably ok. Now that you know how to check the oil level, check it at least once a month on a level surface. This is a must for any car owner. Check tire pressure and all other fluids too.
Here is an idea…CHECK THE OIL LEVEL ON THE DIPSTICK AND ADJUST AS NECESSARY…Next time you have the urge to add some oil, do that first…
My friend and I actually did check the oil level. The problem is that the dipstick apparently reads differently than we were used to. We didn’t know that it was the two little dots that indicated full and empty. We just saw that it was down very low to the bottom of the dipstick and assumed that corroborated previous observations.
We would have probably realized it sooner had we the opportunity to check the liquid deposit ourselves.
I agree essentially with the advice and comments already posted, but I have another concern, namely “purchased two quarts of 5W-20 and a bottle of stop leak fluid so I would be good for the drive home.” The stop-leak fluids with which I am familiar are made for automotive radiators, not for the engine’s crankcase.
Did you add this stuff to the engine along with the un-needed motor oil?
You didn’t actually tell us that you poured the stop-leak into the engine, but then again, you never actually told us that you added the oil either!
If you added stop-leak to the engine, I don’t think that your engine is going to run much longer before some catastrophic damage becomes obvious. Please reassure us that you didn’t pour radiator stop leak into the engine!
I made very very very very sure that the stop leak fluid was specifically designed for oil leakage. I actually had no designs of purchasing such a product until I saw it and quadruple checked the product.
That’s a relief!