I just did an oil change on my car, and overfilled it. It’s supposed to be between the two dots, closer to the top one, but now it’s about 3/16" above the top dot. I put in a full fourth quart, instead of partially filling until the level was correct.
Do I need to be concerned about this? Or should I just be more careful next time, and add partial quarts and keep checking…?
I can certainly drain it, but boy oh boy do I not want to do it if I don’t have to.
Thank you!
To clarify, when I say “drain it” I mean partially, to get it back down to the right level.
Take off your oil filter , dump the oil out, and reinstall. Repeat if necessary. Overfilling can cause too much crankcase pressure and oil leaks.
Oil filter method would not be my choice,besides it sounds like you are only a few ounces over,I would not concern myself. Do you have any idea of how much trouble we would all have if a few ounces of oil overfill was dangerous,cars are overfilled everyday, thousands of times,there is tolerance.
Overfilling even by a quart should not hurt anything. Three or four guarts over and you may have a problem.
I’ve been routinely overfilling (half to a full quart) my cars for close to 40 years and my childrens’ cars with less than zero problems.
One could look at it as an “engine insurance policy” so t speak.
I doubt if any car would have a problem with that little extra oil.
The fluid level is suggested by the dots on the dipstick. Do not drive the vehicle with it overfilled with oil. It is not likely to harm your engine being such a small amount of overfill but your question has to be answered this way. Partially drain the oil to reach the correct fluid level.
3/16 of an inch over the full mark on the dipstick?
I would estimate that this means that it is “overfilled” by about 1/5 of a quart.
If that small extra amount of oil truly constituted overfilling, many of the cars on the road would have self-destructed many years ago, since that small extra amount of oil is not uncommon. And, remember that a dipstick is not a laboratory-grade measuring device. This situation is not problematic.
Stop obsessing over 1/5 of a quart of oil.
Irakus you earn a Bozo award for warning the OP not to operate vehicle,what were you thinking?
Just an addendum about why I routinely overfill engine oil on my vehicles.
When the engine is running most of the oil is in suspension, meaning that it’s filling oil galleys, pooling in countless cubbyholes, being thrown around inside the engine, and generally saturing everything in there.
When running, the engine is left with only a quart or two for the oil pump to draw from. As long as the pickup tube is covered, no problem. However, on acceleration, deceleration, and cornering the oil will slosh to the front or rear of the pan, to the side, etc. and in a case like this the pickup tube may be momentarily uncovered. That extra bit of oil helps to compensate for the slosh effect and my preference is that the pickup tube never be uncovered.
This is also true of automatic transmissions. A guy running a Buick GN at the strip determined that a barely noticeable transmission hiccup was caused by the fluid slosh to the back of the pan during acceleration. Deepening the pan and adding fluid solved this. Racing is an extreme example but makes the point.
Baffles would solve any slosh problem but that would likely add a dime to the cost of production. Sloshing is the reason behind baffles being installed in tanker trailers and any oil pan should be no different. Nitpicking I know. 
Nope . . . don't concern yourself about it. It is not enough oil to make a difference. Go worry about national health care or something (kidding!) RocketmanThank you all. I am reassured. I will be more careful next time, though!