98 V70xc - Accidentally put in 10 quarts of oil and drove

[scot850]

Couple of questions:

1) What oil filter did you use? On your car it should be a can type, but what brand did you use? Volvo or Mann are good, but many of the cheaper ones do not have a non-return valve in them which allows the oil to drain down. When you first start the engine the oil light can stay on for a short time until pressure builds.

2) have your oil pan 'O' rings ever been replaced? These go hard and shrink preventing oil pressure to build up in the worst cases.

Combine the 2 and .......

So buy a Mann or Volvo oil filter to starts, then try again after syphoning out the excess oil.

Neil.

[Sommerfeldt]

No one seems to actually read the thread before posting anymore... not even Neil.
So I still say that based on the original post, there's trouble besides the excess oil.

Don't start or crank the car yet, if you haven't already.

- Make absolutely sure that your oil lines are good, your PCV is good, and that your sylinders aren't full of oil.
- If you can, pull your pan and change o-rings, if they've never been changed. While doing this, check pickup lines and see that everything else is good in there.

The initial reason for your topping up with oil could still be there, somewhere. And if you put 6 q's in and there's no oil pressure, you're f#¤ked. Or rather, your engine is.

- S

[Ozark Lee]

If the car ran with no oil pressure then the damage is already done. I don't see that there is a heck of a lot to loose. If the lifters weren't screaming then it could just be a bad (or clogged up) pressure sensor.

Overfilling the oil by 5 quarts could also have damaged the engine but at the end of the day nothing is going to be known with the car just sitting there.

...Lee

[erikv11]

No one seems to actually read the thread before posting anymore...

So true.

[cvergi01]

I would recommend starting the car for a couple seconds (idling) just to see if it will. If more damage was done from over filling the oil or driving with low pressure, it either wont start, or will sound terrible. Hook up an oil pressure gauge, start it, check the oil pressure gauge. Only takes 2 seconds, and wont do more damage. If it sounds like hell or gauge reads 0 the damage was already done and, well you can just call it a loss without spending all that time tiptoeing around. Start broad. If it runs, replace everything listed above to ensure future issues dont arise. If not, well, we can go from there.

[dosbricks]

No one seems to actually read the thread before posting anymore...

So true.

If one reads the OP's original post in its entirety, it's hard to conclude that this V70 has anything other than
"el motor frito"....translation: deep fried in oil.

But we can always wait another week or two for a definitive answer.

[Sommerfeldt]

If one reads the OP's original post in its entirety, it's hard to conclude that this V70 has anything other than "el motor frito"....translation: deep fried in oil.

But we can always wait another week or two for a definitive answer.

Yeah - but few if any managed to see that he didn't just pour ten bottles of oil in there. Or that he already drained the oil. Or that there must have been a reason for the topping up in the first place. Etc. Etc. Etc.

- S

[ViktorNova]

It lives! Hope is not yet lost. My car was parked on a public road and fortunately had not yet gotten towed, so I just went for it.

I did what was suggested, and surprisingly not so much as a drop spewed out of the plug holes, although the car had been sitting a week at this point, so maybe it's not so weird?

Replaced the plugs after cleaning them and the sticky wires off with break cleaner and it fired right up and drove! Lots of nasty white clouds at first, but that stopped halfway through the 2 mile drive home.

It drove almost normally, no weird noises or shuddering as long as kept the throttle slightly on at all times - I felt it choking when I let off the gas, so I didn't take my foot off the pedal until getting home, and when I did it died instantly. Temperature stayed in the normal range and heat blew hot, but there seemed to be abnormally high coolant pressure - when I parked the reservoir cap was hissing and radiator inlet hose was noticeably less squishy than normal. That being said, I did just replace 2 bad coolant hoses on either side of the turbo which may well have been leaking for a long time..but it seemed worth mentioning.

No check engine light (this would be a first on this car) but not sure if 2 miles is enough for the ECM to register a problem or not. The only other thing I can think to mention is I shined a flashlight down the spark plug holes and the top of the pistons looked a little crusty, one in particular looked gunky

So other than running a compression test and changing the oil filter, what should I do now? Is there anything in particular that I should definitely take off and clean or replace for good measure? Any type of flush or seafoam or other wizardry I should run through the thing before taking it back on the road?

To answer a few people's questions, I didn't drive with the oil light on, I only saw it come on when turning the car on for a few seconds when it was on ramps and I think I spaced putting a jug in. The oil light did not come on at all this last time

Thanks again everyone for your help!
-Viktor

[cuhfs]

So after 3 pages on the topic... let me be the first to say....... CONGRATS!!!!
You dodged that bullet.

[abscate]

Change oil, I'm not sure why people are fixated on changing the oil filter...?

Do compression test, and if all is well sort out that idle and drive home gently.