Overfilling Oil In Renault Clio

[freak_unique]

Hey there wonder if you could help me. Topped up the oil on my mk 2 renault clio 1.4 2000, while it was dark and stupidly overfilled it (the dipstick is black so hard to see the oil). Anyways was jumping and spluttering and losing power all over the place and it was well over the max limit and i knew i needed to drain some fast. Didnt have the tools to undo the sump plug so syphoned it out (yeah it took an age but it had to be done lol) anyways its ever so slightly over now but much better than it was. When i started the car up after this it sounded like a bag of crap lol...spluttering, jumping, chugging, revs all over the place, i drove it and it got better just the ocassional shudder. Now every morning since... it starts up jumping all over the place and then settles down. Any ideas why? have i ruined the engine? what should i do? any advice greatly appreciated thankyou!

[RATTER15]

If it is a petrol engine you will need to clean the spark plugs. I doubt any damage has occurred. I probably needs a run to burn off the excess oil, should be fine very soon.

[tonyav]

Sounds like it's sucked oil up into the combustion chambers, maybe hydrauliced the pistons and valve gear when you ran it over full with oil.

[freak_unique]

Yes its a petrol engine. How do i go about cleaning them? i have some spares in the bottom of the boot dunno if theyre used or not. I have been driving it about a fair bit so will try the spark plugs and see what happens!

[freak_unique]

What do i do about that tonyav? Do i just ride it out or?

[tonyav]

By hydraulic action of the oil between the pistons and the cylinder head, it may have bent one or more of the valve stems hence the spluttering etc.
Although as RATTER says you may be lucky by cleaning or replacing the spark plugs.

[Hymie]

As others have said – you might be lucky and not caused any permanent damage.

Overfilling an engine with oil will result in the big ends becoming immersed – splashing oil all over the place within the engine sump area, particularly upwards towards the cylinders. The cylinder rings are not designed to stop such a significant amount of oil entering the cylinder. The spluttering engine might only be due to excessive oil burning off in the ignition cycle.

Given the age of the car – and its value, I would just hope for the best and as methyl says, give it a good run to clear things out.

[freak_unique]

Thanks muchly for your responses will have a look at spark plugs tomorrow! Like i said its the initial start up thats the problems after about 10mins it runs sweet as it always did :) fingers crossed

[Graham-W]

There is also a chance you have poisoned the cat (catalytic converter) though this will only show up on your emissions test for the MOT. This, also, may burn off with time.