[TitanVA]

Hey everybody. 2004 CTS w/ 3.6L. Is there more than one place to drain the oil?

I have been having the oil changed at the dealer, but got tired of paying $80 so I decided to do it myself. I have changed all my other cars in the past with no issues so i figured this would be the same. WRONG. I found and changed the filter no problem. Once I found the right bit I pulled the drain plug and let it drain. Replaced the plug and put in 5 quarts. Was going to see where it was and then add more as needed. I checked the dipstick and it reads about 3 inches past the full mark! WTF? I started the car to drive around the block thinking the oil needed to get through the system or something and it is running rough with a noticable pulse in the engine. I am going to try and drain out some of the oil tonight but wanted to make sure I was not missing something. I tried to measure what came out and it looks to be about 4 qts. that came out.

Any ideas?

 

[CTS V6 3.6]

If you are asking if there is more then one place to drain the oil.....you should not be changing oil. The 3.6 should take about 5-1/2 quarts of mobil 1.

 

[Mark VerMurlen]

I changed my oil myself a couple of weeks ago. I drained the oil from the oil pan just like in every other car.

You couldn't possibly have drained fluid from somewhere else, like the transmission, could you?

- Mark

 

[TitanVA]

You must be the welcoming committee. Thanks for the smarta$$ comment. If you read past the 1st line I think I clearly explained the issue. I figured there was only the one normal place but when 5 qts. puts you way past full you start to question things.

 

[TitanVA]

Mark,No it was the oil. Wierd.

 

[Mark VerMurlen]

You need to determine if the car is really overfilled or not.

If the oil was overfilled high enough, the crankshaft will hit the oil sitting in the pan when it spins. As you probably know, this is a bad thing. I've not had this happen, but I've been told it will beat the oil into foam. If this foam gets sucked into the oil pickup in the bottom of the pan, you could potentially starve the engine of oil and have all kinds of bad things happen.

After driving the car did you pull the dip stick and see any bubbles or foam on it? If so, you need to drain the extra oil out before you drive it any more.

I've owned cars that will push oil up the dipstick which will cause a high reading even though its not over filled. In that case, I just have to wait long enough for the oil to drain out of the dipstick to get an accurate reading.

- Mark

 

[PODunk]

You must be the welcoming committee. Thanks for the smarta$$ comment. If you read past the 1st line I think I clearly explained the issue. I figured there was only the one normal place but when 5 qts. puts you way past full you start to question things.

CTS V6 is not old enough to realize that he doesn't know everything. When he grows up, he may realize that there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers like that one. Welcome to the forum.

 

[CTS V6 3.6]

hes old enough to know how to successfully change his oil. you cannot be too sensitive over at these forums...you will soon find out. welcome to the forums :welcome:

 

[B Hoth]

Don't worry their are a couple of wise-acres here, but their good guys with a lot of helpfull info. WELCOME TO THE FORUM! I've changed my oil from the begining and I've never seen an overfill from just 5 quarts. The only thing I can think of is, did you have the car up at an angle were maybe all the oil didn't drain out making you think it was drained, so when you filled back the required amount it read higher then you expected on the stick? Good Luck!

 

[RobertCTS]

Hey TitanVA:welcome: to the Forum:bouncy: Actually we have a lot of neat and friendly guys here at the Forum:yup:

Not sure what you did wrong but like low oil..to much oil is a problem. Any chance you added 6 qts?

 

[TX_SS]

weird... i see the problem but i always put 6qts and seems fine.. .

 

[jteolis]

Hey TitanVA:welcome: to the Forum:bouncy: Actually we have a lot of neat and friendly guys here at the Forum:yup:

Not sure what you did wrong but like low oil..to much oil is a problem. Any chance you added 6 qts?

Even at 6 qts it wouldn't be that much over filled.

When I check my dipstick, its always hard to see where the oil level is on the stick, especially when its clean Mobil 1. Plus with the AC line right there its a little awkward to get the dipstick out neatly.

 

[RobertCTS]

weird... i see the problem but i always put 6qts and seems fine.. .

It calls for 5 1/2 qts but 6 probably wouldn't give him the problem he's experiencing.

 

[TitanVA]

Ok, SO in order to try and figur out what happened I drained all of the new oil out. I hated to do it but could not for the life of me figure out what was wrong. I have a 7 qt. container to catch the oil. I filled that up and still had some oil draining! I grabbed the only thing I had handy which was an old coffee can and had to put at least another qt. in it! I drained it this time without jacking it up. I cut the wheel hard over and climbed in from there. When I drained it last time I had it propped up on a floor jack pretty high. I guess that kept all the oil from coming out. Replace it with 5 1/2 qts. and all seems to be well, level reads normal. I guess I am used to having to climb under the car to get to the oil pan I just jacked it way up there. Never had that happen before. Thanks for all the help guys.

 

[RobertCTS]

Ok, SO in order to try and figur out what happened I drained all of the new oil out. I hated to do it but could not for the life of me figure out what was wrong. I have a 7 qt. container to catch the oil. I filled that up and still had some oil draining! I grabbed the only thing I had handy which was an old coffee can and had to put at least another qt. in it! I drained it this time without jacking it up. I cut the wheel hard over and climbed in from there. When I drained it last time I had it propped up on a floor jack pretty high. I guess that kept all the oil from coming out. Replace it with 5 1/2 qts. and all seems to be well, level reads normal. I guess I am used to having to climb under the car to get to the oil pan I just jacked it way up there. Never had that happen before. Thanks for all the help guys.

Were you able to reuse the oil? The Mobil 1 is really pricey stuff.

 

[TitanVA]

I just ran to walmart and got new oil since the old was pretty mixed up with the new. I will just chalk this up as an expensive lesson. The sad thing is there is some sort of run on Mobil run around here( Wash, DC area) I had to go to 3 places to find the 5w-30. Everything else no problem. I figure when katrina and rita hit all the people with cadillacs went out and stocked up or something.

 

[canaveral]

Welcome to the forum. I would like to think that this forum is open to all Cadillac related questions without any restrictions.

 

[RobertCTS]

Welcome to the forum. I would like to think that this forum is open to all Cadillac related questions without any restrictions.

Some what but some are still off limits. I got my hands smacked in the Cadillac Lounge a while back for a suggestive picture of a women fully dressed. :yup:

 

[Mark VerMurlen]

When I drained it last time I had it propped up on a floor jack pretty high. I guess that kept all the oil from coming out.

Did you lift up the whole front of the car or just the side? If I remember right, the drain is in a corner of the pan. If the motor is tilted away from that corner I could see how a significant amount of the oil could be left in the engine.

Glad to hear you have resolved the problem.

- Mark

 

[TitanVA]

It was lifted from the front passengerside. It was not tilted too bad so I didn't think anything about it, guess I was wrong.