[Scott1888]

Hello,

i have a 2017 Golf GTE, which i’ve had for around 5 months. The other day i had a warning light pop up on the dash ‘oil level too high’

The car had a full service when I purchased it and had no problems at all over the 5 months.

I have car booked in for fresh oil and filter change but was wondering what is best oil and if the amount of oil put into car is different to standard golf/GTD/GTI ect

thanks
Scott

 

[Todor]

Hello,

i have a 2017 Golf GTE, which i’ve had for around 5 months. The other day i had a warning light pop up on the dash ‘oil level too high’

The car had a full service when I purchased it and had no problems at all over the 5 months.

I have car booked in for fresh oil and filter change but was wondering what is best oil and if the amount of oil put into car is different to standard golf/GTD/GTI ect

thanks
Scott

I have had that pop up twice after an annual service. It is definitely the dealers overfilling the oil.

I can comment on the type of oil, but I'm sad to tell you that the dealer doesn't care. They will fill your car with whatever oil they have ...

 

[piranha86]

Had the same problem a few months back after buying the car from the dealer. VW fixed it by draining the excess oil. It was around £70 but was covered by the warranty

 

[Jehu]

Hi Scott - why not poat a picture of the dipstick to show just how high the overfill is, so that the collective wisdom of the forum can opine?
I've had my Passat for exactly six months now and have been driving around with the overfill warning all that time. As the dealer is quite far away from me, I sent them a picture of the dipstick and they responded that it was OK to tolerate that degree of overfill. I use the ICE very rarely (only half a tank of petrol in the six months) so I have felt OK with that.

 

[Todor]

I've had my Passat for exactly six months now and have been driving around with the overfill warning all that time. As the dealer is quite far away from me, I sent them a picture of the dipstick and they responded that it was OK to tolerate that degree of overfill. I use the ICE very rarely (only half a tank of petrol in the six months) so I have felt OK with that.

Do not do that! I have had the same discussion with many people and the conclusion is: get the correct oil level. Do not leave the car operating with that "High oil level" message.

Possible side effects:

• your oil bubbles;
• due to air mixed in oil, it looses efficiency, so now your engine works at higher friction => higher temperature=> further degrades the oil;
• oil particles sip into your DPF filter and slowly clogs it => destroys the DPF;

Especially, because it is so easy to fix, even at home, do not drive your car like this.

 

[Jehu]

Todor - you say its easy to fix at home - can you suggest an easy fix?
I don't have the tools to get at the sump plug to drain the oil that way. I did try getting a small tube down the dipstick opening hoping to suck some oil out, but there seems to be a baffle prevening the tube getting down very far. Having failed at that I gave up and thought I'd wait until I have to bring the car in for a service.
I'm attaching the picture I sent the VW dealer showing the overfill that they said was fine. It's about 8mm above the top marker.

 

[Todor]

@Jehu I meant more like a special draining syringe. I think I have seen such on Amazon/eBay.

I don't think there is baffle on the oil cap at the top of the engine. Or I don't know how my dealer managed to extract some oil twice in less than 15min.

PS: that is extremely high level, mine was ~1 or 2mm above! And when driving, it would be even with the "high" mark. And I was still getting the high oil level warning.

 

[tom66]

I've had exactly the same issue happen on my 2015 GTE after a service. The mechanic had overfilled it. They drained and refilled it to the correct level free of charge.

If the oil level is much higher (to the point where the exhaust smoke is no longer white) this can damage the catalyst, exhaust system and turbo. So get it sorted, and use electric as much as possible while you can.

The GTE doesn't have a DPF (it's not a diesel) nor the petrol equivalent (GPF, gasoline particulate filter), the first GPF on VW vehicles was fitted to the VW up! GTI.

 

[Todor]

@tom66 You are correct about the DPF! I meant the catalytic converter, I think that is the correct term.

 

[Gteluke]

Same thing happened today for me. I just picked up the car 2 days ago : 4500 kms directly from the VW dealer.
I am so bummed. I was driving 60mph in gte mode down the highway and the light came up.
Even after 1h the dip stick was way above the max!
Getting the car towed and ask for replacement

 

[Todor]

Same thing happened today for me. I just picked up the car 2 days ago : 4500 kms directly from the VW dealer.
I am so bummed. I was driving 60mph in gte mode down the highway and the light came up.
Even after 1h the dip stick was way above the max!
Getting the car towed and ask for replacement

There is nothing wrong with the car, but a lot wrong with your dealer. Sorry.

 

[Gteluke]

There is nothing wrong with the car, but a lot wrong with your dealer. Sorry.

I could not agree more!
When life gives you lemons...I will push hard to get as much free stuff as I can from this.
The dealer is the worst I have ever seen, this is their 4th f*k up, I will keep you posted

 

[Todor]

I could not agree more!
When life gives you lemons...I will push hard to get as much free stuff as I can from this.
The dealer is the worst I have ever seen, this is their 4th f*k up, I will keep you posted

My UK dealer overfilled my former GTE twice... I'm afraid they don't learn.

But good luck!

 

[Gteluke]

My Irish dealer botched the delivery of my e-Golf 3 times... I ended up getting the GTE

 

[Zorbs]

Over the weekend, I had a dashboard warning advising me that the oil level was too high, happened while negotiating a steepish camber on a slip road. It had been serviced approx. 4 months ago just before I had purchased it. My local VW dealer looked at it today and said it had been caused by not priming the oil filter, the filter was dry, apparently this only has to be done on the GTE and other hybrids. If the garage servicing the car is unaware of this priming process, it could account for a lot of the overfilling warnings. My oil was approx 2mm above the high level on the dipstick, measured when cold, so when hot likely to be higher. In my case the process of removing the dipstick and replacing it reset the system and the warning was gone.
Once they had primed the filter, the oil level returned to the correct high level mark.

 

[Oldmk4golf]

Todor - you say its easy to fix at home - can you suggest an easy fix?
I don't have the tools to get at the sump plug to drain the oil that way. I did try getting a small tube down the dipstick opening hoping to suck some oil out, but there seems to be a baffle prevening the tube getting down very far. Having failed at that I gave up and thought I'd wait until I have to bring the car in for a service.
I'm attaching the picture I sent the VW dealer showing the overfill that they said was fine. It's about 8mm above the top marker.

View attachment 142013

I've also had the high level warning after a service. I did exactly as you tried as above. I had to straighten the tubing before poking it down the dipstick hole, then after warming the engine, sucked out about half a pint of oil (took about half an hour) until the warning went off. Much quicker than taking it back to the dealer.

 

[Gteluke]

The dealer told me it was their fault, they did another oil change, I drove the car and no probs after 300 km.
So, all good.