Nail me to the cross until I bleed to death!

[MACDRIVE]

Some of you already know about my arch enemy willwren, and are probably sick of me complaining about him, but he went off the deep end this time. He said he's going to talk to one of the moderators about getting me banned. I'm thinking I don't care anymore! I pretty much hate that site anyway because of willwren's never ending dominance.


carterb

I have a question hopefully someone here can answer:

I have been taking my SSEi routinely for the past 6 years (and 85k miles) to the local GM dealer to change the oil. About half of the time, they add 5 qts, whereas the service manual says 4.5 qts capacity with oil filter. As a result, the oil on the dipstick reads about 1/2" to 3/4" above the hash marks. Will this oil level damage the engine? The dealer ought to know what they are doing (unless they are trying to purposely damage my engine, which I doubt). The car has lasted this long with no problems so far, doesn't burn oil, etc. .... Is there an absolute maximum level where engine damage might occur or is there still a margin of safety ? (I must not be there yet - not that I'm trying !)

Comments please !

Thanks.

Carter

MACDRIVE

I've been running 6 quarts since June 19, 2007.

So far no problems at all.

The level on the dipstick reads right at the last 'L' in 'FULL'

ADD | . . . . . | FULL

willwren

And here we go again. I was flagged to this post in the Gearhead section of the Forum.


Anyone that follows Macdrive's advice to use 6 quarts is asking for serious problems. Overfilling your oil is as bad as underfilling. Macdrive, I thought we made this clear in the past? You must be willing to take on liability for anyone that overfills based on your post, right?

MACDRIVE

I had a dreadful feeling before writing my post that you (willwren), would come back and say something like that.

Let me make this perfectly clear to you: I am not advising anyone to fill up their crankcase up with 6 quarts of oil; I am simply stating that with my Buick, there has not been any problems. The OP asked for comments. My post was a comment only; it was not intended to be advice in anyway-shape-or-form.

willwren - perhaps I should PM you with my phone number so I can explain this to you on the phone with clear cut concise words.

willwren

As you remember, we've had discussions in the past about this. You were given specific instructions to knock off that horribly dangerous advice. And as you can see, you just got jumped on by TWO Admins because of your past actions, including this particular issue.

I don't care how many quarts you run in your car. It will bite you in the A$$ more sooner than later. And I will take it PERSONALLY if anyone on this forum follows your lead and does the same idiotic thing. Do what you want to YOUR car, but keep your mouth shut about 6 quart fills like you were told to previously.

You may not be here long. I'll be discussing this with jr's3800. You were specifically warned about this before.

You get the public treatment AGAIN at your own request. You violated specific instructions and refuse to listen to authority on this Forum.

Our goal is to provide the best possible SERVICE that we can to the members of this forum. Your post violates that in the most severe manner (and it has in the past, and you were specifically told about it).

. . .

 

[TheAnswer]

Ahhh...your old nemesis strikes again!

Yeah...at this point I'd suggest just tossing him the keys and walking away. Then you'd have more time to spend here talking about the Mac. Heck, I'd even suggest selling your car and spending the money on a bigger and better Mac.

That said, I would recommend that you never tell any of the Mods here to fill anything with 6 quarts of anything.

 

[kcross]

so they warned you about something and you did it anyway?

the car should use however much oil is reccomended by the manufacturer.

i dont even know why you quoted those posts. it just makes their case.

 

[ErikCLDR]

Wow what a crazy man. For god sake you are talking about changing oil.

I though dealers usually put in a little extra to be safe, but I don't know if thats true.

Let me ask, who has a better car- you or him?

You must be willing to take on liability for anyone...<snip>

Wow. He is an idiot. This is a message board, what you say doesn't mean the people are actually do it.
----

Edit: Maybe you can beat him up at the "West Coast Bonneville Fest 2007"

And tell him he's an idiot for suping up his old and not valuable pontiacs.

 

[MACDRIVE]

Yeah...at this point I'd suggest just tossing him the keys and walking away.

Yes sir! I think you are very much right!

 

[aquajet]

So you've been using too much oil for a week now with no problems? Let's see how long before you start developing leaks...

 

[SkyBell]

Yes sir! I think you are very much right!

This isn't just 'our opinion'. This is solid WELL KNOWN mechanical advice across the world.

Based on our mutual decision, MACDRIVE is finally gone. He was warned about this EXACT topic and subject matter in the past.

This topic may continue out of respect to the topic author....

...Were you just banned?

 

[Abstract]

MacDrive, if you don't like that forum, then leave. What more can we say? What do you want us to do after reading your post.....file a complaint? Pat you on the back? Get outraged despite it not being a big deal?

Just don't bother whining about that other forum (again!) when you really should have the capacity to just walk away after the 417th bad experience there.

so they warned you about something and you did it anyway?

the car should use however much oil is reccomended by the manufacturer.

i dont even know why you quoted those posts. it just makes their case.

Yes, Willwren is right, both about following the manufacturer's instructions, and about your post. You may not have labelled it as "advise", but what you said was essentially advice, and something that someone else might follow because of your positive (or non-negative) experience running your car at 6 quarts.

Imagine if someone posted here, asking me how much RAM he needs to run a MacBook. I mean, sure, I guess I could go and say: "I have run it on 128 MB of RAM, and nothing went wrong. My computer could run and it didn't break or shut down", but wouldn't it be more helpful to just say "You need 512 MB of RAM to make the computer usable in a practical way (albeit very slow), although 768 MB has proven to provide an enormous improvement over 512 MB, while the benefit of getting 1 GB isn't much greater than 768 MB"???

 

[EricNau]

Want us all to sign up and start spamming his PM box?

 

[SkyBell]

Want us all to sign up and start spamming his PM box?

funfunfun™

 

[TheAnswer]

...Were you just banned?

Based on our mutual decision, MACDRIVE is finally gone. He was warned about this EXACT topic and subject matter in the past.

Sounds like MACDRIVE said "I'm outta here", willwren said "OK". Kinda like getting fired right after you quit.

BTW...West Coast Bonneville Fest 2007 brings up no relevant hits on Google...so much for getting a posse together and going all Young and Dangerous on willwren.

 

[nbs2]

MacDrive, if you don't like that forum, then leave. What more can we say? What do you want us to do after reading your post.....file a complaint? Pat you on the back? Get outraged despite it not being a big deal?

Yes, Willwren is right, both about following the manufacturer's instructions, and about your post. You may not have labelled it as "advise", but what you said was essentially advice, and something that someone else might follow because of your positive (or non-negative) experience running your car at 6 quarts.

Imagine if someone posted here, asking me how much RAM he needs to run a MacBook. I mean, sure, I guess I could go and say: "I have run it on 128 MB of RAM, and nothing went wrong. My computer could run and it didn't break or shut down", but wouldn't it be more helpful to just say "You need 512 MB of RAM to make the computer usable in a practical way (albeit very slow), although 768 MB has proven to provide an enormous improvement over 512 MB, while the benefit of getting 1 GB isn't much greater than 768 MB"???

I agree, agree, and disagree.

I don't see what we are expected to do about a bunch those guys - at some point, the mods are the mods and if your philosophy isn't working within their construct, let your friends know how to reach you if they want to have discussions, and either leave or just contribute occasionally - in the end, it would be their loss, wouldn't it?

Also, it did come off as advice - that you were suggesting that it is possible to have 6 qts without problems. At the same time, I don't think that because you had a non-negative experience, people are going to take that as gospel. More than likely, a newbie would read that and (hopefully) think "oh, I put 5 quarts in, but this guy did 6 - he was ok, so I guess I don't need to panic." I don't think it read as a comment that everybody should go and do it.

And, I think that if someone were to comment that using 128MB RAM in a MB was functional and didn't cause a shutdown, it could be informative to the reader. While being closer to mfr recommended specs is always better (and in our case, exceeding is fine as well), knowing that not following specs isn't going to cause my computer to blow up is nice. Is more detail better? Yes. Perhaps MD could have explained that "while every experience is unique, he was fine with 6," or he could have provided better help, I think that for the OP's questioning of 5, MD saying 6 hadn't caused a problem would be comforting.

In the end, I couldn't care less.

 

[Xeem]

Want us all to sign up and start spamming his PM box?

That actually sounds kind of fun to me, too, but of course I wouldn't want any bad PR for Macrumors...

 

[kcross]

i should have re arranged my message to put the "the car should use..." part at the end.

my point was the mod told you not to do something. the posts show that they told you not to do something but you did it anyway. they are mods appointed by the owner or manager of the board. they can do whatever they want and if you fail to follow the rules you can be banned.

 

[MACDRIVE]

What do you want us to do after reading your post.....file a complaint? Pat you on the back? Get outraged despite it not being a big deal?

How about a little compassion and understanding? What is so wrong with starting a thread only to complain about an occurrence or an event? Other MacRumors members do it all the time. I thought that this Community Forum was a venue for expressing ourselves.

Just don't bother whining about that other forum (again!)

You don't have to worry about me making anymore threads about that site; I was banned shortly after my last post there.

Yes, Willwren is right, both about following the manufacturer's instructions, and about your post.

I find it disturbing that you feel that way.

Abstract, your ill fated feelings towards me personally are quite obvious from your replies to my posts. May I suggest that you simply assign me to your ignore list so that I don't have to be constantly subjected to your relentless sarcasm.

 

[Telp]

There is nothing wrong about stating what he does. No one has to follow his advise, and should know what they are getting into before they do it.

 

[JNB]

How about a little compassion and understanding? What is so wrong with starting a thread only to complain about an occurrence or an event? Other MacRumors members do it all the time. I thought that this Community Forum was a venue for expressing ourselves.

It is, and they are. Remember, this is not a place for guaranteed concurrence with any one member or their positions. Regardless, a couple of salient points that have been brought up, and I think are worth remembering.

First, the issue between you and a forum Admin will not, and cannot be won by anyone other than the Admin. Don't expect otherwise, and don't be surprised when you don't get complete agreement. You'd get the same result here, I'd imagine (and then where would you go for compassion?)

Second, going public with a forum dispute is generally a no-no anyway, and should be reserved for PMs. That alone will get you banned from any number of forums, this one included. It boils down to their board, their rules.

As far as the whole advice/not advice brouhaha, I'd have tempered the 6 quart comment with a strong disclaimer. While I have no doubt whatsoever you're doing it with no apparent ill effects (for the time being, at least), my own 40+ years wrenching and any ASEMM or automotive engineer would suggest otherwise as a long-term strategy. Not a point I'd be willing to push, but that's just me. YMMV, literally.

 

[mpw]

...Yes, Willwren is right, both about following the manufacturer's instructions, and about your post. You may not have labelled it as "advise", but what you said was essentially advice, and something that someone else might follow because of your positive (or non-negative) experience running your car at 6 quarts.

Imagine if someone posted here, asking me how much RAM he needs to run a MacBook. I mean, sure, I guess I could go and say: "I have run it on 128 MB of RAM, and nothing went wrong. My computer could run and it didn't break or shut down", but wouldn't it be more helpful to just say "You need 512 MB of RAM to make the computer usable in a practical way (albeit very slow), although 768 MB has proven to provide an enormous improvement over 512 MB, while the benefit of getting 1 GB isn't much greater than 768 MB"???

I'm gonna disagree with Abstract on the above, with the caveat that I don't really care too much.

It's more like somebody posting here that they haven't been calibrating their PowerBook's battery regularly for the last 6years, and will this be a problem even though it isn't causing a problem right now, and MACDRIVE posting that here never calibrated his battery and hasn't had a problem.

He stated what he'd done, not what somebody else should be doing. Sounds to me like that board has a bunch of slightly (or more) anal members and mods.

In that respect I agree with Abstract that why bovver spending/wasting time there.

 

[MACDRIVE]

You'd get the same result here, I'd imagine (and then where would you go for compassion?)

That would never happen here because the administrators here at MR are intelligent people with common sense plus a certain degree of patience. Whenever I've made a questionable post here at MR, it just gets vanished into thin air; I don't have to worry about a moderator raking me over the coals in front of the whole board.

Partly the reason for me publicly reflecting on my experiences with that other site is to expose the insurmountable differences in class of people between MR and that other site. There's just no comparison what-so-ever, and I take great comfort in knowing that.

 

[CanadaRAM]

May I suggest that you simply assign me to your ignore list

Good advice, Done.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Sry, man, not much sympathy here. You ignored a specific a warning from an Admin about giving, what is collectively considered, bad advice. Not a good idea man.


Lethal

 

[MACDRIVE]

Sry, man, not much sympathy here. You ignored a specific a warning from an Admin about giving, what is collectively considered, bad advice. Not a good idea man.

Hey no problem man. . . some of you got my back and some of you don't. I wouldn't expect anything more.

 

[Counterfit]

Well, overfilling can lead to some bad things. If the oil level in the crankcase gets too high, it can come in contact with the crankshaft (or the attatched counterweights) and froth the oil. That's bad. You should probably go no higher than 5qt. Consider it saving a few bucks every time you change it.


As for the mod's behavior, though, it's thoroughly unprofessional (even if he is a volunteer). There's no need for that kind of back and forth ever to be made public, and I would certainly stay away from any forum with mods like that. Thankfully, the car forum I post on has sane mods. The jackasses don't get the nifty pink titles.

 

[Sun Baked]

Re: Nail me to the cross until I bleed to death!

Hey no problem man. . . some of you got my back and some of you don't. I wouldn't expect anything more.

Always people that will:

1. run up and try to slow the bleeding so you can suffer as long as possible

2. wait for somebody else to do something

3. those that will go out and collect wood so we can burn you at the stake to end your suffering, and have some light and a warm fire for the keg party.

 

[iBlue]

Even if I ignored the fact that this is incredibly absurd and you deliberately went against rules (or something) - Why air it here? Sort your dirty laundry yourself... privately.

My 2¢