I have a 91 protege 1.8L. Oil change shop overfilled it (about 1/2" past F mark).
Now it smokes on startup. Never smoked before the overfill. Seems to much
of a coincidence. 222,000 km on engine makes it hard to argue with the
shop. I suspect valve seals??

 

Drain some out and get it to the right level, then give it some time to see if there is still an issue. Excess oil can cause plenty of problems (crankshaft sloshing through oil in the bottom of the pan causing it to foam up is one.) You really don't want it over-filled.

Valve seals shouldn't fail because of overfill. (At least I wouldn't think they would)

 

I would not think that it only being overfilled about a half inch over F would cause any problems. That is only about a half a quart.

Valve guide seals are a possibility. I have seen a variety of makes of vehicles have this problem after an oil change. It is usually when the shop uses the oil fill gun. A lot of times the oil fills up in the head faster than it can drain to the pan resulting in some oil getting in through the valve seals and you see smoke. This should go away after a few start ups if this is the case.

 

stop! get that excess oil out! it will blow all of your seals! go back to the place were youchanged your oil have them remove the excess.
good luck!

 

got the oil out as soon as we noticed the problem (had driven about 5okm). Too late! Driven about 500 km now
and it still smokes on start up. This problem only started after the shops overfill.
The car never smoked before. Of course the dealer will not except any fault.
They say it has 220,000 km on it and the prodege's have a smoking problem.
That is bull! as i said it never smoked. first start up after sitting overnight and the
block was full of smoke. I believe valve seals would go gradually and not so
sudden. Any body think I have a chance with the shop??

 

I once had an Accord that did this...it is beyond me why this happened. I changed the oil myself and it started smoking. It was running perfect before, and it lasted about 1K miles afterwards. It was later dubbed "smokebomb". There were no mosquitos that could live within a city block of this thing!