Engine oil overfilled?

[Davidhee58]

Hi, can anyone confirm me if the engine oil was overfilled? it seems to me it was, but i am not 100% sure as the oil level on both sides of stick is not exactly same, i checked the oil on numerous times in the morning without driving, the oil level on the front size of the stick was always over the Max, but the oil on the back side of the stick was not clear. I used to check the engine oil after service at my local garage for my previous car, and sometimes I did find they over filled the engine oil, but i never do  the check after the service at Toyota dealer garage. my car had an intermediate service on 2 April at a Toyota Jemca Centre.

[furtula]

Looks overfilled, but not by that much. I had a cousin who had 1L overfilled.

I'd just buy some cheap tubing and stick it into the dipstick hole, the longer the better, you dont want oil in your lungs when sucking on it.

That is, unless you have one of those fancy vacuum engines.

Maybe someone has a better/easier solution, but this one will work.

Looks like maybe 100ml overfill only.

 

[Stivino]

17 minutes ago, furtula said:

Maybe someone has a better/easier solution,

Leave it as it is, it’s not worth bothering about.

[Guest]

As suggested, it does appear to be slightly overfilled. However, I find that the indicated level, like in the pictures, differs front and back!

It does need for the car to be on a level surface. Even a very slight slope, either way, does change the level on the dipstick.

I, personally, would not be concerned about those readings.

[Davidhee58]

25 minutes ago, mrpj1 said:

As suggested, it does appear to be slightly overfilled. However, I find that the indicated level, like in the pictures, differs front and back!

It does need for the car to be on a level surface. Even a very slight slope, either way, does change the level on the dipstick.

I, personally, would not be concerned about those readings.

The car is parked on the drive (level surface), I checked the oil level on numerous times recently, the oil level was always like the photos shown. i guess the back of the stick touches the wall when you take it out because the stick does goes to the engine straight, i think the reading on the back is not reliable, it was ~1cm over the Max, and must be overfilled more than 100ml. I work in the lab, and know how much of 100 ml likes like😄  

[Davidhee58]

Update:  called Toyota Jemca service department, and was asked to pop up with my car. the service adviser checked the oil level, and  admitted it was overfilled but said it is ok and said just ignore it, I asked him to give me a report for what he has done and what he has said to me, he then said he was going to reset the engine oil level for me, however, after resetting,  he refused to give me a paper work, having argued with him for a while, he finally agreed to print out a service report for me. I just want some evidence in the case something happens to the engine due to the oil overfilling.

I have done about 1100 mile since last service on April, but most of the miles were done on motorway (~700 miles), I hope it didn't do any harm to the engine.

Lesson was learnt again, you can't trust any car garage, even the main dealership, always check your car after service!!! 

 

[TonyHSD]

36 minutes ago, Davidhee58 said:

The car is parked on the drive (level surface), I checked the oil level on numerous times recently, the oil level was always like the photos shown. i guess the back of the stick touches the wall when you take it out because the stick does goes to the engine straight, i think the reading on the back is not reliable, it was ~1cm over the Max, and must be overfilled more than 100ml. I work in the lab, and know how much of 100 ml likes like😄  

It is overfilled indeed, my calculations are 150 maybe a bit more since the difference between min and max it’s around 1000ml this looks like 1/5 of it , the advice with syringe and tube will be my choice of doing it. Not a big deal if you leave it too but you may find oil under the throttle body in the intake manifold and that usually happens when engine oil is overfilled or pcv valve is faulty, these engines has built in ‘oil catch can’ that catches probably nothing and a PCV valve low the engine block, and when overfilled it’s even easier oil to escape into the manifold. Your one not too bad but you can suck it out and tell us how much it was 😉👌, skip to 5:00 for the pcv info.

 

[Davidhee58]

9 minutes ago, TonyHSD said:

Your one not too bad but you can suck it out and tell us how much it was

Hi Tony, thanks for your advice, the dealer mechanics has reset the oil level for me, i have no idea how much oil he has took out, fortunately i haven't done many miles since the last service and hope nothing has happened to the throttle body or the PCV valve, do I need to check them?

[TonyHSD]

Just now, Davidhee58 said:

Hi Tony, thanks for your advice, the dealer mechanics has reset the oil level for me, i have no idea how much oil he has took out, fortunately i haven't done many miles since the last service and hope nothing has happened to the throttle body or the PCV valve, do I need to check them?

No, it’s all okay. The worst case scenario is to have a little bit of oil there, nothing to worry about it. When you car get to about 90-100k miles you will need to do cleaning procedure on your egr system including egr valve, egr pipe, egr cooler, intake manifold and throttle body and MAF sensor, this is also the time when you will need to replace your pcv valve and inspect how much oil you have accumulated into the intake manifold. The early signs of any issues with oil consumption are black soot and oily dirt inside your exhaust pipe tip, if it’s only clean water coming from and it looks rusted then means you are all good. 👍✅ Enjoy your car and don’t worry too much. Toyota hybrids like only checks and simple service on time, that’s all👌🚗

[Gerg]

I think that your over-fill by the dealer is not going to do any harm.

Just as background, a very similar predecessor to your engine had a problem diagnosed by Toyota as partly to do with the engine oil running too hot.  Part of the fix for this was to increase the amount of oil in the engine by creating a new, higher 'upper' dipstick mark.

See the posts in this thread (which is only put here to inform about oil levels - not the oil burning) by Devon Aygo and Sproutdreamer.

Sproutdreamer is experimenting with a deliberate 12mm overfill, with no problems reported. 

Just as more background, we have an Auris that, when I bought it privately, secondhand, had recently had a full Toyota service.  I extracted over half a litre of oil to get the dipstick down to the 'upper' level on that car.  It's very common problem.  IIRC, the dipstick on that car was showing an over-fill twice as big as yours.

I did this as I was curious as to the volume involved.  I used 6mm OD plastic pipe and an equestrian syringe (just a big syringe - 80ml).  Perhaps you've got something similar in the lab?

[rajivrattna]

I wonder if the overfill history has something to do with incomplete emptying of the old oil before filling it with new. The time pressure must be immense at the dealers. I change oil in our auris 1.2t myself and I drain the engine oil with both the sump plug and oil filter removed and let it drip for atleast 15 to 20 min after the first rush. Then after replacing the sump plug and a new oil filter, I fill the new oil exactly 4 litres and each times the oil level has been at exactly  max. So does the dealer not know what I know? Difficult to believe.

Or the other reason can be the oil filling tap. Some Toyota dealers use a long pipe with flow meter attached that shows the amount flowing in through to the engine oil cap hole as they press the lever. The trick is to stop at the level indicated on the meter. Slow reaction =more oil filled in the engine.

[furtula]

That's all nice, but the dealer is looking to get least amount of time on the lift, and move cars fast as possible.

I presume they just take shortest way possible, remove the plug, while it drains, replace filter, 2-3 minutes maybe, once done, reinstall the plug, and refill.

If the car is sitting on a lift for 20 minutes, it's just wasted money for them.

[yossarian247]

My local Toyota dealer seem to consistently overfill the oil by at least that much on every service! Over the years it's happened on our petrol Auris, diesel Avensis and most recently our C-HR hybrid. Its never appeared to do any of them any harm so I've just stopped worrying about it now. The Skoda dealer who serviced my old Octavia always did the same. It must actually cost them a lot of money in 'wasted' oil over the years if they are doing that with every car they service.

[ziauris]

On 10/23/2021 at 12:41 PM, yossarian247 said:

My local Toyota dealer seem to consistently overfill the oil by at least that much on every service! Over the years it's happened on our petrol Auris, diesel Avensis and most recently our C-HR hybrid.  It must actually cost them a lot of money in 'wasted' oil over the years if they are doing that with every car they service.

No, it really doesn't. The dealers use the crappiest, cheapest oil they can get and lose more money if a car is sitting on the ramp waiting for the last 200-300 mls to drain out. So they probably have automatic fillers set to 4.5L or the guys do it manually for a specific amount of time, which results in over-filling as they did not wait for the last bit of oil to be drained. Over-filling can bust/damage your seals, but I doubt the dealers give a monkeys, it's not their personal car and the more cars they can turnaround/hr = more money for the techs. That's capitalism.

[fourbanks]

The level should be the same on both sides. Your car needs to be on a level surface only and wipe clean the dip stick and then insert. The back side of your photo is classed as correct on a hot engine. On a cold engine it needs to be within the markers if possible

 

[Hornet3D]

This might be of interest.

 

 

[TonyHSD]

Indeed dealers and most garages tend to overfilled with engine oil.
About that video above which is helpful and true checking engine oil is correct in both ways on cold and warm engine.  
Always on warm up engine oil will be lower on the dipstick because oil has a tendency to stick to metal parts and needs more time to return to the sump. The car care nut says about the oil level exactly opposite to this video that when checking oil level at warm engine will show as overfilled as oil volume expands with temperature rise, also true but oil can not expand as much to set so different levels how oil can stick on valvetrain and show you a less. 
I do checks on both hot and cold because sometimes is difficult to read.

Rules :  

When checking on cold engine do not wipe the dipstick, just pull out and read.

When checking on hot wipe first and then insert to get proper measurements. 👍

Ask me about oil changes and checks. Here for 2 years oil changes  just disposed yesterday to the local recycling depot. This is with lockdowns in mind, otherwise would have be at least 3 more 😉👌

[Davidhee58]

7 hours ago, TonyHSD said:

When checking on cold engine do not wipe the dipstick, just pull out and read.

Followed your rules, it makes the reading simple and reliable👍

I

9 hours ago, fourbanks said:

the level should be the same on both sides. Your car needs to be on a level surface only and wipe clean the dip stick and then insert. The back side of your photo is classed as correct on a hot engine. On a cold engine it needs to be within the markers if possible

I checked the oil in numerous times on warm or cold engine, of cause, the car was parked on a level surface (driveway), the engine oil was definitely overfilled, I don't know if the amount of overfilled oil would harm the engine or not. I recently changed the engine oil myself, and  found the oil filter was over-tightened and the housing tabs were broken by the dealer tech and surprisingly the oil sump plug was under-tightened, caused slow oil leak! over the passed 4 years my car was serviced at the local dealer garage, I always thought the dealer would do the proper job for their customers!

[TonyHSD]

19 minutes ago, Davidhee58 said:

Followed your rules, it makes the reading simple and reliable👍

I

I checked the oil in numerous times on warm or cold engine, of cause, the car was parked on a level surface (driveway), the engine oil was definitely overfilled, I don't know if the amount of overfilled oil would harm the engine or not. I recently changed the engine oil myself, and  found the oil filter was over-tightened and the housing tabs were broken by the dealer tech and surprisingly the oil sump plug was under-tightened, caused slow oil leak! over the passed 4 years my car was serviced at the local dealer garage, I always thought the dealer would do the proper job for their customers!

Spot on about the dealers and garages in general. One of the reasons why I prefer to do any work on the car by myself if possible. 👌👍

[fourbanks]

Are we talking about Toyota dealers above?

[Saxmaniac]

Funnily enough, my main dealer tends to underfill which I'm fine with. I only go to dealer because of guarantee but double check everything they do, plus extra maintenance myself that they simply don't do

[Davidhee58]

1 hour ago, Saxmaniac said:

Funnily enough, my main dealer tends to underfill which I'm fine with. I only go to dealer because of guarantee but double check everything they do, plus extra maintenance myself that they simply don't do

when my car was approaching the end of 5 years manufacture warranty, I was thinking to carry on the service at the Toyota dealership to get the relax warranty, but completely changed my mind after I did the oil change myself on April. I can't believe it, when I opened the plastic cover under engine, immediately noticed the oil leaking around the sump plug and filter housing tabs were broken off. And I thought the torque for the oil filter is 25Nm, should be fairly easy to remove, but it's not,  I had no chance to loose it and had to bring my car to a local garage for help! 

[planc]

I was a Toyota main dealer mechanic for 23 years. Oil level checks were recommended on a warm engine leaving for a couple of minutes before dipping, this is so the oil has circulated around the engine and not to fully drain back into the sump. The amount that the oil was over on the dipstick would not cause any significant issues and as previously mentioned Toyota have indeed issued dipstick's to some engines with an higher level.

Regarding dealers using cheap oil is a bit harsh as you can't put all dealers under the same tag.

The dealer I worked at used Toyota oil in the 5 & 1 litre bottles from the parts counter and that oil at the time was manufactured by Mobil.

If you are unsure of the oil the dealer you are using supplies just ask them prior to booking the car in for service.I

As you can imagine I am qualified to service my car myself, but I still trust the dealer to service my Auris Hybrid so that I qualify for the Relax warranty.

[fourbanks]

3 minutes ago, planc said:

I was a Toyota main dealer mechanic for 23 years. Oil level checks were recommended on a warm engine leaving for a couple of minutes before dipping, this is so the oil has circulated around the engine and not to fully drain back into the sump. The amount that the oil was over on the dipstick would not cause any significant issues and as previously mentioned Toyota have indeed issued dipstick's to some engines with an higher level.

Regarding dealers using cheap oil is a bit harsh as you can't put all dealers under the same tag.

The dealer I worked at used Toyota oil in the 5 & 1 litre bottles from the parts counter and that oil at the time was manufactured by Mobil.

If you are unsure of the oil the dealer you are using supplies just ask them prior to booking the car in for service.I

As you can imagine I am qualified to service my car myself, but I still trust the dealer to service my Auris Hybrid so that I qualify for the Relax warranty.

All main Toyota dealers work to the same standard. Toyota has a company don't do half measures and any manager failing the customer would find the loss of the franchise

 

 

 

 

[TonyHSD]

All good about dealers is simply said “on paper “. In reality things can be very different. This also apply to independent garages . We all know that is ultra difficult to find a trusted mechanic, someone who take pride of what they are doing and then the profits. There are some, but it’s a rare occurrence. And of course not all dealers are bad, again depends on the people who work there. Service manager might be a good man but the mechanic who works on your car could be a dodgy b..rd who only thinks how not to work and earn his living.