[mntgab]

First time to any forum. Not sure what I'm doing. So I will dive in.
I bought a 2011 Avalon 7 months ago from a dealer. I've put 5K miles on it and wanted to change the oil assuming it was done by the dealer before selling it. I've read that anywhere from 5.5 to 6.4 quarts is the proper capacity ( the book says 6.4) and of course the dip stick is difficult at best to read. I've also read that over filling is bad, well I just drained my oil and filter and got 8 quarts of oil :surprise:. I have put 5K miles on it including to two out of state trips with this much oil in it and it has run without any issues. In fact it runs beautifully. I'm putting 6 quarts back in. I would like some feedback on what problems I might be looking for, if I had some blown seals what would be the symptoms. I even have the Tech Stream software and it did not show any problems when I was using it for the Tranny fluid change.
Bewildered

 

[510man]

Hi. Welcome to the forum.

Eight quarts would be an overfill on any Gen 3 Avalon I've worked on. I have a 2005 and it takes 6.4qts, which aligns what you see in the manual. I too was uncertain on the first oil change so I put six quarts in and added from there so as to not overfill.

As for problems, overfilling can cause the front and rear crank seals to leak. If that was going to happen, you'd probably already see the oil drip on the ground. Hopefully nothing happened. Just watch it.

Second, the extra oil can increase fuel consumption if the crankshaft is dipping into the oil in the pan. I don't know that it would cause any damage since it would likely result in over oiling if anything. Basically, you have some things dipping or submerged in oil that normally wouldn't be. Dipping in and out of the oil at thousands of RPM creates some slight resistance that isn't normally there.

I'm interested in what others have to say.

 

[Mike Murrell]

6.4 qts. 5W-30 oil

 

[mntgab]

Thanks for the reply. I did add another .4 quarts and it brought it up to the full lin. No external leaks so I guess I lucked out. It will be interesting to see affect it has on gas milage. Thanks again

 

[Vulcan05]

The crankshaft dipping into the oil CAN cause it to "froth", adding air bubbles to the oil, which will cut down it's lubricating ability. It depends on the shape of the oil pan as to whether this will happen. I would guess that if nothing bad happened in 5000 miles that you should be OK.