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Quarts in crank case

2.3K views 19 replies 14 participants last post by  Digger1  
#1 · (Edited)
I went to toyota dealership to change my oil.

I requested for castrol 10-30 as opposed to the bulk kendall 5-30.

They put in 4 quarts of castrol in my gen 4.5 - 4 cylinder (5sfe).
I know that gen 4.5 has a 3.8 capacity only.
The oil line is about 1/4 inch above the "F" line on the dip stick.

I asked them to drained it so that it does not exceed the "F" line.
The maser tech came out and said that it will not cause any problems.

Should i take his word for it?

Edit: Wordings revised
 
#4 ·
drain it down to meet the full mark. Those guys at the dealership did the samething to my 1990 Camry and I had problems with my engine performance. In my case they filled 1 inch above the full mark. Anyway this dealership is going to get a shit score when corporate asks for a survey of this dealership. Good luck.
 
#6 ·
I usually change my own oil, except for major service intervals.

When I took my car in for 30K service couple of years ago, the dealer did the same thing you described.

So I drained out the excess oil, gave them a crap score on their survey they sent me.

I took my car in for 60K service (same dealer) in January. They got the oil level right this time. While I don't know if my one survey was enough to change their practice, I'm glad they got it right.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Mike Gerber said:
I also put in 4 quarts on my 98 5SFE engine. It barely reaches the full mark on my dipstick, but I use an aftermarket oil filter. The aftermarket filters may hold a bit more oil and that could be the difference.

Mike
I don't think an aftermarket filter holds any additional oil (vs original). Most likely (because they work fast) they simply did not drain out all the oil. (I always let it drip for a while to get the most out that I can, but you never actually remove 100%.)
I would not worry about it. Cars are usually designed to handle a little extra oil. You could (in theory) end up with additional resistance in the crankcase (resistance in the crank turning), which could affect performance, although any affect would be slight, I would think.

Hot Rod Magazine has demonstrated the "additional oil = resistance" theory in the past, but their examples are usually on ultra high-performance engines at high RPMs.
 
#12 ·
I always put four quarts in teh 5sfe
if it is only over by a small amount then it will not cause any problems if they put an extra quart in then you may have problems with blowby and all that good stuff
dont worry about it
if you try to drain it out you will ned up loosing alot more than what you are wanting to drain out and then you have to get more oil to refill and all that crap.
 
#15 ·
Drain the extra oil out if you must, id change the oil myself since the shop is not satisfying you. Its sad but it seems l;ike almost everytime a mechanic gets his hands on my engine he breaks something extra. (Anybody else has this experience? Could it be my bad breath hee)
i think your concerns about oil level are right but i believe in using the exact grade of oil Toyota says. If they say use 5\30 but 10-30 is ok in warm wather, i might use 10 30, but the manual on my 02 camry v6 says "use 5-30, period." So thats what i use. They made the car, nobody knows better what oil to use, not me, not my mechanic, (id need to see a TSB to change my opinions on that).
 
#16 ·
skewe said:
I check today and it is about 1/3 inch above the "F line" on the dip stick..
getting worried cos i cannot afford to blow an engine as I am saving up for 90k maintenance (water pump, belts, idler, the whole 9 yards)
Hey man, you can do that stuff yourself - or maybe enlist the help of a friend who is a bit of a mechanic. I read/asked questions on here/ended up doing my own timing belt/pulleys/tensioner/water pump/oil seals and before this I had not done anything much more extensive than brakes/fluid changes/alternator/starter. I am not going to pay someone else (who may not be as concerned with the "little things" being right or corrected) for doing something I can figure out. I had some difficulties. but most of that was because my engine had jumped timing (I did not know) and I insisted on putting it back the way I found it rather than how everyone/books said it should go and the first water pump AZ sold me would not rotate under load. But after the obstacles/learning I encountered, I have no doubt I could take my car and swap timing belts out in about 4-5 hours in the future, maybe add another hour for water pump prep/cleaning/installation. Just a thought, but honestly this stuff was not as hard (once all was said and done) as I thought it would be.

God Bless
 
#20 ·
My car (see signature block) takes 3 qts/22 oz of oil to put the level slightly above the half-way mark on the dipstick.

I don't like filling them all the way to the FULL mark...I have a pet theory about that.