Dealer over fill the engine oil.. Now what??

[skfnxh]

Hi Guys,

I changed engine oil at the dealer on Nov 28. (It is about 13 days ago)
After the oil change, I feel some burn smell around the hood side.

This happen quite often after I come back home from the work. (About 25 mile driving, mostly freeway).

Today I felt again, so I checked engine oil level. What the $%$%.
The oil level was very high. It almost looks like they forgot to drain the old oil.

Look this pic I just took. You can see how much dealer over fill the oil.



I also took the paper towel to wipe out the oil from dip stick.
It look kind of dirty considering oil change was done only 13 days ago.
Can you guys can tell if this is dirty or not?


I will go back to dealer to drain out the oil.
I just worry about my car engine. What if engine got damaged? Should I ask dealer to check the engine for me?

What should I do? Any opinion?

[CroMath]

It seems strange to me that a dealership would overfill a crankcase, but mistakes happen everywhere. Check your oil first thing in the morning when the engine is cold. If the level is still that high, then things are definitely not right.

I doubt that the old oil is still in the engine - even though your oil has started to change colour, it doesn't look dark enough to me to suggest it wasn't changed. I'm sure other members will offer more opinions. Engine oils contain detergents that will clean gunk and deposits from inside your engine. So changing colour is a sign that the new oil is doing a good job of cleaning.

You should have any excess oil drained as soon as possible. It's not as though your engine will implode tomorrow with the extra oil, but it's not something you should let slide.

[flyingn]

That will not hurt anything,. That is most likely 6 quarts instead of the 5.5 it needs for a fill. I do the same thing with ours for almost 4 years now will no issues. My guess is the burning smell was them dripping the oil on the exhaust manifold. The oil looks new

[RAV4Don]

ditto flyin's comments. Plus I trust you used the proper procedures to check the oil: Rav parked on a level surface and cold engine. Just checking.

[Colonel]

If its a quart from the low mark to the high mark for filling, how can an assumption be made that its only .5 quarts overfilled?

Not knowing the exact design of the dipstick tube, I would say by simple measurement from "low dot to high dot" and the extrapoloation from the high dot to the edge of the liquid line are the same.

However if it wasnt cold and on a level surface, all bets are off.

[John E Davies]

Originally Posted by Colonel

Not knowing the exact design of the dipstick tube, I would say by simple measurement from "low dot to high dot" and the extrapoloation from the high dot to the edge of the liquid line are the same.

Nope - you are assuming that the shape of the bottom of the engine block and the shape of the oil pan is constant as it goes up. The only way to know this _for sure_ is to fill to the Full mark, then add another quart and see where the level is on the stick. You can't extrapolate by the existing marks.

OP: I suspect the oil level is slightly high - just get the dealer to lower it to the Full mark. You are right to be concerned, but it isn't a big deal. Your motor is fine, but it appears that the tech screwed up.

[Scoobs]

Should he also check the filter? Sometimes the oil level appears high because they put on the wrong sized filter i.e. too small. That would leave more oil than normal in the engine itself. Just a thought.

That does look like new oil to me.

[skfnxh]

Thank you guys for posting.

Just for the verification, I did check the oil level when engine is cool and the car is parked on level surface.


It seems that my car will be fine. (I am still very concerned about this)
It is really surprise for me that only 0.5 quart can make this much high level on dipstick. (The dipstick did show oil level about more than half inch above the full level as you can see from the pic). It is written in invoice (work order ?) that they put 4 quart of oil though.

Anyway, I will contact dealer today and bring back the car tomorrow. I just wish my engine is fine. (Probably I will make big deal out of this to dealer. I am about to write to Toyota cooperation about this overfill issue. )

I will see what dealer will say. I will post again after the dealer visit. (Is it OK to post dealer name?)

Thanks guys.

[RAV4Don]

Originally Posted by Scoobs

Should he also check the filter? Sometimes the oil level appears high because they put on the wrong sized filter i.e. too small. That would leave more oil than normal in the engine itself. Just a thought.

That does look like new oil to me.

Scoobs, it is very unlikely that the incorrect sized filter was used given the design of the V6 filter canister. I know what you mean as I use different sized filters on my Chevys. There are at least four different capacity filters out there for them.

[Carbon]

I suspect the oil was not well drained. That oil on the paper towel seems a little dark to me too. Part of why some (not me) change their own oil is that they can let the oil drip until it stops. At least there was not a dark ring on your paper towel.

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