Prius oil overfill

It should be fine if it is "barely over" but if your concerned remove the filter empty it and put it back on, that should bring the level down nicely after the engine has been run.

 

Sorry forgetting my manners welcome to PC.

John (Britprius).

 

No. Two reasons:-

(1) The top of the filter is above oil level.

(2) Between the sump and the oil filter is the oil pump "the filter operates at engine oil pressure" if the pump is not running "driven by engine" no oil can flow through the pump.

So it is perfectly safe to remove the filter when the car is not in ready mode. For safety if your car has SKS system keep the fob as far from the car as possible while working on it. Or put it in a tin or rap in foil.

John (Britprius).

 

My question/concern -- and probably someone else could answer this -- would be why would the oil be overfilled if you only put in 3.5 quarts?

When I first started oil changes on my car, I carefully measured out the 3.XXX quarts of oil that the car "actually" called for (something like 3 and 7/8 or something like that) and it came out exactly on the line.

But, it was a pain, and the great forum folks here told me to just put in 3.5 quarts or so....not to worry about getting it dead-on.

So, curious why you would be a tad over (a quarter-inch or less above the full mark won't hurt).

did you change the filter at the same time? Did you measure on canted ground? did you not let all the oil drain -- esp. on a cold engine?

Curious?

BTW, if you plan on doing your own oil changes, install a fumoto valve. Makes the job much easier and it is easy to drain any excess. Seach the forum for fumoto information.

 

Since you mentioned L (litre) measurements, I would ask this question. How many bottles of oil did you use, AND were the bottles 1 quart bottles or 1 litre bottles? I ask this since I really don't know if you are stateside or somewhere else in the world. You can update your personal information to show this if you prefer.

From what I have learned and read if you are just a little over the top mark (like 1/8 of an inch) you should be OK. However it is recommended to keep the oil between the top mark and the lower mark on the dipstick. If it were my car, I would drain a little out of it. According to the manual if you change the oil and the filter the amount needed is 3.9 quarts. If you were to add that much, it usually brings it right up to the top or just a little over. As other's have posted here in the past 3.5 quarts is sufficient when changing the oil and filter.

Good luck to you and welcome to Prius Chat.

Ron

 

it's fine, don't trouble yourself.

 

Another way to get a little oil out, should you decide to, loosen the drain bolt, back it out 'till it's almost out, then carefully tilt/rock the bolt, slightly, to get a fine trickle, draining into some clear receptacle, preferably with gradations. Keep an oil pan under the whole situation, for just in case...

It's a little freaky doing this the first time, but really not that hard. Just keep the bolt slightly threaded in, not free of the threads.. It should not be unscrewed so much that you have to start rethreading.

 

This is what I was going to suggest. It's much easier than removing the filter, but you have to be a little bit careful.

One really important thing if doing it this way: DO IT WITH THE OIL COLD!. Otherwise when you start burning your fingers you'll drop the plug and end up with a mess. As long as the oil is cold, and you don't mind having some dribbling over your hand, then it's a nice easy way to do it.

1. Make sure the oil is cool.
2. Unscrew the drain plug until it's finger tight.
3. Loosen it with your fingers while at the same time pushing it in towards the sump.
4. Let some dribble out and then screw the plug back in.

Remember that all the while you are pushing the plug back towards the sump, even when you're loosening it. This way it doesn't really matter if the plug becomes completely unthreaded or not, as long as you're pushing back against it as you unscrew then the oil will only dribble out.

BTW. If the oil is not more than about 3mm (1/8") over the top dimple then I probably wouldn't bother doing anything.

 

Exactly, I agree with this 100%. If it is overfilled just a little, then it will be Ok. Anymore than that, you should consider draining out a little as uart suggests. I have ran our Prius both ways, just a little over and in between the marks. I have yet to observe any oil whatsoever collecting in the bottom of the manifold underneath the throttle bore, nor have I had any problems with engine running rough or misfires, codes, etc. that happens when you overfill the Prius with oil.

Ron

 

Barely above is fine.

For perspective, I brought my 2012 in to the dealer for the routine check, tire rotation, and "free" oil change. I had no idea they would have overfilled by so much. I was 1/2 inch above the full mark. Geez! Draining that out to get the level to 1/8 below full measured to 24 ounces. That's 2/3 of a quart. What a waste. It can't possible be good for the engine either.

Using the dribble method works well, but can be rather messy. Knowing roughly how much to expect before you loosen helps. I'd suggest a container premarked ahead of time.

 

What they wrote: don't worry about it. Next time start by putting in three (3.0) quarts, waiting ten minutes, then checking the level. It'll probably be fine.

 

Slight overfill of the oil is fine, please do not listen to some of the paranoia and nonsense on here. Grossly overfilling the crankcase would indeed cause foaming issues, and possibly no-start. 1/4-1/3 qt overfill is not going to cause any problems.

The last Gen 2 I had in, which was a 2006, took 3.9 qt to reach the full dot after an oil change- cold. However, after the car was taking on a long trip and the oil level was checked 5 min after shutdown, the level was about 1/4" over the full dot - which was expected and not of any concern.

 

^ I've noticed sim. with 3rd gen.

The first oil change I did, when checking level after running for a minute or two, then letting it settle: the level looked alarmingly low. This was after putting in 4 liters, when the spec. was 4.2 for full. So I caved in and added about 200 cc, but it was still reading low. Then a day or two later, rechecking: it was slightly over the full mark.

From then on, I stuck to putting in 4 liters, and leaving it a few days, then rechecking.

 

True story:

Co-worker dropped off her Gen 1 TSX for a service. I unscrewed the drain plug and allowed it to drain. Over the course of the next 1.5 hr, I cleaned and lubed all of the brake caliper slide pins, rotated the tires, checked fluids, etc. Note that I have done many oil changes on this car before, but I have never allowed it to drain this long.

When it came time for a refill, I dumped in 4.5 qt of oil and started it up. Previous oil changes have always taken between 4.5-4.7 qt. After waiting several minutes, I checked the oil and it was barely registering on the dipstick! OEM spec is 4.4 qt for an oil/filter change.

I dumped in the remainder of the oil in the 5 qt container, checked it again, and it was barely past the minimum mark. At that point, I poured in all of the leftover oils that I had on my shelf (of the correct grade, of course) - which amounted to about 2/3 qt total, so now we are at 5.6 qt. Puzzled, I checked for leaks and both the drain plug and the oil filter were dry as a bone. I checked the oil one last time, and it was 2/3 of the way between the low and full marks.

At that point, I was still puzzled....so I took it for a long test drive and came back, checked the oil, and found the level to be about 1/3 qt over the max. Since the car consumed some oil anyway, I wasn't too concerned about it, but that was certainly a weird night.

 

I think that most of this is just down to slow drain-back (drain-through) of cold oil. There can be a thermal expansion aspect to it, if the oil is a lot hotter on the later measurement. For example a 50C delta (90F delta) in oil temperature will give about a 4 ounce (approx 1/2 cup) volumetric expansion in 3.7L of oil.

Personally I like to change my oil warm and fast. I get the engine warm but not hot (don't want to burn my fingers) and drop the drain plug straight way. Then whatever time it takes me to unscrew the old filter and pre-fill and install the new one, that's all the time I give it to drain (usually only about 8-10 minutes).

So I pour in the new oil and the engine is still warm. As soon as the level is showing somewhere about correct on the dipstick I start the engine and let it do it's complete warmup cycle until it cuts out. I then pack up my tools and clean up (about 15 min) and recheck the level, topping off if necessary. After that it's generally the same level any time I check it, except of course for a gradual loss due to very minor oil consumption (approx 250mL per 5000 km in my case).

 

It's been a while since i've posted on this forum (i have my reasons... usually similar to why other high profiles leave this forum)... instead of opening a new topic about my current issue, i figured i would bring this one "back to life" (not really dead since the last reply was on the 1st)

Anything over the full mark is too much... simply put. don't call people paranoid or crazy (in my opinion most of you have no clue what you're talking about unless you're trained in this territory as a prius specialist. i'm one of the extreme fanatics and i still keep my mouth shut when i don't understand it 100%)... it's a big issue because anything over full can clog your emissions lines and drop intake pressure which then makes the car run poorly for a short period before the engine no longer starts. look up the TSB EG050-04 or was it -40... i think it's the first one.

the other major problem with all of this is, it is definitely not an issue that arrises right away... forget the foaming and whatever that's usually compared to traditional car designs. most new cars are now susceptible to this issue (i was speaking with a prius specialist about this in great detail. he also does other imports)

and now..... i go into the depths of my current problem...

about a week ago i let jiffylube change my oil. i paid a rather expensive price to get really good synthetic oil since my car is about to hit 200k. usually i'm anal retentive about checking the oil after each fill and i usually drain off a decent amount to bring it under the mark. this time i was rather busy and not feeling so well so i didn't check it and passed it off as ok... hoping i could trust jiffylube for once in my life... i was wrong. (i should have learned seeing they destroyed my fathers 63k dollars commercial grade F450 a few years back and were forced by FORD to pay off for the damage they caused)

(back to topic)... they threw in 4 quarts according to their service records....

i was in front of my house spending hours working on the interior (i use my prius for construction so the inside was rather filthy) after sitting at really odd angles cleaning my headliner (cleans up beautifully with watered down simple green) i noticed error lights popped up on my dash and the phrase "problem" (or something similar popped up on the mfd)... i switched over to the SOC screen to see my battery was starting to drain.... hmm... ok... so i peaked on my scangaugeII to see how things were going. it gave code p3190 (poor engine performance... or i think that's the code.. i'm not looking at my notes currently).... the engine was no longer creating a charge. after cycling the engine it gave a p3093... or maybe it was p3193... either way... it's a failure to start.. even though most replies on here say it's no fuel (that's BS)

if you look up the TSB you'll see people usually disassembled their throttle body and cleaned up everything they could touch... including the pools of oil in the intake manifold.... well.. i didn't have the tools on hand to pull it apart and i didn't feel like getting lint particles inside my engine because if anyone has a clue about engines, you can't let any particles in there or in the oil. (i did pull off the intake and clean what i could in visible reach.. didn't help)

So... i had my car towed in to a prius specialist near by. they did a free diagnostics and a hybrid battery charge for me. they even offered me a free loaner car. they charged the battery because me diagnosing it ran down the hybrid battery... for those of you who know the numbers... i was down around 200v. they confirmed that there was way too much oil in there and advised to never ever go above the full mark. (mainly because nobody is ever really on a flat terrain, and if it is over the full mark and you go over a steeper grade, you loose the buffer room)

i get the car back tomorrow. jiffylube is going to cover it with their insurance. (still arranging the details on that)

please excuse any typos.. its been a bit since i've been on a real keyboard... been living off the iPhone recently (used to typos there.. lol)

btw, loosening the plug and tipping it is what i do... it works great when it's cold because the tip gives control.. and it usually only drips off of the bolt and didn't get all over my hands (not that i was worried about that since i was wearing my leather work gloves... it wouldn't be the first time an oil gets on them)

further details.. the shop is disassembling the throttle body and intake manifold.. they are doing a chemical flush on the emissions recovery lines and then when it's all back together they are going to do an engine fogging to clean up all the bits they can (good as new... yay)

 

Sorry to hear that Jiffy Lube "screwed" you.


That's why I ALWAYS do my own oil changes.

Like Tony Montana said:

"Who do I trust......ME!