Oil dipstick reading

I guess you made it to Virginia Beach .

That would be about a 1/3 of a quart.

Good luck ,

 

Perhaps they just changed the oil.

 

That's what usually happens and it was probably filled to that level.

You will not be able to gauge oil burn with it sitting on the lot or on a short test drive.

Good luck and let us know how it works out

 

Don't quote me, but I believe I read somewhere that there's a 1.6 quart drop between the high and low marks on the dipstick.

 

I wouldn't put too much stock in assuming that the dealer filled the oil level to exactly the top mark. Mine notoriously overfills my crankcase with their bulk oil.

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When I change my oil I usually put in 4 1/3 quarts to get it on the upper fill limit (top hole). When the oil new it's relatively clear and hard to read. After a 1000 miles or so the oil starts to get honey colored. At oil change time (5k my car) the oil is darker but still very transparent. I choose 5k intervals due to the short trip conditions. My car is a 2012 with slightly less that 50k on the clock.

 

Same here, with my '14. The Prius is the first car that I have used full synthetic. I could barely see the oil after it was changed. I checked yesterday and it was transparent, but darker honey colored. This is with 7.5k miles since the last oil change. With dino oil, a comparable color would look like oil after 1k miles.

 

Can anyone confirm or refute this? It would be good to know. I always just assumed that it was a quart between the two marks.

 

Yeah it's shown in Maintenance section of Ownner's Manual: 1.6 qt or 1.5 litre. The 2 pips measure 1.5" apart too.

I believe fill to top mark is 4.5 qt? I go with the metric 4.2 litre. Both those are WITH oil filter change. Without is maybe .2 litre less?

When measuring the dipstick, if you wait 5 min before reinserting to check, it'll be a lot easier to read. I guess oil tends to be drawn up into the guide tube, and the wait allows it to drain.

 

Yeah, that's where I saw it...

 

Question - If oil is barely registered on the dipstick, how much oil is left in the pan itself?

 

one quart

 

Thank you. I checked my oil this morning and there was just the smallest amount on the bottom of the dipstick. I panicked and bought three quarts at Toyota and poured it in, but then it looked way over. Maybe it'll settle properly in the evening?

 

not likely.

but check it in the morning and drain the excess. do not start the car until it is at or below full.

are you burning a lot of oil? how many miles on her?

 

I've found carefully measured fill of 4.4 qts (specd qty) put the oil level almost 1/4" below top mark. Distance between marks is roughly 1.5 qts, according to Toyota. Distance between marks is also roughly 1.5".

You should be able to extrapolate from the above.

 

the problem is determining the oil level on the stick

 

Around 160,000. Currently burning oil like crazy, but I've been in the mountains the last seven weeks so lots of uphill driving which pushes the engine. I topped off the oil when I got here which put it around the halfway mark between the dots.