It's the oil level, Holmes!

Here's an interesting insight to the oil-overfill problem, something that hadn't even crossed my mind until a friend recently clued me in...

Prius is made in Japan. The engineers there used measures most convenient to them: metric. For example, the "sweet spot" for highway cruising with the Classic model was 62.1 MPH. That just happens to be the maximum speed for electric-only driving too. It's a rather odd value, until you consider metric. That's because it is precisely 100 km/h.

You know what else is a precise quantity? It's the oil level. We (as owners in the US) determined the ideal to be about a quarter-inch below the "full" mark. That's a clusmy amount when dealing with quarts; however, it is not for the metric equivalent: 3.5 liters.

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Cool !

Good to know here in metric Canada. Too bad Mobil 1 comes in 4.4L jugs here. I'll just have to do 5 changes with 4 jugs...

So is the max coasting speed with ICE stationary 42 MPH or 67-68 KMH ? I wonder if the ECUs work in metric and convert to Imperial when needed/requested. Do US Prii have MPH/KMH switches like here ?


I've had my Prius 1 week now. Bridgestones at 50/48 with 1400 KM on them and the car. Managed to eek out 4.1L/100KM on my 32 KM commute tonight; a new low. Now I need to lower the oil.

What's the easiest way to lower the oil ? Can I suction it out through the dipstick with thin tubing ? Would a clean plastic tubing keep the oil good for used oil analysis ?

I imagine things will get messy if I try to remove the drain plug briefly or the oil filter...

 

You can suck it out through the dipstick; I did this when the dealer overfilled my engine at the first oil change (I don't take it there anymore). Ideally, you would find a small diameter, relatively stiff piece of tubing. I was lucky to have a 3' piece that I found at work.

You could also remove the filter and drain it out and reinstall. Of course, this will be messier, but will work. I wouldn't try the drainplug.

 

Actually, I measure the amount out with a graduated container - 3.7 qts puts the level just below the mark for my car. 3.7 qts = 3.5 litres

However the Toyota manual lists the refill capacity with filter change as 3.7 litres or 3.9 qts. Which is clearly too much. Go figure.

 

I think "too much" in Toyota's eyes is over the high mark on dipstick.

Perhaps the issue is the amount of old oil left over after a drain ?

 

I can't get over 46mpg. Maybe too much oil is why!!
I'm leaving myself open for a good joke here, but how would one "suck it out through the dipstick" with tubing? You mean manually?
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Get a cheap Harbor Freight vacuum pump for bleeding brakes and you can use it for getting the oil out through the dipstick. You just need some longer tubing which can be bought at a store that sells fish tank supplies, even Walmart has it. We have some pool water shooters that would also work as vacuum pumps with added tubing.

 

^^^ What he said. You use a hand operated vacuum pump and a brake bleeder which is just a small container with two openings in the lid.

If you try to suck it out "manually", please take video and share it here. :evil:

 

I think this is why the dealers lackeys overfilled my car on the first service - they did not allow enough time for the oid oil to drain fully. A big clue was that they called me to come pickup my car 5 min after I dropped it off. On the workorder, it stated that they added 3.7 qts, but the level was approx 6 mm above the full mark on the stick.

When I change it at home, I allow it to drain for 20 - 30 minutes while I do other stuff. On my last change (last week, 20k miles) I added 3.7 qts and the level is about 2 - 3 mm below the high mark on the dipstick.

 

I did it this morning manually, and there was no mess or bad flavor until the end. Want video ?

It was small, clean plastic tubing. It went down the dipstick hole until it stopped no problem. I draped the tube over front of car and down to the ground.

The oil flowed very slowly, perhaps due to small size of tubing. I was able to pull it within a few inches of my mouth, then put the tube down near the ground and let it flow slowly into a glass container. After 20-25 minutes of letting it siphon, I had about 75 ml or 3 oz of oil, AFTER I blew into the end I pulled from dipstick hole. I got a BIT of oil taste at that point.

Siphon would probably be a bit faster if I had draped the tube to ground INSIDE of engine compartment instead of lifting it over the front of car.

I'm not sure what oil level is now; it was at high mark on delivery last week and before my small drain. I'll check later and pull more out if needed.

Now I'm off to get a used oil analysis to see what it looks like with factory fill on a 2008 after 1400 KM (870 miles).

Joke all you want about dipsticks, sucking and blowing...

 

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I had it in mind to do it that way too, just wasn't going to post it. lol

Your post could be a sexy Toyota video!
--hey, it's the guy in me. Sorry.
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Ummm... I'll have my wife do it and I'll shoot the video, OK ? (Not that there's anything wrong with that... )

I dropped off my oil at the Toromont Cat (tractor) place today. I think their container could take 8 oz or so, but they said my 2.5 oz should be OK.

It cost $20 and I got another $20 kit for next time. Just have to drop it in the mail I guess. I guess I'll get results in the mail within the next week or so. Brochure says lab does it in 24 hours, but lab is in Toronto.

 

At any time were you on your knees?

ZC1

 

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Ahh, crud! lol
Agree, nothing wrong with that, but for the record...
I THOUGHT YOU WERE A FEMALE!!!

well, that joking bombed! I better just stick to the technical stuff HA HA
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So the cold oil level is not supposed to be at the top mark on the dip stick? For the last 30 years I have been doing it wrong.

 

If you read the manual, they say that any level between the two marks is acceptable. So it can be up to the full mark, just not beyond it.

 

True, but from what am reading on these forums is that keeping the oil level below the full mark increases fuel mileage. Therefore an oil level at the half mark vers the full mark is actually better in the Prius.

 

As far as Toyota and maintaining your warranty goes, it can be anywhere between the low mark and the high mark. I think I recall about 1 7/8 inches of range there.

Normally, most places will fill it to the full mark, to allow the greatest safety margin in oil loss until the next oil change.

What we are talking about, is reducing the level to less than full, to get a bit better gas mileage. Modern engines in good shape lose so little oil between changes it's hard to measure.

So for better mileage, I drained out about 300 millilitres (0.3 Liters) and I've seen that reduces my oil level from full to exactly halfway between "Full" and "Add". BTW, this took about 3 hours with my thin tube gravity siphon method.