Oil level

i always drain after dealer change. you can get a hand pump from sears or automotive stores, takes me 5 minutes to get it below the top dimple.

 

That tiny amount of overfill is not worth worrying about. However if you must worry, then go ahead and drain out 3 ounces.

 

I would not worry unless it is over 4 quarts/1 gallon. Oil is the lifeblood of your car. Have never had to add oil to my prii, because I make sure it is full at change. It has been said that you can add over a quart between the 2 marks. Check early and often as you never know when it might start leaking/burning

 

If you always drain after dealer oil change could be your dip stick is a little off. the dealer may be putting in the right amount of oil. Mine is always a little over full mark and stays that way for 10,000 miles till next change.

 

mine too. i like it under the mark, and it's quite a bit of oil too. i guess i would have to ask the dealer to poke another dipstick in there. that should be interesting.

 

I would be willing to bet there is a small diff. in some of them. A small amount ether way won't do any harm at all. if you get more than a QT over you may develop at problem. I had a truck that would burn a QT of oil in about 4 weeks and just stay at that level till I changed it. For a while I was paranoid and kept adding a Qt till I figured out that it would just keep burning out that ! qt and no more. I finally let it find its happy level and quite spending money on oil. It now has about 110,000 miles on it and still runs the same.

 

your probably right. there used to be a lot of talk around here about not over filling prius oil, throttle body contamination and pcv. i think i'm a little paranoid.

 

We all are a little paranoid about something thats why I have a permit and carry a gun 95 % of the time. We keep treating the Prius
like its a fragile thing thats ready to fall apart at the least amount of abuse. Actually its pretty tough. In a lot of areas its used as a Taxi, police car, and a lot of car rental companies rent them. We were in Austin Texas a couple of weeks ago and saw several Prius Taxi's.

 

dip stick problems hmmm. had a 62 tbird that if you put the dipstick in the wrong wat it had a knock. YMMV this doesnt sound right. never thought about a shorter dipstick

 

my fathers friend had an '04 caddy, the dipstick was so short, when it was down a quart, it didn't reach the oil. when she traded it in for an '07, they used the same dipsticks, but riveted a piece on. they must have had a ton of 'em.

 

i am pretty sure the dipstick was hitting the crankshaft but am not sure. that was like 1980? everytime I quit typing the site draws me to the bottom of the page. another hmmmm

 

not worth worrying about in a 8 year old car

 

Well - instead of using a hand pump, you could just loosen the drain plug, then slowly remove it from the threaded hole, continuing to hold the plug in the hole to partially block the flow of oil. This would allow you to control the rate of flow so that you can drain the amount of oil that you wish to remove.

 

This is what I usually do. Well, I think it was once, when I finally woke up to the chronic overfill, on a previous, dealership serviced car. Unscrew the bolt just to the point that you can get a bit of tilt on it, and a thin stream going. Catch in some sort of graduated container, so you can monitor your progress.

 

Concur.
There is a much greater chance that you'll make things worse by trying to drain off the offending 2-3oz than there is that this amount of oil doing anything negative in your motor.

People always say that it's much more destructive to put too much oil in than not enough, and that's true enough.
However (comma!) we're probably talking about a dealer that put 4 actual quarts of the right oil into the car, instead of the 3.85575325 (estimated) quarts that would place the oil level displayed on your dipstick precisely in the middle of the fill line, when the engine has been idle for enough time for all of the oil to drain into the sump, and the vehicle is parked on a level surface, and all of the tires are properly inflated, at noon, and during a neap tide.
In other words?
Your dealer is right.
I don't like dealers, and I don't spend very many keystrokes defending their actions.
In fact....there are probably dealers out there that are using bulk oil, or cheaper non-synthetic oil.....not bothering to replace the filter, or put the cap back on securely, or over torquing the drain plug, or replacing the oil filter access door properly.
Not everybody can do their own oil changes, and if you've found a dealer that's at least competent and honest enough to try to use the right oil then I would probably stick with their advice rather than put it up to an internet popularity vote, but since you did......

My 2 centavos is for you to heed their advice.


Good Luck!

 

Agreed. I don't think that small amount would do any harm. If you don't have any leaks, don't sweat it. Not time yet but when it's time for my next oil change, I'll do it myself. According to the door jam sticker, I've got about 7,000 more miles. That way I don't have to worry. Surprising easy to do; almost as easy as my old Honda Civic.

 

Toyota tech assumed you're a race car driver, doing 2g in the corners which sends the oil to one side of the sump. So a little over to save the little screaming motor from oil starvation.

It's fine.

 

Yeah, there is some sort of blip-vert at the bottom of the page announcing that a premium membership option is coming soon. Wonderful ...
Overfilling in a Gen II isn't too much of a problem. Take a few hard right and left turns and then you can clean that oil out of the bottom of the intake manifold, as I have many a time. Not sure how over-full it would have to be before you are getting crankshaft splash and aeration.