I recently had my oil changed in my ‘09 Prius. I went to check my oil and noticed that it’s fairly above the recommended amount. Should I be worried?
welcome! no need to worry, just get it fixed. where did you get it changed? take it back, or pick up a syphon from an auto parts store.
Yes... Prius engines only take 3.5 quarts and oil change services could care less. The one time I had too much oil in my engine, my MPG went way down. If I were you, I'd go back to the oil change place with your receipt and a copy of fluid volume specs for the vehicle and tell them to do it again. Don't let them make excuses or refuse to do it. They're suppose to follow the required fluid level for all vehicles or they could face liability for the engine damage they cause.
Did you try Mendel's five-minute suggestion? Take the dipstick out and wipe it, then set it down. Wait five minutes or more, then reinsert the stick and check again. Mine looked overfilled until I did that.
NO. No need to worry. Even if it IS really that high, the extra amounts to only about 1/4 of a quart and that little extra amount won't likely cause any trouble. Moreover, it is likely that has been happening every oil change for the past 9 years or so.....and you just never noticed.
The gen2 want’s to be slightly below the full mark or oil gets sucked up into the maf filter and bad things happen. Google it.
Unfortunately that does look like a clean and unambiguous oil mark, and yeah about a pint (aka 2 cups, 1/2 quart) overfill. Assume not DIY? That's enough overfill I'd call them on it. They'll likely just drain and refill. Or carefully loosen the drain bolt and trickle out a pint. Either way. Here's the spec from Owner's Manual:
I agree that the overfill is around 1/2 quart, and the solution is easy: just remove the drain plug and allow 1/2 quart to come out. Ask the oil change place to do that for you.
How can you be so certain? Are you just making stuff up? The issue here is Prius take 3.5 quarts of oil and other cars take 4 quarts or more of oil, thus oil change biz uses a 1/2 a quart more than they're supposed to and it hurts MPG when they do so.
My Gen4 takes 4.4 quarts. It has the bigger V6 ICE. So I assume they just dump in five even quarts. Mendel said: "Unfortunately that does look like a clean and unambiguous oil mark, and yeah about a pint (aka 2 cups, 1/2 quart) overfill." Excuse me a moment. I have to go look up that fancy word.
Sounds to me like YOU are making stuff up. The chart posted above indicates 3.9 quarts. It is perfectly reasonable for them to put in 4.0. And a little extra oil will NOT hurt mileage and will NOT do any noticeable damage either. The key word is "LITTLE", which is what you are dealing with. Indeed it might not even be as high as your first test indicated. I am so certain because I've been working with and on gas engines for about 55 years now.......and the basics are still pretty much the same. But believe whatever you want. It seems that most people these days have to have SOMETHING to obsess about; I guess this is as good as anything.
The oil capacity of a Gen2 Prius (3.5 quarts) is lower than that of a Gen3 (3.9 quarts) or a Gen4 (4.4 quarts according to @starship above), so if you want to make comments about oil capacity of your vehicle please go to the appropriate forum for your vehicle rather than misinforming people about the capacity of older model vehicles.
It's a screen grab from a pdf of the US 2009 Owner's Manual, 2nd gen. The 5W30 weight is the tip off.
Oh... interesting... I saw your car in Profile and thought you were referencing Gen3 Prius... I've done near 20 oil changes on my 2007 and 3.5 quarts of oil always comes up as full. So at this point, I'm super confused? Anyone have some thoughts on this one?
3.9 US quarts is the spec for 2G. I have found that 3.7 US quarts is what is needed to fill. However my method to drain the engine oil involves raising up the rear of the car to drain more oil than would otherwise come out if the vehicle is level.
