Experience. Which is subjective of course. If you need concrete hardline data then do exactly what the manufacture says and go about your life.
I over filled the engine
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Almost all owners manuals state NEVER to over fill, and that the oil MUST be removed or engine damage will occur.
The question still is "what is over fill"
I bet it DEPENDS on usage and application and engine; there is 1000 differing answers.
I would "guess" that most 4x4 have more leeway due to extreme attitude driving
but some little FWD 1.4L ecobox with 3qt capacity has MUCH less leeway.
I would also proffer that 1 pint is likely NOT an issue, but 1 qt is.
I have some experience here with the wife's car back in the 90's just dealer serviced - new oil in - old oil never drained. The car ran sluggish on a trip to the BIL's house. I actually was so concerned I drained out 4 qts before we left his house and it was still up a bit on the stick!
Ran much better on the way home, and that was a wasserboxer. those horizontal pistons were pumping some oil around. - Ken
4 quarts??? yeah now that's too much. I have a 3.9 or 4 quart Honda civic that i overfill by about a quart and nothing ever happens. I just dump a whole jug in it and slam it. Oil has never been aerated when i checked the dip stick and whenever i changed the oil after it had just ran for a while and didn't have time to settle. Doubt Honda engineers are stupid enough to allow a quart to cause issues. Now 4 quarts extra or 100% overfill then yeah i wouldn't be surprised at all if it killed it.
Both my Lucerne and GMC come back from the Mech about a 1/4 inch above full. I usually pull out a half quart for my Lucerne so the Mech doesn't have to but I started using that left over oil for one of my snowblowers that takes 20oz so I started pulling out 20oz so now the Lucerne ends up right on the full line, so it was only over filling it 1/8 of a quart which was less than I thought.
And see that’s where it gets confusing. You say anything over 1/2 quart is concerning while another one says there’s no concern until it’s overfilled by two quarts, and both are based on experience. Are both answers correct?
Thanks for the responses. It's a the skyactiv 2.5l. I'm making the assumption that it's a quarter of a quart too full since the distance from the full mark to the top of the oil mark is approximately 1/4 of the distance of the low and high mark on the dipstick. If it's fine, I'll just leave it for the next oil change. I just didn't know how much margin I have until I'm whipping oil with the crankshaft and starving the engine of oil.
Maybe in the old days the sump capacity had extra room so a certain amount of overfill wouldn’t hurt? The sumps today might require a more exact fill.
As a example, if you drain the oil right after running the engine and replace the drain plug when the drips slow you could have that ¼ quart still up in the motor. Add five quarts and you would be good to go. If you add the 5.3 or 5.4 quarts as the capacity states then you get the overfill.
I think that is why Mazda dealers put in five quarts and call it a day. The engines are warm when they do the service.
Could be, I don’t know. We just had two answers that are quite different and I’m just curious which one is correct or if they both are somehow.
It’s not confusing at all actually. Doing exactly what the manufacture says to the letter is the only “correct.”
But no one actually does that. It’s virtually impossible to follow every manual, document, law, contract, etc to the absolute letter. Everyone has their individual level of comfort with “breaking the rules.”
I think it is dependent on the vehicle.
Going back in time adding one quart for a filter change was common. Now a lot of filters are smaller than a cup of coffee. On the OP’s Mazda and mine the oil filter is very tiny. The current thinking is that you don’t need a large filter to do the job especially with improvements in the filter media.
I don’t think following laws, rules or contracts has anything to do with the discussion, which is how much overfill is safe. You stated that anything over a 1/2 a quart is a concern, someone else said you’re good up to two quarts. Don’t you agree that’s a huge difference? I’m simply asking which one is correct?
Don’t know. Don’t care.
Fair enough.
If a small amount of overfill hurt engines, we'd have lots of ruined engines. Most quick change places don't fully drain and put in recommended capacity showing over fill on the dipstick. No big deal.
No question about that. The 1/2 quart and two quart responses seemed to be general recommendations and not vehicle specific,which is why I asked for clarification.
That's what I exactly do
Why in the world are you guys checking the oil level after an oil change? You just got all the old oil out, you watched it drain out. Then you added (i hope) the recommended amount. You are done. Check the level a month later if you feel like it.
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