Overfilled Engine Oil

[xsr]

Hello,

I own a 2014 Toyota Verso S with a 1NR-FE (1.3L) with about 120,000KM.

I visited a shop the other day to change my oil and oil filter. I used Castrol Magnatec 5W-30 oil.

The guy at the shop, who was working on my car used 4L of the oil that I handed over to him instead of 3.2L~3.4L that's recommended by Toyota.

Therefore, I decided to drain the oil through the dipstick, but I didn’t drain all the excess oil.
There is still excess oil. I think I drained about 300-400 ml of oil.

How bad is it to drive with excess oil just for the next two days? Should I be worried?

Before I drained excess oil.

after I drained a certain amount of oil:

 

[fantastic]

Should be fine for just a couple of days.

 

[Sandstorm]

Did you take the reading while the engine was hot or cold?

 

[billt460]

"Overfilling" by around a half quart isn't going to hurt anything.

 

[xsr]

Did you take the reading while the engine was hot or cold?

Cold.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

When handing over a jug of new oil to the oil change attendant, my daughters always make sure any excess oil that's not needed, gets removed prior.

 

[tblt44]

Don't visit that shop anymore.

 

[Lubener]

That looks excessive. I would drain some more.

 

[Jetronic]

If it's excessively high, you would know immediately. The crank would whip up the oil, there would be vibrations and a lot of smoke from the exhaust.

If there's no symptoms, you're fine.

 

[ATex7239]

The amount you dealing with is inconsequential. Though the dip stick is showing over filled, rest assured the sump is not actually “over full.” If it were you would have issues immediately. There are videos on the internet showing running engines with clear parts installed, you can visually see how little oil is actually in the sump while the engine is running. Nothing to worry about.

 

[totegoat]

I'd pull enough oil out to reach the correct level.

 

[Lavrishevo]

Agreed, an oil evacuator will make your life easy. Overfilling can also cause blow-by and clog up the PCV sending more gunk into your intake manifold.

 

[SC Maintenance]

No one can really know without the design spec on the engine. 15% over seems a bit high to me, but I don't really know. I would drain some out - and have on our new Toyota when the dealer over filled it, but my OCD on these things is high.

 

[zrxkawboy]

It's fine where you have it now.

 

[JavierH19]

If it was overfilled you'd see opaque aerated oil on the stick instead of that clear oil and if it was very overfilled it would be smoking. That's nothing, I overfill my old truck engines by a quart so i don't have to touch them for a long time.

 

[billt460]

For what it's worth the dipstick on my truck has looked like that for the last 32 years. (Bottom photo). The manual says the oil capacity is 6 quarts, and that's what I put in.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Well, the dots are on that dipstick are there for a reason, right?
Full transparency, I am a chronic over filler, but not that much.

 

[SC Maintenance]

The old rule of thumb was 20% over was OK - old schools stuff, that was overbuilt.

Given how much OEM's care about every ounce of weight for Cafe, I have no idea if that rule holds anymore. Would they really invest extra cost and weight in making the sump accommodate 20% too much? I honestly don't know.

As for it will smoke if its overfilled - this isn't a briggs. I think it would take a long time. Also it may not aerate running flat, but the might on a hill or something.

Again, I don't know. 15% over seems on the edge. At least you know what that looks like on the stick now.

 

[Jetronic]

The old rule of thumb was 20% over was OK - old schools stuff, that was overbuilt.

Given how much OEM's care about every ounce of weight for Cafe, I have no idea if that rule holds anymore. Would they really invest extra cost and weight in making the sump accommodate 20% too much? I honestly don't know.

As for it will smoke if its overfilled - this isn't a briggs. I think it would take a long time. Also it may not aerate running flat, but the might on a hill or something.

Again, I don't know. 15% over seems on the edge. At least you know what that looks like on the stick now.

Even if the oil filter drains back compeletely to the sump, the sump shouldn't be critically overfilled. And that situation happens pretty much at every service: techs put the whole amount of oil in one go.

 

[billt460]

Well, the dots are on that dipstick are there for a reason, right?
Full transparency, I am a chronic over filler, but not that much.

Yes, but the dots and cross hatch marks aren't always accurate to where the oil surface should be. Simply put, they're not that precisely manufactured of an item.

There is a lot of dimensional stack up tolerances that don't always come out right. The length of the dipstick itself. The length of the tube it fits into.

How far the tube is inserted. Where the top, (cap) is located on the dipstick. Where the lines / letters / and hatch marks are located on the dipstick itself.

If all of these dimensions are all off one way it adds up. Not only that, but there have been several cases where the dipsticks were flat out made wrong.

I had it happen to my Jeep. The 5.7 HEMI has a capacity of 7 quarts. When I changed my oil the first time, the dipstick showed a quart over the "Full" mark. (Same as it showed when I brought it home).

As it turns out Chrysler Jeep had a TSB on that dipstick. I took it in, (the dipstick), they checked the number and gave me a new one. I inserted it, and the oil level was shown to be right at the "Full" mark.

There were also additional TSB's issued for dipsticks on other vehicles and engines that were too short, that caused false overfilling as well. Bottom line, when in doubt go by the manual.