Oil overfill

[DaveinOlyWA]

ive taken oil out of the filler tube before with a turkey baster and plastic tubing.

have also done it with tranny fluid which wasnt nearly as easy to do. for some reason, it was much tougher to snake the tubing down far enough to draw anything.

there are also siphon hand pumps for a few bucks that work. you will most likely have to reduce the diameter of the tubing for it to go all the way but standard aquarium tubing i found is more than small enough.

[Gurmail]

In my Prius, bought nearly 4 months ago, now at 3550 miles(approx.), the oil is also about .5 inches higher than the high mark. The dealer I purchased from is also far away( 300 miles). After reading the posts/opinions here and the manual which warns about damage to the hybrid system in case of overfill, I too was worried. However, I decided that there would be some logical tolerance for error. Toyota would (hopefully) put the high mark a little lower than the point that would lead to actual damage as many people are likely to overfill it by a little bit. Hence I have decided to wait till the first oil change-around 5000 miles to rectify the problem. The car does seem to vibrate a bit while in electric mode, ie it is not totally smooth, the steering vibrates as if the engine were running. I hope it is not related to the oil. Having waited so long, I paln to just wait a bit more now. I haven't driven much in the last month and probably won't drive much for another month( wife busy at the university) , so I'll probably have to wait 2-3 months before the oil change

[john1701a]

1/2 inch beyond the full mark is overfill, which bad for the engine.



There's simply no excuse for missing the middle, between "add" and "overfill", so greatly. That's whole quart more than they needed to add. Remember, 3.9 quarts is the maximum. More than that is beyond the full mark. In other words, too much.

[bruceha_2000]

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the oil is also about .5 inches higher than the high mark. [/b]

Half an inch?!?!? I'd worry about that, it is WAY more than just a little over. You'll note from John's picture that the entire 1 quart range is 1 5/8". Use Dave's turkey baster or even Tony's dip-wipe-dip method if necessary, but do something.

I don't think there would be a connection between oil overfill and vibration when running in Stealth, the engine isn't on.

[AngelFish]

What we have done to our cars when our dealer overfilled was draining through the dipstick tube. It takes a while, but there are instructions on this site (somewhere) on how to drain out the extra.

[richard schumacher]

I wonder whether Japanese and Americans simply have different mindsets about this? Americans seem to think that an engine is happiest when the oil is right up to the FULL mark, and that there must be some ill-defined margin for error beyond both ends of the ADD-FULL range. But the way the Prius oil system is set up, exactly three quarts, a nice round convenient amount, is halfway between the ADD and FULL marks. I infer that all of the safety margin is between that point and the ADD and FULL marks, and so there is *no* safety margin beyond the ADD and FULL marks. (Do Americans want to keep their bellies full all the trime, and are Japanese comfortable being a little hungry part of the time?) Under that interpretation you see exactly what the safe limits are, with no guessing about how careless the people adding the oil or checking it at the low end are allowed to be.

I'd say, snarl at the dealer who screwed up and have him pay for having it drained down or changed at your earliest convenience. If he resists, call Toyota and complain. They should be sympathetic and helpful because the dealer's error may set them up for the cost of an expensive warranty repair.

[paprius4030]

I always thought it was good to keep the oil at the full mark especially in the small 4 cylinder engines mainly to help keep some of the heat away. Since they hold such a small amount of oil anyway I always believed that even running them a half a quart low would help the heat buildup more than it should in the oil.

[bruceha_2000]

Pure conjecture, but as the ICE will burn a little bit of oil even when new, starting at full probably guarantees you won't be below the fill mark before the next scheduled oil change. Probably more important as the engine gets higher miles on it and burns more dues to normal wear. Richard's analogy - eat to full at dinner and you'll have room for more food in the morning. But you won't die if you don't eat for a few days. :-)

[Gurmail]

I agree bruceha. I also thought (hoped) that the level may drop a bit with time but, alas, it hasn't. Upon reflection, the oil is more like 1/4 of an inch over, not .5. Hpefully less harmful.

[john1701a]

With the 59,827 miles I drove in my 2001 Prius, the oil-level only dropped 1/16" over the course of each 7,500 mile interval. The need to be at full is nothing but old-school advice with no merit to Prius care.

The recommended 1/4" below full provides a substantial buffer, so large that you'd have to lose so much oil that you'd notice a puddle growing on garage floor or a build-up of soot near the tailpipe. The engine simply won't leak like that.

And of course, we have already proven that going from 3/8" above full to 1/4" below will improve your MPG.