Oil Overfill

well, DH is down in florida for some classes but he typically recommends having people check out their throttle body to see if oil ran through the PCV system into the intake. take your air filter off and look in there, i'm pretty sure the TB is in there. if you open the valve with a long handled tool (screwdriver maybe) see if you can find any oil in there.

 

<_< I'm not a "crack Toyota mechanic" but my opinions... for the 2¢ they may be worth...

Many Prius onwers who have replaced their tires report that new tires reduce MPG for several thousand miles - until the moulding tips and edges on the tread wear in. I've seen reports of up to 5K miles. The same holds true for my newer 2007 Touring Edition Prius. You might also want to check the tire pressures - are they 'balanced?' with 2psi higher in the front tires?

It's a matter of varying opinions, but many feel that a ½ quart overfill would have minimal effect on MPG but could result in oil getting in places where it shouldn't. Nonetheless, I made it a practice on my 2004 {which I drove for over 2 years} to assure that the oil was NOT overfilled. I provided my own oil {Mobil-1 5W30, 3½ quarts}. Some report that 3 quarts results in a level about halfway between "ADD" and "FULL."

I like several things about NTB shops... they're clean and you can actually observe and talk to the technicians - unlike the dealer service departments where you are carefully insulated from talking to the person who works on your car. If I were to use NTB for an oil/filter change, I would strongly require NO MORE THAN 3½ QUARTS, check it immediately and refuse to accept an overfilled oil base.

 

I'm like Charles, but not even a cracked mechanic. If oil got into the intake, tbstout2, you may get a warning light. No major damage to the car, but the air intake will need the oil removed and the throttle body cleaned. I think it's probably the new tires hitting your MPG. What kind of tires did you get? Any change in size?

 

You may find your MPG increasing with the miles on the tires, up to a point. New tires can be "stiff" for a while.

 

some tires do take a long time to wear in, sometimes even up to the 5k rotation interval (and then you get secondary break in). plus, the tires are not LRR. and the size difference will knock ya a bit. that may not account for all of it but a huge chunk for sure. he is confident most of that is in the tires.

chances are no permanent damage was done to the engine, don't worry too much about that. but, do keep in mind that you always need to double check these things, especially when going through non-toyota service shops.

lately he's been fighting with a camry that meineke just about destroyed, actually...

 

Also remember that since the new tires have a greater circumference than stock, your speedometer and odometer will be a little underestimated. Your mileage may actually be a little higher than what the readout says, since it assumes the stock tire size.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(prickly commute @ Apr 2 2007, 07:48 PM) [snapback]416731[/snapback]</div>

Yeah, I had this problem with my company Lumina, it got a new used transmission from a grand am (I think) and now the odo is reading 80% of what it is supposed to. So speed is also faster than it reads.

If you calculate fuel efficiency on this basis, it will drop by the same percentage your tires are larger in circumference/diameter. Is there any way to change the tire size the computer uses to calculate everything???

Also you should be aware that a larger tire may stress your brake system more.

 

Hello,

How do you remove oil in the air intake? I was able to remove the one in the throttle body and to clean that. I also replaced the air filter just in case, but the car still won't start. Anything I could do?

 

Even though this thread is over 10 years old and some of the participants are long gone (some are still hanging around – good to see) and it is a bit off-topic, I'll add a data point as it will be still of interest to people who dig it up in the future.

P195/60R15 is the standard size in this part of the world for the 15" wheels and the size I have always used.

Currently have Bridgestones fitted (Ecopia PXZ, not nessarily relevant to cont USA) and have had Goodyear (Assurance TripleMax) Tyres in the past and have never had worse than 5.2 l/100 km (45 US MPG) and currently averaging 4.6 l/100 km (51 US MPG). I have been running the Bridgestones now for just over 4 years (78,700 km (40,900 mi)) and will probably change them in April before next inspection (which is called a 'Warrant of Fitness' (WoF) here) as the will be close to the wear bars by then.

I found the Goodyears to be not quite as FE, but better handling characteristics, in that the wheel slip on shiny wet surfaces (e. g. manhole covers) was not so pronounced.

While the tyre types are not particularly relevant, I just thought that I would throw in the data about the size, while it may be fractionally different in size (185/65 vs 195/60), it don't think it amounts to too much. My odometer accumulates accurately and the display speed is always 2 km/h more than true speed, which is the norm for this region. (True speed can be seen on the "secret scene" but it won't be so obvious to non-metric countries as the true speed only displays in km/h.) I have always had worse results using tyres with a worse (higher) rolling resistance. So if you are noticing a difference it is most probably that or something else totally. The best thing you can do is buy tyres with the lowest rolling resistance you can afford and which you can justify the price with overall savings (tyre costs vs fuel savings).

With tyres, the most important thing is keeping the pressure at a minimum of 240 kPa Front/230 kPa Rear (35 PSI Front/33 PSI Rear).

Just some thoughts. Normal programming resumes.