Hot vs. cold oil levels

Thanks for the fast answer.
Am good at stalling around, so will do that

 

How far was the dealership where you had the test? If just a few miles, maybe we can rule out oil expansion, as a factor in skewing the test?

I seem to recall you saying the fill oil was dispensed from a bulk tank? (In another thread?) That's definitely not in accordance with the TSB, which says to break open a sealed quart bottle, pour it in.

 

Parts should have bottled quarts. Service too, likely stocks both.

 

Up here service dept offers both bulk and bottled. And parts or service, it's basically one long counter, lol. I'm able to buy bulk 0W20 Toyota synth, but only because 0W20 is only available in synth. For 5W20 the bulk is conventional oil (which I also buy, for our daughter's Pilot), but if you want service to use synth 5W20, it'd be bottles. And, dealerships are all under one roof; it's definitely not a parts store on the side.

I guess where I'm going: don't kid yourself they can't find a bottled quart, and with basically a full-blown engine rebuild on the line, the fill really should have been done in front of you. If that dipstick was 1/4" from the bottom mark, that's well over a quart low.

Express your concerns to the service manager, citing the initial reading of the dipstick? Copy to Corporate Toyota? Some ammo to attach to an email:

 

They have no idea it will get hot!

 

I disagree too. When I change the oil and filter, 4.4 quarts brings the level only to about 3 or 4 mm below the full mark, checked cold. Hot, it might be closer.

 

When changing my oil, I pull the drain plug, and go away. I come back in 5-10 minutes and look at the draining stream. If it’s still draining, I come back in another 5 minutes. If it has stopped, I put the plug back in. Same with the filter. Let them drain. It’s very hard to estimate .4 quarts from a 5 quart jug, but this last change, I added Lucas Low Vis Stabilizer. So I got 4 one quart bottles and the 12 oz bottle of Low Vis. It’s 13.4 oz for .4 quarts, so it’s pretty close. That puts me at the full mark hot. One thing I have noticed is that overnight, not driven, I am very slightly overfilled, due to drain back from the engine.

 

When the oil is hot, it’s all over the engine, coating the can shaft, valves, crankshaft. As the engine cools, this oil drains down into the sump. So reading oil when the engine is hot can give you varying results as the oil flows down into the sump.

Worse, I’m sure you’ve all seen that it’s difficult to read the dipstick on a Prius, and if you re-insert and re-read the dipstick, it’s usually got oil all over it. I need to let the car sit for ten minutes or so before taking a dipstick reading.

 

Pull the dipstick, and then wait ten minutes. When you reinsert and pull out the dipstick it'll have little or no excessive oil, much easier to read.

The Prius dipstick and guide tube is a poor design, seems to draw oil up the guide tube when you pull the dipstick out. The protracted wait after withdrawing the dipstick allows time for that drawn-up oil in the guide tube to drain back down.

 

Thanks for that tip. I always have a hard time reading an accurate oil level on my cars. I will try your method next time.

 

I can read it if I check right away, but it's hard, sometimes nigh impossible. Yeah, stall by checking tire pressures while you wait, something like that.

 

Engine is made of metal. It expands as well..

 

This is why cars with electrical oil level check do not give reading until cars have sit still couple hours. For shop purposes they often have a traditional dip stick hidden under the panels. So checking the level cold is the right way, with new cars it is the only way available..