Oil change, not my best work

Performed the 3rd Valvoline Restore and Protect oil change today. Our driveway has a little slope and previously the car was pointed downhill so that it would be only slightly tilted uphill once the jacks were in.

Today I brain farted and parked the car in the other direction.

The oil was about 2/3 low on the dipstick, or roughly 1 qt. low, so should have held 2.9 qts.

Drained it "all", replaced the filter, buttoned up the bottom, and poured in ~3.5 quarts. Took it off the jack stands, drove it around for about a minute, put it back in the same position nose up orientation but wheels on the ground, checked the oil. It was about 1/4 of the distance between the dots high. Grabbed a ruler: 43 mm dot to dot, oil is 10 mm above top dot. 1.6 qts between those dots, so about 0.4 qts high.

Dumped all the waste oil from the drain pan into an empty 5 qt oil container. It came to almost exactly 2.5 qt. (Although reading through the side of the VRP container is difficult, the "clear" part is not very clear.) Apparently with the nose up that much .4 qts remained in the motor. That would explain the oil color, which was "very slightly dirty", consistent with 10% old oil in 90% new.

But that can't be quite right either, or it would have been perfect at 3.9 qts. I must also have underestimated the volume added. Next time I'm going to use a measuring cup where I can clearly see the amount.

Toying with the idea of sucking out the extra .4 qts through the dipstick tube. Not sure what size or type of tube to use though. The way things are going today it will probably get stuck.

On top of that, oil consumption seems to be increasing. Here are the last 4 oil changes (all at very close to 5000 mile intervals):

3/17/23 (? range low) use Valvoline 5w30 (performed by mechanic)
5/20/24 (2/3 range low) use VRP, usage 1 qt / 5000 miles
3/15/25 (2/3 range low) use VRP, usage 1 qt / 5000 miles
4/25/26 (0.8 qt added 1/7/26 plus 2/3 range low), use VRP, usage 1.8 qt / 5000 miles

In other words, after 5000 miles of VRP oil consumption was unchanged, but after 10000 miles it was worse. Not the hoped for direction of change!

 

In 1111 miles or so. Roughly 3 months if no long trips.

I don't think there was a significant difference in highway miles between the two intervals. Could be something else going on unrelated to the rings, like the PCV valve (unlikely) or valve stems (even more unlikely). There is no sign of an oil leak on the bottom of the motor. It does suggest that rather than waiting for the VRP to do its thing some sort of top end treatment might be a better choice. If some rings are stuck they will be wearing abnormally until unstuck, so the sooner that happens, the better.

 

On a slightly related topic, just ran into the suggestion here:

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/increased-oil-consumption-after-switching-to-valvoline-restore-and-protect-whats-going-on.400555/post-7393511

to use Yamalube Ring Free at the same time as Valvoline Restore and Protect. (Techron might do the same thing, they appear to be similar treatments.) The idea being I suppose that if carbon is being cleaned off the top of the piston at the same time the VRP is removing it from the rings (and elsewhere) there might be some synergy. Whatever gases are blowing past the compression rings would presumably be carrying some PEA, which is the active carbon removing ingredient for the top of the piston. What the PEA does when it encounters the esters in the VRP is a big unknown though. They might work side by side, or they could react and reduce the effectiveness of both.

Still, interesting idea.

 

The oil pan geometry is a little peculiar. To drain fully the car must either be perfectly level in all directions, or maybe tilted a small amount side to side with the drain bolt down. Toyota designers probably assume all oil changes would be done in a shop, where level is the default, not in a driveway, where it isn't.

Now that I think about it, I usually also move all the other cars off the driveway and center this one. Didn't do that this time. The driveway is slightly "U" shaped and the passenger side was close to an edge, so slightly uphill in that direction too.

That diagram doesn't give a good sense of how tight things are around the oil filter. The edge of the plastic shield is almost directly below the edge of the filter. Note the curved section of the oil pan/engine located at about 4:30 from the center of the oil filter mount point. Very little clearance between it and the filter. I use one of those cup tools that fits on the filter with a long extension. That way no busted knuckles when it finally breaks free, and easy to crank in the final 3/4 turn when putting on the new one. (Also, happy coincidence, the tool fits the Honda filter on our Accord too.)