Too much engine oil question

clawjWell-Known Member
I'd really appreciate some advice from more knowledgable people than me .........
I am hardly a mechanic, but one of the few things I do on my vehicles is oil changes. I like to use good oil and filters and its something I can confidently do. I got a new to me 2017 tacoma a few months ago and at that time the dealer I bought it from did an oil change. Today I did my first oil change on it since purchasing it. Drained the oil and thought, jesus that seems like a lot of oil as it poured out. Finished the oil change and emptied the old oil into containers. Total old oil was around 9 5 liters. The truck should hold about 6.1 liters. So 3.5 liters too much was in there since I bought it in December, around 5500 km of driving Google says overfilling is absolutely not a good thing. I haven't actually noticed any problems but question is could this have caused any engine damage that may appear down the road from being way overfilled ? Wondering how worried I should be and if I should ask the dealer to fix this somehow. I don't want a huge engine repair bill down the road due to this and be on the hook for it when it wasn't my fault.
I emailed the dealer telling them, just wondering if I should ask for some sort if warranty or inspection or whatever, or just forget about it and not worry about it ? Thanks

 

I wouldn’t worry about it. Nothing you can do about it now.

 

You have 2 years of powertrain warranty left to find out if it did damage.

 

And your sure it was all oil, right?

Someone may have put a wrong fluid in there; or it could be water from the cooling system. Just to be safe, check the water level.

Otherwise, as stated, nothing you can do about it now. If just oil overfill, likely no damage or you'd already know it.

 

You are correct, too much oil isn't good for a vehicle. Some worst than others.
Have you notice any accumulation of oil on the engine/engine compartment? I would think you would be getting blow-back from being that much over.
Other than that, you should be ok.

 

Overfilling the oil can be dangerous when the oil level reaches the crank shaft counter weights. The counterweights will splash through the oil causing "windage". If you've ever shaken a bottle of oil in a clear container you can see the bubbles that it creates. Well this happens inside the engine causing the oil pump to loose suction and effectively not let the oil do its job lubricating and pulling heat from the cylinder walls. It is ALWAYS best practice to fill oil just UNDER the oil fill "full" mark.

 

That's a very good point. That happens A LOT with C7 dry-sump engines as the oil filler tube and coolant reservoir fill are right next to one another as shown below.
Coolant in your crankcase can do quite a bit of damage.

 

Any chance you drained your transmission? It's happened multiple times, even with confident DIY folk.

But if it was the crankcase you drained, your MPG will rise now that all that excess splash is gone.

Truck is young enough it's unlikely to have blown out any seals.

 

Hey. I asked first.

 

Trans Oil capacity



Edit: trans fluid

 

That's referring to trans fluid, though the wording is confusing and could give someone the distinct impression that it's referring to engine oil.

 

Yes trans fluid.

 

Excellent question, since they are relatively close together but I did drain the oil not transmission fluid. I checked that again this morning to take sure. Also when I drained the oil initially and saw all the oil empty out I thought exactly that, maybe I drained the wrong thing. So I checked the oil dipstick and it was dry so I know it was in fact the oil. Them after filling the dipstick was at the correct level and with beautiful new oil on the stick.

 

This is the oil right ?

 

Besides, if you had drained the trans fluid you would only have gotten about 3 liters.

As for your original question, as long as the overfill didn't create any oil leaks or cause the oil light to illuminate (due to low oil pressure), I wouldn't worry about it.

 

Yup

 

Overfilled oil is substantially worse than underfilled. Especially at 50% over filled, you drastically increase oil pressure leading to frothing and such which introduces air bubbles to the oil. In turn the air bubbles create pockets of heat and no lubrication. Rapid bearing wear is often the primary result.

This kind of crap is why I DIY even during “free” maintenance.

 

You bought it in December and never checked the oil . I would guess the dealer isn't going to do anything about it now .

 

Overfilling in itself is not going to create high oil pressure. In fact, the danger is the exact opposite happening. The crankshaft whipping the oil like a Kitchenaid is going to cause the frothing of the oil, which would create a low oil pressure situation since the oil pump will not be able to draw up foamy oil. Fortunately, if oil pressure is low, the oil idiot light should come on. If no light, then likely no low oil pressure and no damage.

 

Yes, I know I was lazy in that regard. My thought was not that the oil would be too high, but if it were to get low I would have seen oil on the driveway, on the snow, or got a dash warning light. So no I never did check the level since buying it. This for sure a wake up call to give it a quick check every week or so , and I realize I should have been checking it. I just assumed a dealer would do an oil change correctly . My bad