Dipstick Inaccuracy?

Meh, they saved enough by cheaping out of the leaf springs for that long so they could cover it.

 

I'd buy one, if it looked like this:

 

Today I had my first free oil change on my 2012 Tacoma. The service ticket showed that the dealer used "7" quarts of oil (the manual says 6.1 quarts). When I checked the oil it was almost exactly at the full mark. I best guess is the dealer is trying to rip off Toyota since Toyota reimburses the dealer for the free oil changes. I bet that they only used about 5.5 quarts. This same dealer "tried" to rip me off when I purchased the truck. I had an out the door internet quote before visiting the dealer and they "tried" to add $650.00 when I picked up the truck. And they seemed to be such nice folks.

 

I hope at the very least, they used a Toyota filter. My "dealer" tried to charge $300 for floor mats that were installed reversed (driver on passenger side). They also never checked the tires. Within a week the TPMS light came on, 25 lbs. in all 4. Free or not, I'd never let them touch my truck again, unless I have to.

 

That is why they are called stealerships.

 

It is impossible to know how much oil is left after draining and how much build up there is in the engine. Also the slightest 'out of level' parking and it may not fully drain or register on the stick exactly right. Auto Technicians never just add 5.5 to your engine. They add a quart or so less than spec......probably 5 on the 2.7L and then they check the level and add to the full mark. 1/2qt too much oil is FAR worse in your engine than 1/2qt too little. The capacity shown is approximate in the sense that no 2 engines with any amount of miles will take the exact same amount of oil down to the oz. The OP is overthinking this imo. Drain out what is extra and slow down next time......add 5qt and then top off to mark, it's the way the very best technicians in the indusrty do it so it's good enough for the driveway.

TC

 

This engine has been in operation for 7+ years in some cases over hundreds of thousands of miles all with anywhere from 5-7qts of actual oil and I have yet to hear or see of an engine failure due to this "issue." "Do whatever you want" it seems is the best advice, because none of it seems to have any documented repercussions.

I am doing my oil change again and I will pour oil into my engine and check until it's somewhere in-between the dots. Whatever number of quarts that comes to has varied each time and will continue to. Have fun!

 

I did my oil yesterday. added close to 6qts. right at the fill line

 

i always put back 5.5 quarts with a yzzd3 filter.shows a little over full on the dipstick.

 

I agree. The area between the dots is called the normal or "OK" range, and it is indeed OK. I think people just want to know how much oil to add to get the level into the middle-top part of that area, so it's not such an adventure every time this regular maintenance is required. 5.5qts with a new filter for my truck. Your results may vary

I looked up the YZZD3 filter on Amazon and the description includes this statement: "Provides quality engine effectiveness"
What does this mean?

 

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/technical-chat/253267-toomuch-oil.html

The owners manual changed around 2009 to show the amounts called out as a "reference quantity" and in 2013 Toyota changed it to mention that the dip stick reading takes precedence over the amount called out. See page 454 in link below...
http://www.toyota.com/t3Portal/docum...html?locale=en

here's how it reads...
* The engine oil capacity is a reference quantity to be used when exchanging. Warm up and turn off the engine, wait more than 5 minutes, and check the oil level on the dipstick.

 

My 2012,4.0,showed it was way over full from the day I bought it.Changed oil at 4,000 miles,put in 5qt.8 oz.according to the bottle.Showed right on the full dot on the stick.

 

i doubt the toyota yzzd filter is any better,but can't be any worse.i buy them 10 at a time online.

 

The YZZD3 is just a slightly longer version of the YZZD1. Holds a couple more oz of oil, and have slightly more filtering media.

 

It actually is far superior to many aftermarket filters, and easily as good, possibly better than high-end aftermarket like Mobil-1, K&N, and Purolator.

The materials are rock-solid, and there is 50-100% more media area than most name-brand filters.

At $40-$50 for 10, it is the best bang-for-the-buck on the market.

 

I'm going to revive this thread for a bit and want to confirm some questions here.

Today I did my first oil change at 5,000 miles. So I did the usual drain oil, muscle out the filter and fill. Oil was allowed to drain for 5 minutes. Filter was bought from toyota and a 5 qt jug of Pennzoil Platinum 0w20 from Walmart was used for oil. After pouring in the 5 qts, I measured the dip stick, and like many have posted, it was almost impossible to read (the fact that the oil was almost as clear as water didn't help either) and it read a lot higher than expected. Started the engine for about a minute, shut it off, and measured again, this time the dip stick was just a mess to read, so I waited 3 minutes or so and measured it once more. This time, the majority of the oil was reading at 3/4 of the way to the high mark. Hmmm.

Still skeptical as to whether or not I was doing the oil change correctly, I poured the contents from my oil drain pan into the empty Penzoil jug and compared it to another unopened 5 qt. 0w20 Pennzoil jug that I bought with the exact same dimensions.





As you can see, the oil drained (right) is lower than the oil in the unopened jug (left). I'd estimate that the drained oil is 1/8 qt less. Combined with the oil filter that was still half full and some residual in the oil drain pan, I'd say a drain and refill of the 2.7 requires approximately 5 qts. The dipstick, as unreadable as it is, would be accurate in this case. Now, I am not sure how accurate those 5 qt jugs are, but one thing is certain, the 2.7 does not require almost 6 qts per oil change as the manual states.

 

Mine is barely past the lower mark with only 5 qts.
I add 5.5 and it comes in just below the top.

 

Another damn fine thr'd. Sub'd for reference.

 

Fill the new filter with oil before installing. Then pour 5 qts in the engine(2.7). It's magically correct every time and no dry holing the valvetrain when starting it up after the change waiting for the pump to get oil up there. The stick is most readable after the truck has sat overnight. If the stick had a nice crosshatch section like the older ones did, it would be much easier to read the thing at any time. But nooooo, they have to make do a bunch of snaky bends and shit instead of a nice solid stick with a straight drop into pan.

 

Mine is the same as yours, glad I'm not alone.