First Oil change

Hi guys,

I was due for my first oil change today, and took it to a mechanic which is trusted by the family. When the job was done, he claimed the car took 6.5 quarts of oil, and showed me the bottles. At first i was skeptical and checked the manual, and couldn't find the capacity. Any advice please, with an overfilled engine.

 

Thanks. should i do it through the oil pan or the filter?

 

ok Thanks. I appreciate it.

 

OP, you don't mention whether you have a 2.7 or 3.4 engine. I'm not sure if there is a difference in capacity between the two.

I have a 3.4 and I add 6qts when I change the oil and filter. The dipstick indicates slightly below full when I do, so perhaps 6.5qts isn't unreasonable and would bring it up to full. I haven't experienced any ill effects of overfilling, I just put my trust in the dipstick that it is correct.

Have you checked the level by way of the dipstick? I would do that first before I drained any oil out.

I want to say that the owners manual says 5+ qts for the capacity of the 3.4. But saying that, I have found printing errors in the owners manual I have.

 

My 3.4L takes 5.5 qts and that shows it at full for me. Weird.

 

That's what I would consider more in line of what one would expect. I don't think my dipstick has been swapped out for another or that they made oil pans with different capacities, but I supose anything is possible.

I try to place my trust in automation and that the marks on the dipstick are correct. When I add 5.5qts, the oil level is on the low mark on the dipstick. 6qts brings it up to the middle. Go figure!

 

It is a 6cyl. I checked the dip stick and its slightly above the full mark. Not by much, but its passed it.

 

Thanks. yea i have to wait until i get to work tomorrow since i live on a hill and i can't get accurate readings that way. I checked the oil stick when i wasn't home

 

If you paid someone to change the oil take it back to that person and make them fix it.
Especially since you paid extra excess oil.

 

manual states 5.5qt which is what I put in my 3.4L and it puts the oil level just under the full mark on the dipstick. But, all trucks are different and some might take a little more than others. Also be sure to check it on level ground

 

Yea i will take it to the same guy. it looked like it was the first tacoma he did.

 

+1 pretty much the same here.

 

If it's only slightly over-full, I wouldn't sweat it. If you have doubts about the abilities or veracity of that mechanic, do the job yourself. That way you'll know for certain what the deal is.

 

6.5 is a bit too much. Generally 5.5 puts my 3.4 in the middle of the range on the stick with a filter change. I generally let the truck sit for an hour after driving and jack up one side to help drain more of the oil out. I don't know if this actually does any good but I'm anal that way.

 

could he have put a bigger filter on? I know on some of the trucks, you can put anything from a 1/2 quart filter to a 2 quart filter

 

Possible. Lots of filters are more or less interchangeable. As long as the thread is right you can use as big as you can fit. If you're not the original owner you might have an oversized pan. That's low odds though.

A little extra oil isn't going to trash your engine.

 

I took it back to the guy this morning. He checked the oil and its a little bit passed the full mark. Barely noticeable though. i used a K&n filter, which seemed a little bigger than the filter we took out, but i hardly doubt it would add up to 6.5 quarts. This is strange as most of you have mentioned 5.5 is enough. Anyways, The oil he mentioned to put it to was 10w 30 as the truck has 92k on it. Yet, in the manual says to use 5w 30. What do you guys think about this switch?

 

10w30 is just fine for summers up north...come winter, a nice mobil 1 in 5w-30 is the preferred. My 94 Toy pickup ran over 100k miles with 15w-40 Rotella before being sold, with a fine motor at 220k plus.

 

Ok thanks, i noticed mobil 1 has 5w 30 high mileage. Is this any different than the 5w 30 extended performance?

 

Not sure, I just buy the plain Mobil 1, and have been for over 20 years. The last motor I had to pull and rebuild was the 68 dodge that came to me with burned valve and crankshaft noise, and that was a decade ago. Right now, running Mobil 1 5w-30 in the taco, 2013 Subaru WRX turbo and 08 Wrangler Sahara JK.