Got 8L of engine oil instead of the expected 5.2L when servicing my car

[ruben1218 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close ruben1218]

Hi,

I've recently serviced myself my recently bought 2003 4.0L Prado. This engine takes 5.2L of oil. I got really surprised when I've ended up with a bit less than 8L of oil in my drain pan. It's really a lot more than I expected.

The oil was black but except for that I haven't noticed anything special.

Should I be concerned by this? Did the previous owner put too much oil? Did the oil get mixed with something else like fuel or did water accumulate in there? There isn't any mayo under the engine oil cap so I doubt it got mixed with water.

[Brett1979 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Brett1979]

You’d think it’d be blowing blue smoke out of the exhaust at times until the excess is burned off. If there was no smoke & no other symptoms then all good. I normally put 5.5L into mine each oil change just because I drive up a long mtn range every day & over the course of 8,000km or so it burns a bit of oil. When I drain it I usually get a bit under 5L come out. It’s good to know it’ll hold that much.

[watsea Member Find all posts View Profile Close watsea]

Hi ruben,

I was just thinking. How are you measuring the volume? Could you have mixed up and measured pints (1 imperial pint = 0.568 Litres) instead of Litres? 5 Litres is just about 8 pints. Did you check the dip stick any time before draining the oil?

[ruben1218 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close ruben1218]

Hi guys,

thanks for your answers.

Brett1979

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Brett1979 No blue smoke and no symptoms at all, so I guess the person just accidentally put too much oil and I've been lucky it didn't have consequences.

watsea

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watsea I didn't really pay attention at the level of oil with the dipstick, I was just checking it's color to know if it would be time to service it and it was. Regarding the amount I got out, I am totally sure about it. I've only ever used liters as a unit, and I've filled a 8L drain pan which was supposed to be 2/3 full but was almost overflowing. I've even double checked the amount of oil by then moving the oil from the drain pan to a 5L bottle, a 2L bottle and half of another 2L bottle.

[CalamL Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close CalamL]

Maybe your car is secretly an oil producer and you can mine it?