Oil capacity Ra deisel overfill

With the bleep that over filled it

Over filling an engine with oil is very rarely a clever idea......in many casess it will end up drowning the valve seals and causing excessive smoke or comming out the PCV and clogging the air cleaner or maybee leaking in other places.

There may be an argument that over filling causes seal failure.....but its gon'a be hard to make stick.

Specifically which seal is "blown"..and when you say "blown" what does that mean.

Is this seal distended from excess pressure an thus not sealing at all or is it just leaking.

AND who is telling you all this.

cheers

The oil capacities in the manuals are very rarely accurate and can vary with things like capacities in the oil filter and oil coolers.

I was always taught to fill oil till it was half way up the dip stick scale...then run the engine, turn off let it settle and top it up to the marks.

But some of these "Professional service centres" don't have the time for all that they just pump the lsited amount of oil from the reticulated oil supply.

Most diesels have much larger oil capacities than petrol motors...some of the older 6 cylinder petrol cars only took a bit over 4 litres....these 4 cylinder diesels take 6, 7 and 8 litres.

I would be doubtfull that your dip stick is wrong.


That is one issue

The oil seal is another all together.......oil seals fail with age...no iffs buts or maybees...... in particular the front and rear crank seal can be weapy.

It is wise practice if you have the front of the motor appart...to replace timming belt or water pump to replace the front seal.
Likwise if you have the flywheel off, when replacing a clutch...replace the rear.

There are lots of cars out there with weapy front or rear seals......if its not bad it not catastrophic.

Tony MMM8.....if you are still going to the dealer, might I sugest you will get better value and service from a good independedent mechanic.

A caring independent mechanic is not going to be over filling your engine
A/ because he cares and knows its not the right thing to do.
B/ he wont be wasting oil he paid for out of his own pocket.

As passing thaught.......if the oil level was correct...maybe that seal would not be leaking...or at least not as much.

cheers

Hi Tony,

You'd be lucky to fit 7 litres in that engine! The manual states even 7.3 litres for the 4JH1-TC. Every time I change the oil in my RA 3.0iTD I always end up putting in exactly 6 litres (after running the engine for a few minutes to fill the new oil filter). I find 6 litres brings the level on the dipstick right up to the FULL mark, but never over.

Another reason why I always do my own servicing/repairs (where possible, of course).

Cheers,

Tim.

My wifes cars have always come back over full from dealer services because they're lazy and useless that's why I've never let them change the oil in my 4WD's. I usually put in a bit less than what is recommended let it settle then top it up chech it, run the motor for a minute or so let it settle then recheck but that's too and time consuming & technical for most dealers to comprehend because that would cut into the 4 hours or more they like to leave your car outside before they ring you to let you know it's service is finished.