I checked my oil the other day and it was above the second indicator hole. Isn't it supposed to be between the two holes? Did my mechanic put to much oil in?

 

A little bit over the 2nd / top hole won't hurt. Engineers built in a forgiving buffer. But a lot over can be bad. Overfill lets moving parts froth the top of the oil, and air bubbles in oil won't lubricate moving metal parts properly.

Did you measure with the car on a level surface? Did you warm up the car, then turn off the engine and wait a couple of minutes for the oil to return to the pan? Some people check when the engine is cold... check your manual.

 

I checked it with the engine cold and on level ground.

 

<p>Your mechanic probably poured in the whole 5qts instead of measuring it out. I think we're suppose to take 4.7 qts or something.</p><p>Another reason why I just do it myself.</p>

 

I just read it takes 4.2 quarts with filter and 4 quarts without filter.

 

<p>Mine takes &gt; 4.5 qts to reach max on dip stick every time I change out. I must be draining more oil out of the crank case.</p>

 

Stupid question: did you clean the dipstick off before checking it? It'll look higher when you first pull it out. Sort of obvious question but

 

Yeah I have. In fact I clean and dip about 3 times.

 

Too much oil also leads to early catalytic converter failure.

 

<p>^ not if you don't have any&nbsp;<img alt="Bite Lip" src="https://acurazine.com/forums/images/smilies/bitelip.gif" style="height:15px; width:15px" title="Bite Lip" /></p><p>&nbsp;</p>

 

<p>On another note... I just changed my oil, and I bought 1 gal, +1 qt. (It was cheaper than buying 5 individual qts). Anyways, I poured about 1/2qt through to cleanse, then poured a whole gallon. Im past the first bubble by like 1/3 of the distance to the 2nd bubble. Moral of the story, my buddy was with me who worked at Valvoline for 2 years, he was like oh we always just fill it till the second line so we can't be blamed for putting too little oil in the car. Also, if you always fill to the 2nd, then they never have to measure anything.. I just stuck with what the manual said.</p>

 

<p>It's also easier to check for oil consumption when you have an easy baseline to read and remember&nbsp;.. i.e. filled to the 2nd bubble/max hole to start.</p>