SolaraGuy.com

The car needed an oil change and the dealer I bought it from has $9.95 oil changes. I should have known better because every time they worked on my car for something else they screwed it up, but they are open on Saturday's so I thought I would give them another chance. I had them change the oil on April 9th, the car only had 9K miles on it. I'm getting ready to go on vacation so I'm checking the car to make sure everythings good and when I check the oil, it has too much in it. I go back to the dealer and ask them if its bad to have too much oil in it and they ask how much, its about 3/4" over the full mark on the dipstick. They then start telling my how bad it is for the car, could blow a ring etc. etc. Thats when I tell them they did it a month ago when I brought it in and I have put about 1K miles on it since they did this. They get in in right away, drain it, and tell me it had about 1/2 quart too much in it. Now they tell me that it can't really hurt the car. A completely different tune when they realized it was there mistake. When I talked to the service manager about it he said that theres nothing wrong with my car and if something goes wrong with it after warrenty is up, I will have to file a claim then, using the paperwork from this service. God I love it when the don't care one bit about the work they do. So I know have a 05 with 10K miles on it and have to wonder if anythings wrong with the motor for the rest of my lease. I guess the only good thins is it's a lease and I can give it back to Toyota after its over.

The moral of the story for me is, never let anyone else change your oil and if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

I thought (perhaps incorrectly) that <i>moderate</i> overfilling of the oil wouldn't lead to much more than cranking losses (as the crankshaft sloughs through the extra oil).

I don't understand how overfilling the oil could "blow" a ring.

Yeah i change my ow oil cause it cheaper.
And i know nothin' could be wrong if i do it myself.

Im not a mechanic but I would think running an engine with too much oil would put a lot more stress on gaskets. If your engine has a specific amount of oil recommended, all the xtra oil would find somewhere else to go, like blowing through a gasket. Just a thought

SleeperSolara wrote:Yeah i change my ow oil cause it cheaper.
And i know nothin' could be wrong if i do it myself.

What is the tool used to take off the oil plug?

Not a great plug to do your own oil changes. IMO, you should always check the oil levels (after an oil change). You should have checked it when you took the car from the service bay. I agree some tech's are not machines and do make mistakes...but still it took you 1000 miles to realise this. May be its me and i check my levels at every other gas-fillup, but still wanted to emphasis that yes they made a mistake. At least they are man enought to advise you accordingly (if file a claim after your warrant expires if you so feel necessary). IMO, this thread is a waste of bandwidth!

Is it okey to use synthetic oil on 2005 solara with 5k miles?

^^ it is alright. But i'd personally rather wait till its close to 8-9K before switching to syn

imho, i would not bother with synthetic... i find that dino oil has come a long distance since 10 years ago.

but then its a matter of one own's preference.

i waited till 20k.

dondang wrote:Is it okey to use synthetic oil on 2005 solara with 5k miles?

I believe Mobil 1 suggested after the first 10k than you should start using synthetic so the engine is completely broken in right

I was told by a few mechanics that synthetic oil should be used in the early stages of engine break in.... once your car has tens of thousands of miles on it, its basically pointless to spend the extra money and switch over. Jiffy lubes will say it benefits because they are making money off of it. Basically if your going to use syn oil, use it from the beginning.

Im not a mechanic but I would think running an engine with too much oil would put a lot more stress on gaskets.

Yes overfilling is bad for the engine, just a little bit over, like a half pint is tolerable til the next change. But more than that like 3/4" on the dipstick! is way too much.
Overfilling can cause gaskets to blow out, and worse it can also splash up from the pan and onto the lower oil control rings and load them up. Then this oil gets baked on, and this can make the rings stick and cause you to use oil.
AND with the crankshaft whipping around in all that oil, it can cause air bubbles and oil aeration and possibly a loss of lubrication. All this from an extra qt of oil! So drain out the excess.

I always thought they called it an oil CHANGE because you were changing the oil. meaning bye bye old hello new, sounds like the authors dealership just fills up on oil.

shoe

I don't understand why people actually pay other people to get their car's engine oil changed. Everybody should know how to do it, it is a waste of money to let people who aren't careful of other people's car change their oil. I did it myself, it is easy.

Somedude wrote:I don't understand why people actually pay other people to get their car's engine oil changed. Everybody should know how to do it, it is a waste of money to let people who aren't careful of other people's car change their oil. I did it myself, it is easy.

Because some people don't want the bother of doing it themselves.