Argument regarding oil and dipsticks

madbomber08

madbomber08

New member
I was talking to my friend in class about how much oil I fill my 4runner with. I told him that it says 5.5 quarts in the owners manual but the dipstick doesn't read full (to the top mark) until 6 quarts.

His main point is that he says "full" is midway up the dipstick between the low/full marks. For example, for an engine that takes 5 quarts, 5 quarts would be halfway in between the low/full marks, so the full mark would be 5.5 quarts and low mark would be 4.5 quarts. WTF? In my case, on my 97 4runner, it appears that way, but all of my families' other vehicles are spot on with the dipstick.

He's one of those people who is "never wrong." I'm annoyed. Need feedback agree or disagree.
 
Register to hide this ad
madbomber08 said:
He's one of those people who is "never wrong."
Click to expand...

well then, you obviously should listen to him... ;-)

The real answer is, your friend is a dipstick.

"Full" takes you to the upper mark on the dipstick. On some dipsticks they label the two marks as FULL and ADD. FULL means 'I musn't add any more'. The proof of this is the number of manuals that will tell you how much oil to add, in units of volume, to take it from the lower mark to the upper mark.

Another one shows up in the Cummins manuals for my boat's diesel engines. It says specifically to "add oil until the full mark is reached". When an engine is ~ $20k to replace, the manufacturer gets very careful with the details in the manuals.
 
Last edited:
Dipstick


The "FULL" mark is the point at which your crankcase has reached the maximum capacity for engine oil. The "ADD" mark indicates that you need to put in more oil and not let it go below that point.

In most vehicles, there is a one quart difference between the "ADD" and "FULL" points; but it is one gallon in our diesel trucks at work (which hold 30 to 44 quarts of oil) that have (mostly) Cummins engines.

Keep it between those two marks and you should be just fine.
:hello:
 
madbomber08 said:
His main point is that he says "full" is midway up the dipstick between the low/full marks.
Click to expand...

It seems like it's something that has changed over time but, ignoring how it may have been done in the past, it makes the most sense to me to have a margin for error in both directions on the dipstick. In my 4th gen, the spec'd amount of oil doesn't bring it to full on the dipstick.

Btw, in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th gens, the capacity between add and full on the dipstick is more than 1 quart.
 
madbomber08 said:
I was talking to my friend in class about how much oil I fill my 4runner with. I told him that it says 5.5 quarts in the owners manual but the dipstick doesn't read full (to the top mark) until 6 quarts.

His main point is that he says "full" is midway up the dipstick between the low/full marks. For example, for an engine that takes 5 quarts, 5 quarts would be halfway in between the low/full marks, so the full mark would be 5.5 quarts and low mark would be 4.5 quarts. WTF? In my case, on my 97 4runner, it appears that way, but all of my families' other vehicles are spot on with the dipstick.

He's one of those people who is "never wrong." I'm annoyed. Need feedback agree or disagree.
Click to expand...

Just put in 5.75 quarts and all will be fine.....:biggrin2:
 
The top mark is FULL.

The bottom mark is 1 quart low of FULL.

Anywhere within these two marks is "Operational Range"

But in order to see the proper amount of oil, you must only check the oil on level ground 5 minutes after shutting off a warm engine. :snacker:
 
SUBTEGRAL said:
The top mark is FULL.

The bottom mark is 1 quart low of FULL.

Anywhere within these two marks is "Operational Range"

But in order to see the proper amount of oil, you must only check the oil on level ground 5 minutes after shutting off a warm engine. :snacker:
Click to expand...

Not according to J.B. He says its 1.3 quarts top to bottom of dipstick. Which is very strange because that's quite a bit of estimating to do on the side of your oil bottle. Soooooo, say if the oil halfway up the dipstick, then do I really have to put in .65 quarts to make it full? :ybrick:
 
For most vehicles, the difference between the top and bottom marks on the dipstick is 1 quart.

But like I said, as long as you keep your oil level within "Operational Range" ... you're good to go.
 
I don't doubt you. I was just too lazy to look in there. It just seems odd to me that they make it 1.3 quarts instead of an easy 1 quart. Maybe it's more even by measuring liters. Once again, to lazy and busy to look. Trying to complete this physics homework.
 
Since oil comes in quarts, it could be easier this way. If the oil gets close to the add line, you just throw in a whole bottle instead of part of one.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Members online

Total: 1,108 (members: 6, guests: 1,102)

Forum statistics

Threads
278,312
Messages
3,554,085
Members
248,016
Latest member
Advally Service

Share this page

Trending content

Back
Top