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Dealer oil change overfill (not Boss)

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So first off, this was not an incident with the Boss. I don't let anyone else touch her. I trust the opinions here more than over on the Focus forums since they are mostly kids and I know I will just get a whole bunch of uneducated replies and maybe one good one.

It was the middle of this winterpocalypse so I stayed warm and got a sticker and oil change at a dealer for my 2012 Focus. After draining the oil just this last weekend I found that I had 5+ quarts in the jug. It got up into the handle of the 5qt jug so I am guessing 5.3-ish. The Focus only takes 4.5 with filter...and this was after 8k miles... I did not notice any froth, and I did let the Focus warm up idling before draining so if the crank was beating the oil I think I would have seen it.

So... if I did not notice any oil foaming should I really be worried? I will be going back there to force them to do an oil analysis. Maybe get my own at the same time to make sure they are not screwing me. This is the same dealer that I caught teaching a new guy how to drive stick in my 2011 GT. I guess I am a slow learner.
 

Justin

Save the dawn for your dishes!!!
Should be fine. If it was going to fail it would have done so in a short amount of time. I would cut open the oil filter see if there are silver glitter in there.

Next time I recommend checking the dip stick before you leave the dealer. If there is a next time lol


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Justin said:
Should be fine. If it was going to fail it would have done so in a short amount of time. I would cut open the oil filter see if there are silver glitter in there.

Next time I recommend checking the dip stick before you leave the dealer. If there is a next time lol


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Thanks. The oil filter is gone, I did not think to save it... But I do have the jug of oil still and it was not glittery looking at all. I can insist on an oil analysis just to annoy them and hopefully it will come back OK. I did notice my fuel economy jumped back up to where it should be, 40+ while driving 70 mostly. Suck on that, Toyota!
 

Grant 302

basic and well known psychic
Many domestic cars have a significant overfill capacity from what I have heard. Over 1+ qt. is typical. I don't know any of the specifics about your Focus, but I doubt there would be any issues from that much overfill. The only negative IMO, assuming no frothing or windage issues would be longer warm-up times due to the increased volume of oil.

FWIW, I overfill my GT for the track, and have never seen any frothing on the dipstick when checking oil between sessions. And when you see frothing, you will know what it looks like!
 

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