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Too much oil?

L

Lord Stanley

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I got my oil changed at a Valvoine place the other day and the dipsticks (pun intended :rolleyes:) put too much oil in my Zetec... It is about 1/4 of an inch over the max line (for reference, I am judging the distance between the max and min lines to be 1/2 of an inch)... About how much extra oil is in there do you think? I know some people with Duratecs run over the max line, but is that more or less than how much I am over? Will this hurt any engine internals or put any extra pressure on the gaskets? Sould I let a little drain out when I get home?
 
If you are concerned, drain out a little oil to max line. I think Brapple would be able to give you better advice as he has had a Zetec for long time.
 
I'll take a look at the level on mine when I leave work. I do beleive with 5 qts that it shold fall between the two marks. To much oil in any engine isn't good, from what I understand it the level is to high the crank can get into the oil and basically airrate it and that could cause oiling issues.

right now I would check your receipt and see if it states how much oil was put in, zetec require 5 qts and I have never put more in mine. Also don't forget you need to check your level when the oil is cold on level ground to get a true reading of how much oil is in the engine.
 
Dunno about you Brian but I'm sure my Zetec takes 4.5 quarts, and we both have silvertops... So I'm guessing the guys at the shop put in 5, overfilling it?
 
zorrex said:
Dunno about you Brian but I'm sure my Zetec takes 4.5 quarts, and we both have silvertops... So I'm guessing the guys at the shop put in 5, overfilling it?
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zetec calls for 4.5qts depending on the exact oil filter you install. im using an FL300 instead of the FL200 since i can get it at my local advance auto parts. the only difference is the overall diamter and capacity is larger on the 300. because of the larger oil filter mine takes about 4.75qts.

in stock form the zetec has a windage tray that is bolted to the main caps so you would have to really overfill it to have a problem with whipping the oil. i say dont worry about it.
 
striker2 said:
zetec calls for 4.5qts depending on the exact oil filter you install. im using an FL300 instead of the FL200 since i can get it at my local advance auto parts. the only difference is the overall diamter and capacity is larger on the 300. because of the larger oil filter mine takes about 4.75qts.

in stock form the zetec has a windage tray that is bolted to the main caps so you would have to really overfill it to have a problem with whipping the oil. i say dont worry about it.
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Oh ok that's good to know. I got the normal sized oil filter and put in 4.5 qts. Putting in the .5 was kind of a PITA, and I still have the other .5 sitting in my trunk, haha.
 
Ok, if you say not to worry striker... It just makes no sense though as the receipt says 4.5 quarts... And the time before when I got it done at Meineke, they put in 4.5 quarts and it was right in between the two marks :shrug:

This place made a mess too, I have oil on the subframe and on the CV boot, which in turn splattered it up onto the filter when driving... I am never going back to this place again :mad:
 
yup my owners manual says 4.5 qts, I run a FL300 filter and with 5 qts it was at the top notch as of this time. however I am leaking some oil, but not enough to make a difference.
 
BrApple said:
yup my owners manual says 4.5 qts, I run a FL300 filter and with 5 qts it was at the top notch as of this time. however I am leaking some oil, but not enough to make a difference.
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So that is an extra .25 of space for oil, meaning if there were 5 qts with a stock filter, it would be over the max line... So I can assume that I have around 5 to 5.25 quarts in my engine?

The heck with it, I am not going to worry...
 
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I would almost bet they put in 5 qts. Shouldn't be any big deal. Also for reference, at the Ford dealer where I work, we put FL-2005's on all the zetecs, both focus and contour/mystique. We hardly even stock any FL300's in the parts department anymore. I'll have to check our latest Ford recomendation sheet to see if they changed that, as they recently changed the oil spec to 5w/20 for almost all engines back to 95 or so.
 
My owner's manual says 4.5 quarts, so that's what I put in. Then I get a half quart left over every time I do an oil change. So every 9th oil change is totally free; kinda like a membership card.
 
Matt R said:
My owner's manual says 4.5 quarts, so that's what I put in. Then I get a half quart left over every time I do an oil change. So every 9th oil change is totally free; kinda like a membership card.
Click to expand...

or you could just get a 5 qt bottle of oil and put it all in and be done with it and not have half empty qts kicking around ...
 
I used to always put in the full 5 qts instead of 4.5. My dipstick never read over the Max line.

Did you wipe the stick and redip to doublecheck the level?
 
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