I just did my first oil change last week. Level ground, new filter, Mobil1 5W30 EP. Manual sez 4.75L/5.25qt w/filter. Just so happens, that's the exact quantity of the jug I bought at Walmart. BTW, the size of jugs Mobil packages their oil in varies a lot. I've seen 5L jugs, 4L jugs, 4.4L jugs, and finally this last one 4.73L.
So after the car's back on the ground, I put most of the jug in, run her up, check for leaks etc. Then I checked the dipstick - low! So I add the rest of the jug - still low, about 1/3 of the way from add to full. So I wind up putting about 2/3 of another liter/qt to get it to the full line for a total of 5.4L/6qts. And each time I add, I'm waiting a few minutes before checking it. Finally got it right on the full line. I figure the manual must be wrong, after all, I must have checked the level almost a dozen times getting it right on.
Fast forward 1 week. Checked the oil (paranoid now thanks to all the posts...) and I find I'm over the full mark. How much, I can't tell thanks to the lousy cable design of the dipstick. So I drained it out into a clean pan. No sign of fuel contamination - good! The oil's very warm, almost hot so it pours really well through the engine and right into the sump. I wind up leaving out the extra 2/3L and it's right on the full line. Manual was right! Can't explain the discrepancy other that the new oil was cold at the time and maybe took much longer to drain down to the sump. Next oil change, I'll pour in exactly 4.75L and check it after I've run it a few times.
Why am I boring you all with this? I work at a dealership and like to think I'm fairly skilled under the hood. If this could happen to me, it could happen anywhere. And I've had to drain off excessive oil on another 2.4 in an HHR for my in-laws after they got it back from the dealer. I wonder if the 2.4 design slows down the flow of oil into the sump. Maybe the oil baffle in the valve cover or it winds up flowing into the timing chain passage which takes awhile to drain down, or something else in the block passages.
And just maybe some of those high oil levels in other threads were not all fuel contamination but just an oil change with too much oil.
So after the car's back on the ground, I put most of the jug in, run her up, check for leaks etc. Then I checked the dipstick - low! So I add the rest of the jug - still low, about 1/3 of the way from add to full. So I wind up putting about 2/3 of another liter/qt to get it to the full line for a total of 5.4L/6qts. And each time I add, I'm waiting a few minutes before checking it. Finally got it right on the full line. I figure the manual must be wrong, after all, I must have checked the level almost a dozen times getting it right on.
Fast forward 1 week. Checked the oil (paranoid now thanks to all the posts...) and I find I'm over the full mark. How much, I can't tell thanks to the lousy cable design of the dipstick. So I drained it out into a clean pan. No sign of fuel contamination - good! The oil's very warm, almost hot so it pours really well through the engine and right into the sump. I wind up leaving out the extra 2/3L and it's right on the full line. Manual was right! Can't explain the discrepancy other that the new oil was cold at the time and maybe took much longer to drain down to the sump. Next oil change, I'll pour in exactly 4.75L and check it after I've run it a few times.
Why am I boring you all with this? I work at a dealership and like to think I'm fairly skilled under the hood. If this could happen to me, it could happen anywhere. And I've had to drain off excessive oil on another 2.4 in an HHR for my in-laws after they got it back from the dealer. I wonder if the 2.4 design slows down the flow of oil into the sump. Maybe the oil baffle in the valve cover or it winds up flowing into the timing chain passage which takes awhile to drain down, or something else in the block passages.
And just maybe some of those high oil levels in other threads were not all fuel contamination but just an oil change with too much oil.