Had my first oil change done yesterday. When I check the oil after coming home this evening (5 min after turning off engine) the oil level is way beyond the over max level (hard to measure - the flattened part of the stick is all wet.

Better have them drain some tomorrow.

Moral - if you don't change oil yourself - make sure you check the level immediately after the dealer/quicklube/whatever.

Elak

mine was slightly over at delivery. exactly how much over is yours?

that sucks
mine was over at deliever also

After picking my new car up and driving it home, I found the oil level almost two inches above full on the dipstick. I drove it back and had it corrected immediately.

Mazda's official word was "It won't cause problems, just drive it. The excess oil will be burned off. Rotaries consume some oil."

I was not amused.

2" over the full mark seems like a lot... I wonder if they read the book and just blindly dumped in 7 quarts or something? Them telling you the car uses a bit of oil and just drive it seems very irresponsible of them and worthy of you filling in a feedback sheet with some very un-flattering responses on it. I hear Mazda takes those quite seriously.

I had mine changed at the dealer last week and it's just a smidge over the full line, by maybe a quarter-inch or something.

Simon.

Actually, that was MNAO's word. See thread: http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7847

elak? just a question before you go draining your oil. did you do like kkmaniac and wait 5-10 minutes for the oil to drain back down before checking? 2 inches sound like alot to me and you should definetlt have it drained down after double checking the stick.

Wasn't me with 2" , mine was just a bit above the flattented piece on the stick - say 1/4" over max.

Had it fixed, apparently it is difficult to get it precise, the mechanic did it twice before his manager was happy with the level.

Another thing - seems like many dealers are using 10W-30 instead of 5W-20 (still - non-synthetic). Too expensive to invest in the infrastructure of different grades - and most customers don't know.

/Elak

screw that! the frikkin manual says 5w-20 so that's what should be in there. did they ask if they could use a different weight before they put it in your car?

My dealer overfilled my 8 on its first oil change as well. They just read somewhere in the service manual what the total oil capacity was, and that's how much they dumped in. I had made sure at the time I dropped the car off that they would be using the correct weight oil... I didn't think about telling them how much it should take as well!

I checked it as soon as I got home and noticed that it was way overfilled... took it back and had them drain some out. I had to show the service writer the owner's manual page where it says that 3.7 quarts is the volume that will be drained and replaced. DUH! One of the drawbacks of having one of the first cars of a particular model, I suppose, is having the dealer's techs do their learning on your car...

That's what pisses me off a bit, because I really had to corner them before admitting that it was 10W-30. Still there has been several posts indicating that this may be more for environmental reasons than actual engine requirement.

I'll do future oil changes myself.

/Elak

your dealer isn't doing you right

mine used 5-20 and I would also be upset if they used 10-30

its your car

10-30 will be thicker than 5-20 and cause more internal engine resistance and thus lower mileage. However, it'll offer more protection and is good for summer when engine runs hotter. Your dealer and most oil change places may not have 5-20 since it's rare for new cars to run on this thin oil.

Most cars only need 4 quarts per oil change since there is some oil that's not completed drained in the engine.