If anyone knows FOR SURE (sorry, speculation won't help much) would you please tell me:

Is filling and RX-8 with oil up the place on the dipstick where the wide flat part of the stick meets the narrow round part, just above the "full" mark OK?

(That spot is indicated by a blue arrow in the attached pic).

Sure hope it is, because I just had my oil changed for the first time--and at an authorized Mazda service center--and that's where they filled it to.



I know that the owner's manual says "Don't add engine oil over F. This may
cause engine damage." But these guys work on Mazdas everyday. They couldn't screw up something like an oil change, could they???



Thanks,
saxon

 

Do not under estimate the incompetence of a dealership. Based on your photo that’s about a cup too much oil. If nothing bad happened yet you should be fine.

 

Don't overfill coz if you rev high enough it might cause the oil to come out of the dipstick and you will get a messy engine and possibly fire.

 

That is about 1/3 of a quart too high. The good news is that we don't have a crankshaft sloshing around the oil in the pan so added oil aeration isn't too much of an issue. It is too high but realistically it isn't going to hurt anything. Those guys have a habit of doing that since the RX-8 injects some oil into the combustion chamber. They try to overfill to account for people that don't check oil levels frequently or add it enough. It is a really dumb habit for them to do but don't worry too much about it. Just try to keep it at the proper height in the future.

 

BTW, I keep forgetting, what's the "Best Practice" for checking Oil Level again? Something like After driving, shutoff the engine for 5 mins and then check it ?

 

Yup. Manual says... to drive it a bit.. let the engine cool down.. and check when parked on a level surface.
I will soon begin my periodic checks too.. i just got my car last week

 

from the rx8 dvd

shut off and let cool off for 10mins, wipe dipstick, dip it, check level, wipe and replace

 

I'm sorry, that's not correct. It says to let it sit for 5 minutes. Not to cool off, but to let the oil to drain back into the crank case.

Two interesting things from that part of the dvd:

1) They tell you to take the engine cover off. I can't imagine why; it's perfectly possible to pull the dipstick without the cover off, and I can't see how the presence or absence of that piece of plastic affects the oil level...

2) Fascinatingly, it says the following (word for word quote):

"An engine oil level warning light illuminates if the engine oil level gets too low...
When the light illuminates, or every other time you add fuel, you should check the engine oil level using the following steps..." (emphasis added)

So by this, you don't really need to obsessively check the oil all the time, it is sufficient to just check it when the light comes on. (me, I'll still check it once in a while, but I'm not going to lose sleep over it).

 

Standard practice according to my Mazda dealer. They are told to add 3.8 l of oil which always ends up 0.3 l too much. For some reason they keep doing it but it does not seem to hurt.

 

I remember searching this after my first oil change, and no matter how many times it seems to have come up in the past, it's still there. It's dumb, really. I don't understand why a dealership would persist in a practice that spends A) more time and B) more money (of theirs, actually, when someone calls in to ask about why the oil is overfilled on their oil-sensitive RX-8) when it serves no purpose aside from stressing everyone out there.

We're already supposed to be uber-picky about the oil level, in the first place; this just makes the newbies more anxious...

 

rotarygod,

I called the dealer to ask about the oil level, and that is exactly what they told me.

Apparently this does not cause any short-term problems; but I can't help wondering if it stresses the seals, etc. The nightmare is that such problems wouldn't become apparent until after it's off warranty!

My hope is to get 200K miles out of this car.

Thanks,
saxon

 

Saxon987, Just remember less is more. So if your doing some high rev in your 8. You might want to keep in mind that your over your max line. Not that its a bad thing but. You never know.

 

I am not sure what it really matters, the oil is injected into the engine by the computerize oil pump, there is no other way that I know of that the oil is going to get up into the motor. Like Rotarygod said, there is no "crank in the oil" situation like in a piston engine. The only problem I could see with too much oil would be a cooling of the oil situation, and I am not sure if more oil would be cooler or warmer in the engine...

 

Don't worry about it. More oil is just more oil to absorb heat but don't worry about it. It all still travels through the system at the same pace. It'll cool just fine. There won't be anymore stress on the seals in any way. The only thing you might see off of an overfilled system is a little more oil mist from the crankcase ventilation (what a terrible term on a rotary) into the intake tube but it shouldn't be much. You should be back down to the regular full line within a few hundred miles.

 

Some how the dealer manged to overfill my engine oil as well (and not just by a a 1/3 of a quart). They over filled it so much that when it came tame to excelerate the car would shake over 3K rpm. Of course this oil change was done during the heatshield recall so perhaps they fed me some BS and forgot to tighten something down. What do you guys think?

 

IT use around 1 US Quart of Engine oil every 1,100 miles. So just add 1 quart of oil for maybe 1500 miles. and maybe after adding 3 times you should be "about time" to change your engine oil.

then you do it again.

 

^^^ I essentially agree.

I ususally add about 1 quart between oil changes, and I've slipped into the habit in recent times of not checking until the light comes on. Funny thing is, the light has come on two or three times at the same place in my commute, in the same way, after I've been driving on the highway for about 35 minutes. I come to a traffic light, accelerate quickly after the light changes, and into a turn, and then "Pop!" the light goes on. I pull over, shut the engine off, restart the car, and the light goes off. I then go to the nearest gas station, check the oil, and each time it's been a quarter past the empty line -- well within the safe zone.

I take this as a very good sign. From my experience -- keep in mind, an AT owner not reving very high that often -- I think it unnecessary for me to check the oil after every other fill up, as I once did religiously. A new owners should check the oil much more often, at least until its possible to get a sense of what your particular car needs.

 

OK, sorry to revive an old thread, but I searched and couldn't find anything quite like my question...

I have made it a habit to check my oil every 500 miles, and I now have 1500 miles on my 05 AT GT. This time the oil was between 1/4 and 1/2 up from the "low" mark. So according to the manual I should have been over a quart from Full, close to 1.5 quarts. So I added a quart and checked it. It is now just a hair over the F mark. Are the ticks on the dipstick not quite accurate? Or am I wrong in my assuption that somewhere between 1 and 2 ticks up from L means you need at least a quart?

Thanks in advance!

 

I don't know the answer to your question, but point something out that may affect your confidence in the answers you do get. Sometime after 2004, Mazda changed the dip sticks, so information from '04 owners may not be valid for you.

 

Yap everytime I take my car in for maintenance they overfill it. I always check the oil right when I get it back and it's always at that blue mark in the first post on this thread. I check my oil regularily, and I know it may not be a big deal for them to do that, but I wish they wouldn't and it makes me feel like they think i'm an idiot.

 

The best practice is to only put in enough oil to bring the level to the F mark. So don't base the amount of oil on the dipstick markings. Put in a little oil, check the level, put in a little more, check the level, and so on until the level reaches the F mark. A little over the F mark is no big deal.

 

Thanks for the replies!

Anybody know if anyone is making an aftermarket dipstick for this engine? One that is easier to read? Trying to figure out the oil level on a black dipstick is a pain in the rear. Our Acura has a silver one, which is much easier to read.

 

Take some fine sandpaper and "shine up" the dipstick (i.e., remove the dark coating). That helps a little, but also when you view the oil on the dipstick rotate the the dipstick front to back and vary the position of it with respect to the light source. About the best you can do. I've never heard of an aftermarket dipstick for this car.

 

I just had a similar problem with my first oil change. They put about a quart too much oil in. I noticed on the way home, as she didn't seem to feel as strong - so to say. The service tech tried to deny it intil I had the service advisor look at it himself. Then it was all "We're soooo sorry sir, we'll get this corrected right away....." It then took them forever to precisely measure the exact amount of oil, I watched them raise and lower the car over and over trying to get it right.

I make it a habit to check over everything I have done to my cars. It's wise in the end. This was a dealer, and even they can't be trusted at times, although you're luck is generally better with them than "Joes' Oil Change".

 

My Oil was marking at the "Low" line then I put 1 quort of oil in let her sit gave it a look and now it reads at the "Full" line? All that <------> took 1 quort of oil? wow!