A penguin's truck breaks down. He has it towed. The mechanic tells him give him an hour to see what is wrong. The penguin decides to walk across the street to the supermarket. When he walks in, he sees the door to the freezer hanging open. He sees ice cream and can't help himself. He tears open one container after another devouring ice cream. He then walks back to the mechanics shop. The mechanic says "it look like you blew a seal." The penguin replys, "no I was just eating ice cream."

Drain the extra oil as soon as possible to get it in range on the dip stick. Watch your engine and driveway for any leaks. Thats about all you can do.

Remember this one bit of advice. If you have your oil changed at a shop always check the level YOURSELF before leaving. Or, just do it yourself and know for sure how much is in it.

You'll be fine though.

WTF - page 9-2 clearly has stats for each engine - not much room for confusion. Did they even look in the manual?

Don't have a manual? Get it here.

I would get closer to the recommened capacities - 5 quarts is WAY high....

By looking in the owners manual. Its one of the first things I go into my owners manual to find out when I get a new vehicle. If the owner doesn't have the owners manual, most decent shops subscribe to a service like All Data which will typically have factory service manuals (FSM's) which also have such vital specs. Or heck, these days you can go get the owners manuals for most cars from the manufacturer websites if they are too cheep to subscribe to some consolidated info source like All Data. The dealer has all the FSM information on-line and should be able to pull it up in seconds.

heck, even Jiffy Lubes have oil capacities summarized for their techs. Given that oil is the lifeblood for your engine, and you can cause damage by both under and over filling, I would not be comfortable with a shop that "wings" it with such a basic stat.

It's your call, but it would be a serious vote of "no confidence" in my book.

Another example of oil use. My X's 3.3L V6 uses 3.5L of oil. My Honda Prelude's 2.2L I4 use 5.1L of oil. Engine size doesn't have much to do with oil capacity. Engine design, on the other hand, dicates oil capacity.

Why 5.1? That just kills me. Why not 5L exact? I hate that when I change oil, always have a bottle that I use for that 0.1 fill.

Jim

Thanks again to all.

Not a good sitaution to be in, but from what I ghave seen from some of your repsonses, and from doing some additional internet searches (looked on other boards and websites for the topic) overfilling by the dealership and/or shop is quite a common occurence.

Sickening, as you hope that the "professionals" would get something as basic as this right. But as I noted before, it's usually the new guy, trainee, or the vocational school interns who get assigned to "tires and oil" so The advice to check the oil after the "experts" cghange it is something I plan to do each time forward. I just hope it wasnt an expensive lesson

Am I the only one who keeps the manual in the glove compartment? Just whip the darn thing out and SHOW him.

3.5Q per oil change,
M1 10W30 Synthetic,
Every 3,500 miles without fail,
75,000 and still going STRONG...

We know you blew a head gasket but I hope you didn't Blow a Seal?(CLICK THIS Penguin Car!)

when i had my first oil change done they put in 4.5 quarts. thats what they charged me anyway. it wasn't the dealer, these people were closer and i dind't know how to do it myself yet. i told them it only calls for 3.5 but he said they put that in and it woudln't show up on the dipstick so they put in another. i drove around for 3k miles and it was fine. when i did my last oil change i put in 3.75 quarts and checked and all is well now.

I don't trust the dipstick (the one in the engine, or the one working at Jiffy Lube) to be accurate. Drain the oil thoroughly (when warm, and let it drain for several minutes), put in EXACTLY 3.5 quarts, let the oil settle down into the pan for several more minutes, then check the level on the dipstick. Whatever it's reading, THAT is your target cold level. Even if it reads "low" or "high" on the stick, that's where it should be when you check it, you know the proper amount of oil is in there despite what the stick says.
The Xterra's dipstick is darn near useless anyway, hard to read, and usually picks up oil on its way through the tube that makes it hard to trust.

And for your entertainment, more oil level threads:
http://www.xterraownersclub.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=24;t=000703
http://www.xterraownersclub.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=24;t=000343
http://www.xterraownersclub.com/cgi-local/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=24;t=000299
http://www.xterraownersclub.com/cgi-local/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=24;t=000229
http://www.xterraownersclub.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=24;t=000120

Brent

Thanks Brent for the links I did not know how to list.

Of course he's "Not mechanically inclined" so he was not able to search much less read the advice he was so freely given. He did claim to have searched in his very first ppost but what he searched for was not really very inclined! "how to change oil"

Thanks to FASTDRMR...Click this to see @$#%@#

as per 2004 xterra owners manual . . .

Engine oil
Drain and Refill
KA24DE With oil filter 3 3/4 qt 3 1/8 qt 3.5
API Certification Mark *2
API grade SG/SH, Energy conserving I & II or API grade SJ or SL, Energy Conserving *2
ILSAC grade GF-I, GF-II & GF-III
Without oil filter 3 1/2 qt 2 7/8 qt 3.3
VG33E/VG33ER With oil filter 3 1/2 qt 2 7/8 qt 3.3
Without oil filter 3 1/8 qt 2 5/8 qt 3.0

might help
fred

Bones, if you'd like to continue trying to bait me, feel free to e-mail me directly and we can call each other names by e-mail. I might use an auto -responder, but it should still at least make you feel some sense of childish accomplishment. Hope each time you post how mechanically "declined" I am, it boosts your ego and satisfys whatever basic insecurities you may have. I assume you are probably about 26?

Anyway, I was wrong to stir things up with you to begin with. I should have let your initial post just slide, because I certainly should know better. I already apologized for adding to this mess, so why not be a better person and just move forward yourself? The more you post your childish commentary, the more you make yourself look insecure and immature. Think about it.

Anyway, my thanks again to the positive responses. Having the oil re-done now as well as having other issues looked at and checked. I set my expectations with the shop foreman as well as the front office. Their reputation is spotless around here and their customer service legendary. I need to give them the opportunity to correct this and do right by me. I also think it is only fair that they stand behind their name and warranty at no cost to me.

As far as the long term concerns, I can just move foreward and hope all is well. I have documented everything and if in a year or so start having oil leaks at the seals or other issues that could be related to this, I will have the groundwork in place for any case I may bring.

And I thought the drama had ended when I ditched that POS Chevy S10 I had !

Thanks again,

Lee

AKA "Admittedly Mechanically challenged" (and not ashamed to state it)

I hope you and your X enjoy many trouble free miles.