After picking up the car from the dealer, I put on about 200 miles so I did a fill up and checked the oil level. I was surprised to find a plastic device surrounding the dip stick. I remembered mentioning to the service manager that every time I check for oil level, there is large patch of foams. He said that is probably due to condensation as I also found the same informatoin in this forum.

I drove the car to home to take a closer look. I removed the long plastic piece that surrounded the dip stick so that I can take a look at the oil level on the dip stick. I noticed at this point that they changed the dip stick too. Previous dip stick only had two markings for low and high, but the one that was replaced had the two markings plus 3 additional marking in between. It looked just like the ones in the owers manual.

Well, here is where the problem starts. The car is on even ground, and i get a reading of 1 inch more than the max marker. I opened up the oil cap so that the oil would drain faster to the pan. I still get high reading. I waited about 10 minutes and the oil is over the flat area of the dip stick. I inserted the plastic piece back on to the dip stick and the plastic piece falls in to the hole.

Do I need to take the car to the dealer right away? Will it damage the car driving 30 miles to the dealer? What about that plastic piece that fell in the hole? Will the piece fall down somewhere causing massive damage to the engine?

HELP!!!
Nedor

 

Call the dealer first before starting the car for sure.

 

The long plastic piece that surrounded the dipstick was not supposed to come out WITH the dipstick. It was supposed to stay inside the dipstick hole (and reduce appearance of foamy stuff).

This is the TSB that talks about the plastic piece:

http://www.finishlineperformance.com...09-05-1450.pdf

It has an instruction that says: "ensure the oil level gauge tube insert does not come out". SO they messed up the install of that tube (or it was messed up from the factory? *shrugs*)

Anyways, call the dealer, as I'm not sure how far the tube insert fell and how bad that is for the car.

As far as 1" more oil level, that seems to be excessive... dealer probably overfilled it, so don't rev the engine too hard. Mention that also to the dealer. Ask why they overfilled it and why the plastic piece around the dipstick came out WITH it, instead of just the dipstick coming out.

 

Probably floated out on all the extra oil

Take it in...hell..I'd make them tow it in just to be sure ....

 

the plastic tube insert isn't going anywhere, it'll just sit right inside the dipstick tube, and it's also ok if it slips out once in a while when you pull out the dipstick, it's just an insert that prevents excessive oil foam residue from forming in the tube, no big deal...

and as for the excessive oil level... you could try to drain it out a little bit yourself, IF you know how to do it...

 

They installed the insulation tube to prevent build up of the oil-condensation foam that sometimes shows up in the cold temps. It's a cosmetic thing and has no functional use other than to make you thing they "fixed" the foam problem. The dip stick is the newest version and more useful in determining the amount of oil to add to bring the level up to the top mark (read the service bulletin dealing with this dip stick). As for the over filling goes, go to a local auto parts store and pick up a pump that has a tube you insert into the dip stick tube and pump out enough oil to drop the level to the top mark. Then plan on doing your own oil changes in the future. It is not difficult and there's a good oil change DIY in the DIY section of the forum.

 

I was able to use the dip stick to pull the plastic tube that fell in. I crammed it the dip stick so it dosn't fall off any more. But this prevents good oil level reading because the tube covers the area that gives the reading on the dip stick. I may just cut maybe 2-3 inches from the bottom so it does not cover the area with marking.

After contacting the dealer, service manager said to bring it in right away. I looked around and no one heard my conversation so immediately, I went to make hot coffee, left the coffee on my desk and went straight to the dealer. At the dealer, I took another reading. It was more than 1 inch over the max level. Oil line was just a bit over the flat surface of the drip stick. I found out that the person that serviced my car was not in, so they sent out another guy to drive the car in. After 20 mintues, I was told the car was ready. The technician came out to meet me. When I asked him why there was so much oil, he said there wan't too much in there at all. The oil level was exactly at max level. However, he said that he refilled the oil with 4.5 qts as recommeded on RX8. Knowing that I need to have good relations with the service people, I smiled and said thank you.

After 80 miles of driving, I went to fill up the gas. As the RX8 bible states, I checked my oil reading again. It was about 1/4 inch low from max level. I added maybe about 1/5 of oil fromt he bottle and went home. After checking the oil level again, the oil level was just a bit under the max level. I also noticed that the oil is almost clear compared to brownish color after driving 200 miles from my first oil change at the dealer.

Now, since that it is off my chest, here is the short version.

After getting first oil changed done, oil level was waaaaay too high and the color of oil did not look any different when I checked last time. Immediately, I told myself, maybe they did not even change the filter and just added a lot of oil with out even measuring it. After bringing the car home from dealer to look at the oil level, I checked the oil level again. It was just under max level and the oil looked very clear.

Nedor

 

congrats, i'm glad it's all cleared up for ya.. enjoy your car!

 

the tube is not meant to be jammed onto the dipstick but is supposed to be installed in the TUBE. if it remained where it is supppsed to be you wouldnt have to worry about reading the dipstick.

next time you have an issue with your car and you go to service and say "i have issue A" and later they tell you "issue A is fixed"- ASK THEM TO EXPLAIN WHAT THEY DID TO FIX IT. then you wont be suprised by changes like the dipstick and insulator