I had a first oil change on my V8S yesterday. The tech who did it spoke very little English but could manage a friendly "nice car" when he pulled it round for pickup. I should have checked the oil before I drove off.

Today, I had the car warmed up and parked long enough to do the dashboard check. It was filled to the maximum.

I stopped in at a different dealer today to see if they could drain a pint or so. I was assured that the car has an overfill warning.

My question is - does it? If not, how bad is it to leave it filled to the top line?

 

I don't know about the Ftype yet, but I always fill my cars to the top of the fill line. I know there is a range considered OK, but must of my past cars all used a little oil, so I always fill to the very top of the range. Do you mean that its actually Over the OK range?

 

My car was filled to the Max line when delivered and, 2000 miles later, is still at the Max line. I recently took it in to the dealer for an A/C fix and they said the oil level was fine.

 

I'm 99% sure the max line is just like the top line on a dipstick. The min level is like the lower line on a dipstick and is when oil should be added--not before. It's just an electronic representation of a standard dipstick.

At 6K miles now, and I had a single oil change at 3K, and I've never seen anything other than an indication at the max line.

 

Ok thanks. I bought the car new and it was at the midpoint then. My concern was that the level indicator was done with a float switch and once it is maxed out it could potentially be too full. I was assured there is another switch that detects overfill. Just didn't want the crank to whip any excess into a froth. My boat mechanic taught me that.

 

The "Max" line is appropriate for a oil change. The Owner's Handbook for F-Type (the one that came with my R Coupe) states an "Engine Oil Level Overfilled" message will display (as will an "Underfilled" condition too) if the oil level is too high (or too low).

I took great pains to change out my oil the first time myself for various reasons, e.g., calibrating the display in my mind with the actual oil level, learning how to extract rather than drain, etc. My point is that I was able to ensure I sufficiently drained out the oil and added the right amount of oil. After the change, my oil level hit the "Max" line as did yours once the appropriate amount of oil was added (7.6 Qts for the R). Doesn't appear you are overfilled.

Here's how my display appeared after the changeout. The first pic shows the display after adding 7.0 qts--I wanted to see how the display reacted to being down 1/2 qt. The second pic shows the oil level after adding an additional .6 Qt to reach the factory-specified fill of 7.6 Qts w/filter.

 

That was a very enlightening experiment, Delta. Thanks! It's good to know what the different line levels represent.

 

Thanks, Foosh.

Electronic dipstick calibrations are tricky. I ran a BMW years back. It was my first electronic dipstick experience. Its oil display stayed on "Max Fill" seemingly forever. One day, out of the blue, its display shows a full quart down. What gives? I was checking regularly every other week or so, since I was trying to calibrate and didn't trust the sensor. In hindsight here, I should have checked the Jag's oil level at a quart down as well. Will do that during my next change.

And I promise I won't say "Give me an old-fashioned dipstick" more than once. Promise.

 

Thanks for the detailed info. My invoice says 8 quarts so at worst, if they sucked out all the oil, it is over by .4 quarts. I can live with it but probably will use the oil extractor to suck out a few ounces. Would have been much happier if it was showing one line from full. I wonder how overfilled it has to be to get the overfill warning.

 

Holy cow . . . I would recommend you forget about it. They charged you for 8 qts. because they rounded up from 7.6. You're worrying too much. If it were overfilled, you'd get an overfill warning.

A whole bunch of people here have already told you that our cars all show levels at the top line, including Delta.

 

Probably. I appreciate the info posted by all who responded, especially the pics showing the different oil levels on the screen. The info on the forum is incredible. I've had some sketchy dealership experiences in the past and like Delta probably should have experimented at home before letting anyone touch the car. Could have also have had my experience tainted at the dealer yesterday when I heard a customer complaining about scratches from the car wash, and then trying to talk to an a tech who barely spoke English didn't help. Thanks again for the input.

 

I always request "No Wash" when having cars serviced at dealerships. I swear they dry the cars with sandpaper, you hear complaints like these from dealerships of all makes.

 

+1

 

Sandpaper indeed. "Hands-Free" may mean hands-free as far as not washing the car by hand; but, those hands are most often at the other end of a long-handled brush used to "pre-wash" the car before running it through the "No Touch" wash machine. A "No Wash" sign prominently posted on the dash before the service work even starts is absolutely the way to go.

 

Off-topic for the oil issue but on point for the dealership experience. I once bought a new Black Luxo-barge back in the day. It had been sitting in the lot awhile and had some water spots on the windows.

I asked the dealer to clear those glass spots up before I took delivery. They used some sort of acid wash and it distorted the glass to where it wasn't safe to drive the car. It was like there was an orange peel on the glass. Also they buffed through the paint near the gas filler and I hadn't asked for a buff job at all and didn't want one. So now my brand new black car had swirls all over it.

The dealer replaced the front windows and windshield after a I put up a fight, then tinted them the wrong color (brown instead of blue). They fixed the tint but I lived with the distortion on the sunroof and rear windows until I was able to trade out of the car.

When I took it elsewhere for paint correction it came back worse -swirls everywhere. I finally fixed it on my own with lots of scratch x and elbow grease.

Until a dealer's service department proves it is worthy of trust I just assume it is going to hurry its way through my car and make whatever mistakes it makes along the way.

I have had awesome experiences as well and have made good friendships with techs, especially one guy who kept my Touareg up perfectly for 8 years before he moved away.

I have not got that far with Jaguars service people...in fact it's been pretty rough going so far. I do hope to find a tech who loves cars and knows mine inside out soon. I will let you all know when that happens. If anyone can recommend one I the greater Puget Sound region I am all ears.

 

So I went ahead and sucked out the extra oil. It was filthy black and I had to remove almost three quarts of it to get the oil level line to drop to one hash mark below maximum.

Either they left three quarts in the car before adding in eight quarts, or they just added some fresh oil to my existing old oil. Either way, I will need to change it again.

Still looking for a reliable dealer in the Seattle area. Bellevue Jaguar is off my list.

On my car at least the car can have about three quarts too much oil in it without triggering the overfill warning.

I would attach pics but I don't know how yet.

 

This is the extra dirty oil getting sucked out





A close up of the dirty oil left in the car by the dealer





Some clean oil from fresh Castries jug for comparison





A close up of the clean oil from the castrol jug





This is how much oil I had to suck out of the fill hole to get the dash readout to drop one hash mark from maximum. Fortunately I drove less than 150 miles with this left in there. I believe the oil changer holds at least 16 quarts as I use it on my boat twice without needing to drain it.

H

 

Wow. I have no explanation for that, unless they just didn't change the oil at all and just added a couple of quarts.

It is equally difficult to believe that nearly 3 qts (or 2.5). overfilled didn't trigger an overfill warning.

 

Yup. Very frustrating. I guess I will go buy oil and a filter and change it myself. I am still going to try to find out how overfilled it would have to be to trigger that warning. Grrrrr.

 

Certainly sorry to hear about your oil issue.

I still have questions about the sensor levels as well. When I added new oil, ran to operating temp and measured the level, I reached one mark below the "Max" level with .6 of a quart kept out. On my next change-out, I'm going to do a better job at calibrating those eight markings between the "Min" and "Max" levels. (FWIW, I marked up old 1-gallon oil containers in 1/2 Qt increments just for these sorts of calibration "challenges.")

In your situation, Nookieman, while your last pic shows the oil you drained to reach one mark below "Max," I can't really tell how much oil is in the container--it doesn't appear to have any graduations. Did you or can you still measure that level as shown in the pic? I'm guessing no more than two quarts based on the size of the container. Though it would have represented more work on your part, it would have been interesting to extract a quart at a time. But, I realize that that would be tricky since extraction is hard to stop on a dime.

PM me. We'll talk. I have some further thoughts to share with you including servicing.