It would clear things up if everyone said what year Corolla they’re talking about.
Toyota used two different 1.8 engines from 1998 to 2007, and yet another from 2008 on.
It’s possible these various incarnations had dipsticks with different ranges.
1 Like
Simple thing to do is check weekly and just add what it takes to return to full mark and be done with it . Now if it really low at that time then you can worry.
2 Likes
More to the point it can run fine for a while. Running with low oil long enough will eventually produce unfortunate results. I can’t help thinking of the poor sap who checks his oil, sees the dipstick at “Add,” puts in a quart of oil, and drives on, assuming everything is fine when in fact the oil is still half a quart low, which is pretty much what I did except with half a quart. If I hadn’t checked it again soon I’d have been running with the oil down half a quart (in fact, adding a full quart still didn’t bring it up to “Full”) and I wouldn’t have explored my Owner’s Manual to find out for sure.
I’m talking about a 2009, as I mentioned at the beginning of this thread. I can’t speak for anyone else.
1 Like
I recognize that I’m overthinking things from the perspective of an owner who actually maintains his vehicle well, I just wonder what Toyota was thinking?
I don’t think half a quart low would hurt anything except under extreme conditions, like a road rally.
I always carefully bring the oil level up to exactly the full mark, adjusting the morning after I do an oil change.
Now I have a car with direct injection, doing nothing but drives under 10 miles in the city, because of COVID.
About 800 miles since the last oil change.
The oil level has risen about 1/4" above the full line, likely due to fuel dilution.
At least the oil doesn’t smell like raw gas.
I’m not going to worry about 1/4" over any more than 1/4" under.
Oh, I doubt it will hurt anything long term either. But the notion that someone would think the oil is full when it isn’t because a simple dipstick is poorly designed just bugs me. “Low” should mean a quart low, not a quart and three fifths. Halfway between should mean half a quart low, not a little over a quart. That’s been a rule of thumb for decades and it feels like Toyota didn’t get the memo.
1 Like
I can guarantee you they weren’t guessing or speculating about margins or what full really means or even if running at the specified add point is actually detrimental… what scientific basis do you have to know what level of oil is actually needed in that particular engine in order for it to have the expected lifespan?
The choice of where to place the add mark is probably a balance between performance criteria and the desire to avoid owners grousing about having to add oil so often.
I don’t know but my 2012 Camry’s manual shows that the add oil mark on my Camry is at 1 1/2 quarts low.
It is also supposed to take 4.7 quarts when changing oil and filter but it always takes 5 to get it to the full mark. Has never needed any oil between changes.
I have owned a lot of cars but this is my first Toyota and I found it strange also. Every other make I have seen used 1 quart as the add mark,
Hmm. Granted, two data points aren’t that significant but I’m sensing a trend. It appears 1 1/2 quarts or so between “Add” and “Full” was “a thing” for Toyota at one time. Interesting. Presumably there was a reason, although it’s probably lost in the mists of history.
It cuts down on the number of complaints about having to add oil between changes.
Sort of like my owners manual making the ridiculous assertion the burning one quart of oil in 600 miles is not excessive.
@TwinTurbo alluded to the same thing. If the “Add” line is lower the owner will have to add oil less frequently and be convinced the car requires less attention than it does. We see it today with so-called “zero maintenance” transmissions. Since my Corolla only uses a quart of oil in 3k at 118k I’m not that worried and I check my oil, coolant, brake fluid, battery terminals, etc. every week anyway.
I am disappointed that Toyota abandoned the decades-old industry convention that the ‘add’ mark means add a quart. I bet lots of folks add a quart, don’t check it, and are always at least a half-quart low.
Low is relative. What does the full line really represent? Is it simply the maximum amount the crankcase can hold minus some margin for people that might overfill? Does it really provide any benefit to have an extra half quart of oil in the engine? It is not going to do any harm to keep it at the full mark and so that’s the safest thing to do. But I’d bet if you follow the recommended change interval and check it often enough you don’t starve it, the engine wouldn’t perform any differently with 1/2 quart less or perhaps close to the add point even. We’re all guessing tho- we can’t do the necessary testing to prove it either way…
Same engine that was in my 99 Corolla. These engine are known to burn oil due to faulty piston rings.Mine started consuming oil at 100k miles.
My point exactly. But to be fair, we don’t know that Toyota “abandoned” the tradition. We only have two vehicles, my 2009 Corolla and @oldtimer-11 's 2012 Camry, as samples, although I believe the 2ZR-FE 1.8 liter is still in production. Perhaps Toyota now uses a different dipstick? It would be instructive to check various current Toyota Owner’s Manuals to see if the trend continues. Interestingly, the 2AZ-FE 2.4 liter that was an option in 2009 more-or-less followed the tradition by having “Add” represent 1.1 quarts low.