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Did I put to much oil in?

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Wtlj

Member
I just did an oil change on my 2003 sportster. I'm waiting for my service manual from HD that's on back order. The Harley parts guy told me 3 quarts, which filled it almost 1/2 away from oil tank opening? After running the bike of course. It has a custom dip stick fro
The previous owner with 2 notches 1 at the very bottom and another almost at the top. They seem to far apart to be high and low markings??? If it is too much oil will it hurt anything?
Terry
 
If you have too much oil in the tank then the excess may come out through the crankcase breather and soak the air filter or pressurise the fuel tank and blow the dipstick out
oil level should be checked when the oil is hot and if you are unsure halfway up the dip stick should be good

Brian
 
Because it is a custom dip stick, maybe post a picture of it. I can tell you with my stock stick I made the assumption that the raised part would measure a quart from top to bottom....wrong. It was a good thing I measured out like 8 oz and that put me right on the top line. The manual says any where on the raised part is good I'm just glad I went slow.
 
Do you have the owner's manual? If so, check it for capacity as a starting point or look online for a copy. Maybe have the parts guy at Harley look it up and show you if in doubt and then you'll have a better starting point. Just a suggestion. Hope you get it worked out either way.
 
Wtlj said:
View attachment 13161
Here's a picture of the dip stick. The oil is up to the top notch now.
Click to expand...
Hey that looks exactly like what I was trying to tell you I did. I would say that is as high as you'd care to go and if you ended up there by accident, then you might want to try and stay a bit below that the next change. Say the with of a pencil or something like that. But I bet you are ok.
 
I brought up a similar question to the service manager at my local dealer and he said if the hot oil level is 3/4 to the top of the tank, it will be fine. I used to put the recommended 3 quarts in my '06 883 and oil would end up in the air cleaner and also would get blown past the dipstick and run down the outside of the tank. Eventually I found 2 1/2 quarts to work fine.
 
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