How much oil does my car take?
Capacity figures vary by engine, by whether the filter is changed, and by how the car is standing.
Two figures, one label
Manufacturers publish a capacity with filter change and sometimes a smaller figure without. Ours are the with-filter numbers, which is what you need when buying oil for a full service.
Buy a five litre bottle
Most four-cylinder engines take between 3.8 and 5.6 litres. A five litre container plus a one litre top-up bottle covers almost every service and leaves you something in the boot.
Fill to the dipstick, not to the figure
The published capacity is a guide. Some oil always stays in the galleries and cooler, so the final half litre should go in slowly with the level checked between each addition.
Why overfilling matters
Above maximum, the crankshaft whips the oil into foam. Foam does not carry load, and the pressure it creates pushes oil past seals and into the intake. It is a genuinely damaging mistake, not a harmless excess.
A registration lookup returns the grade, approval code, capacity and interval for your exact engine — free, and without a sign-up.
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