This is probably a stupid question, I know - I have an appointment scheduled at an auto shop tomorrow for an oil change. This is just to find out whether that’s really necessary or not.

I brought my car to the mechanic recently for an unrelated issue and got advised that my oil level was so low that it didn’t even show up on the dipstick. The car hadn’t given me any warnings related to that, so I decided to take action immediately.

I checked my owner’s manual, and it said the car had an oil capacity of 6 quarts. I bought a 5 quart bottle (5W-30 if it matters, car is an older model with high miles) and dumped the entire thing into the oil pipe.

I checked the dipstick a few hours later, and the level of oil was much higher than anticipated. It was above the “max” level, by a considerable amount.

Did the mechanic misread the dipstick, or am I misreading the dipstick, or is my car going to be just fine? I realize I didn’t supply a picture of the dipstick - I’ll do that if enough people request it.