Son's First Car--98 Corolla Seca--Overfilled Oil--Cactus??

[MrTbeezy]

Hi folks, Concerned dad of first-time car-owner son. He just bought a 1998 Toyota Seca 1.6L Automatic in Melbourne. Perfect condition. Saw that the oil was so low when warm it did not even touch the dipstick. Filled it to within specs on the stick (took about 1L). Drove 15 mins to home--car performed well. Checked in the morning. Still low. Added another 0.7L (now about 1.7L added total). Test drove for 3 mins. Noticed gear shifting suddenly irregular and slow. Rechecked oil level. It was now 5cm over the limit on the dipstick!! Drained off 1.5L through the pan and no more oil would come out of the pan. Mystified that the oil was still 5cm over the dipstick limit. Took a syringe. Drained off another 0.25L through the dipstick tube, which was about everything that we added in total. Oil level now 1cm over the dipstick limit. Engine still starts and idles fine, but now the car will not go into gear at all. My son is devastated. Please help.

[Hiro]

Just to confirm, are we talking about engine oil or gearbox/transmission oil?  The auto in these also has a dipstick in the engine bay, just want to make sure you're checking the right thing (especially since you're talking about it not shifting properly, which shouldn't be an issue with engine oil level if the car runs fine otherwise)

[MrTbeezy]

Thanks so much for your advice. We checked the transmission dipstick (finally!) and it was empty! Yes old dad did a boneheaded move. My son then changed the oil and filled the transmission fluid on his cherry 98 Toyota Seca and the car sings! Thankfully our 100m test drive on no transmission fluid does not seem to have done any major harm. Cheers