Earlier today, my wife and I were driving back from a weekend visit to family. After a couple of hours driving 70-75 in outside temps around 90, we stopped at a rest area. I used the opportunity to check the oil. I would suggest keeping an old oven mitt in the trunk for this chore. The plastic handle of the dipstick was so hot that I literally burned my hand. Must be something about the location of that stick. The engine temperature remained completely normal the whole trip - 3 bars. I am presuming that the hot stick effect is completely normal, but boy was I surprised.

 

If you check your oil when your engine is cold you'll get a more accurate reading. And you won't burn your hand.

 

Just so you know the oil dipstick is not calibrated for when the oil is cold. It is calibrated when the oil is hot and some oil is left in the valvetrain.


Please read your owners manual. It states to check the oil when the engine is Hot-warm. Ideally during a gas station fillup...


Checking the oil cold and filling it up to the H line will give the engine more oil than actually reccomended.


Peace

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by jelliotlevy
[B]The plastic handle of the dipstick was so hot that I literally burned my hand.

 

Ya, I've experienced the same thing. It really gets hot so I use a towel (paper) on the dip stick handle when I check the oil. I always wait a few minutes though to let the oil drain into the pan to get a true reading.

 

When the car was new, I was hoping it would start to get dirty just so I could read it! I think I checked it three times each time because it's so hard to judge the clear, (hot thin) oil.

 

imagine that... the dipstick is hot... sitting on top of a hot engine that runs up to 9k... in warm weather. i'd have never thunk it.

 

Is it me or sometimes its hard to pull out because of the way the "handle" is shaped? You kind of have to pry it off...and everything..including the handle is hot!

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ChiS2K
[B]Is it me or sometimes its hard to pull out because of the way the "handle" is shaped?

 

(*) We do not know this for a fact. It says to wait a few minutes after the engine is turned off. I believe that in those "few" minutes, the bulk of the "HOT" oil has indeed, drained back down into the pan because it is hot and will flow very easily by gravity through all the oil passages however small. And this reading would be very LITTLE different to when the oil is cold, like before the first start of the day. Try it sometime. I have. (I consider a "few" minutes as being 3-5.)

(**) I think that Honda put this statement in the book because they wanted the oil check to become "routine" and suggesting you do it at a gas station fillup will help most people to remember to do it. Also, the gas station was the "traditional" place where such things were done (pre-self serve). Because checking the oil in this car is soooo critical they wanted to instill some "habit" so that this gets done.

(***) You may have had a "brain fart" when you made this statement. If you fill the oil to the top line on the stick while some oil is still in the valvetrain like when it is HOT (by your own previous statement) then when the engine's cold and "all" the oil has drained back down to the pan, you would then get a higher reading. You kinda said the opposite. ie. If I filled my oil when the engine is cold, then after I run the engine and have some oil left up in the valve train, I would get a lower reading because less of it would be in the pan.

As for the "hot" dipstick, whether it be stop and go city traffic or having driving 600 miles to the next province, I can hold the dipstick plastic top without a problem. Maybe I've got tougher fingers that most. Also, taking out and putting in the dipstick has never been an issue either. And in case this subject comes up next, my dipstick doesn't "pop" out either. It stays put.