Does anyone have the definitive answer as to when you should look at the oil levels.

Warm or Cold??

How Warm or cold??

I spoke to the service manager at Honda Chiswick when my mate bought his Type R and he said check when warm. But does that mean 5 mins after stopping or 2 I have been checking warm afer about 5 mins.

Checked out the search and it wasnt that helpful. And its important to get it right

Cheers.

 

Cold

 

ive always checked all my cars cold .

 

Cold. And by that I mean I've only ever checked when really cold, like a number of hours after driving! Could be that I'm wrong, but that's how I've always done it. The S seems to give me some odd readings though..... reverse onto level ground to check the level - ten yards (maybe) - and its down 200ml! Think somebody else on here has noticed something similar too.

Edited to add:

So if you're after the 'definitive' answer, then I suppose you should go by the handbook which says to have the engine warmed up, and be parked on level ground, to then leave it for approximately three minutes, and then check.

Clearly I have been doing it wrong!

 

Warm! Leave it 5 minutes then check, and make sure you're somewhere level (that's nearly caught me out before).

Although to be honest I do it cold more often as it's more convenient.

 

Oil expands when its hot, so checking it when its hot is the normal condition.

Checking it when cold is almost worst case, but you could potentially overfill it if you topped it right up when cold.

I think Si will know the actual amount of expansion in terms of volume - I have some papers with expansion vs temp curves somewhere so will dig them out. I wouldnt worry too much though.

So there are 2 schools of thought, and as long as you know the facts then you know how accurate your oil checking is.

I always do it when warm.

 

The type r is to be checked within 15 minutes of being at operating temp, this is in the handbook. No such instructions for the S though so cold for me.
Level ground naturally.

 

Just wait till the light comes on then fill her up, isn't that what we all do?

 

People also say not to put cold oil in a hot engine. So it's low, you drive around getting it warm thereby damaging the engine before you can check it, and then put in some cold oil damaging it some more.

 

I read a thread on the US site and someone gave a pretty comprehensive write up and said that check hot after 5 mins and also check cold note the difference and top up somewhere in between

hmm....

lots of different opinions