what is proper way to check engine oil?
 

Do you guys check engine oil level monthly?, My car has a slight "sweating" of oil (few drops/day), not a major leak.

DO you check it when the engine is cold, like in the morning? or do you warm it up after like 10 mins or so. Or do you check it after driving for awhile while engine is hot.


How do you determine how much oil to add after checking?, my dipstick doesnt show any measurement.

check when its cold, because if you run your engine its gonna have oil in the internals. So it will read a little bit lower.

As for adding the oil its just add a bit, check again, and keep repeating that til you're at the right level.

It doesn't really matter.

Why do people make simple tasks so much more complicated than it is.
Just read your owners manual. You can take it cold, hot, warm, luke warm, semi-hot..etc. Just let the oil drain down for like 3-5 mins if you just turned off your car before you check it.

In general, if the oil level is at the bottom of the two indicators, it will take approximately 1L to get it to the top, although YMMV to an extent.

i was told it's always good to check it when you gonna fill up on gas. so if you wait til you reach "E" on fuel. so i try to check mine every 2 weeks roughly

Like alphamale said. Just check it every so often. Doesn't matter if it's hot, cold etc etc. You can check it every day, every week, whenever! It's so simple, why make things compicated?

And to XplicitLuder, why do you need to wait till your fuel reaches the Empty light to check oil?. It's not really related.

On a side note, It's bad to wait till your gas light comes on, fill your car up when it hits a quater before the light comes on.
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if you do drive it and want to check it, that dip stick is gong be HOT on first wipe... so it best to wait 5-10mins before you do it...

i made that mistake once on a road trip :lol

I just make sure my car is on a flat ground and check after a couple mins of it resting there. you don't really need to wait if you just wanna roughly gauge how your oil is doing, imo.

Damn it, my house is on the hill in Coquitlam, and i can only park out on the road, better go to the gas station to check it then

you sir answered ur own question ;p why bother having to check it EVERY single day, i don't know about you but i'd get MAD bored doing that everyday lol and its just simple to check it when you needa fill up gas, that way you have a rough estimate of when you do it (for me it'd be every 2 weeks) isntead of CONSTANTLY doing it. kinda make sense ?

If you read my post carefully I said whenever. ;)

i used to park on a slanted driveway so i never had an accurate reading
i just checked it in parking lots when leaving work or the gym


always had very friendly people asking if i needed a jump start or something :)

Make sure you top up your dipstick fluid first before you check engine oil

On my 97 Prelude, I check my engine oil level once a week. Lately I've been checking less since I barely drive it. Since its an old car/engine and H22 does like to burn and/or leak oil I have to top it off every month or so with about a litre.

I just check my dip stick when the car is at a cool temperature. There are two tiny holes in the dip stick. One near the bottom and another about an inch above it. The bottom means you're low the top means your at full. That's how you measure it.

You should have something similar or atleast a line engraved into the dip stick or something? What kind of car do you have?

Anyways, I hope this helped you atleast a little bit.

Cheers
Mike

got an 2000 ranger rover that sweats a few drops of oil daily from the bottom of the engine.

while we are on the subject, a reminder to "rich tuned" cars to also smell the oil for fuel. can save you a world of hurt.

but it's so simple to do it everytime you have to gas ;)

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Sometimes it's better to do it when the engine has sat over night, it takes my engine 20 minutes for the oil to fully return to the oil pan, but in the end it depends on the manufacturer, it does make a tiny difference.