What's the best time of day to check oil?

That depends on whether one’s glass is half-full or half-empty.
:palm_tree::sunglasses::palm_tree:

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That Florida climate agrees with you CSA :slight_smile:

It seems to agree with everybody here, no joke. Compared with people in my northern summer location where everybody walks around suffering from depression because of lack of sun, foul weather, long winters, etcetera, etcetera, (The actual medical name of the depression is SAD, an acronym for Seasonal Affective Disorder), causing most to be disgruntled, around here everybody is happy, as in just happy to be here. People are “gruntled” (to borrow a word coined by Michael from the TV show OFFICE).

The clerks in the stores are nicer, folks in the elevator are nicer, our neighbors are nice and friendly, drivers are more courteous and thoughtful, and the yard sales, consignment shops, thrift shops are unbelievably fun and lucrative. People just about give really nice quality stuff away! Sarasota Habitat for Humanity Re-Store is great.

Our building houses people from many states, Nebraska, Texas, California, New Jersey, New York, for example, and we all invite each other in our condos for drinks, snacks, B.S. and whatever. We’re all in paradise together.

It really is like waking up in paradise every morning and then it just gets better during the day.
Cool cars here and they love it, too!
CSA :palm_tree::sunglasses::palm_tree:

In the late 1970’s an engineer friend of mine from Colorado moved to Boca Rotan to work on the original IBM personal computer development. He eventually moved back to Colorado, but has a wistful look in his eye when peering east … lol …

Don’t stay too late, CSA, you might get the summer version of SAD in Florida.

The dipstick bottom side on my Kia Forte 2.4L is pressed against the mouth of the tube by the curvature of the tube. The oil is partially wiped off and gives no usable reading. I guess I could turn the stick over and take a second reading but then the bottom of the stick would be the top! What a terrible dilemma! NOT!!!

I think you’re overthinking this. Since my driveway is on an incline, I get false readings when I check the fluids at home. Therefore, I now check mine when I buy fuel.

Do what’s easier for you. It’s not going to make a significant difference; a dipstick is not a precision instrument.

Actually, it does if you say “period” and “comma” while you’re dictating.

Thanks, I won’t. Right now at the northern location there is Winter Storm Warning continuing and the snow just keeps on piling up! All the schools are closed, most businesses are too, vehicles are getting stuck and blocking roads and snow plows are running off roads while trying to keep up with it.

It is not really suitable for people or motor vehicles there yet, so we and our vehicle are staying put for a while. My golf leagues there begin on May 1, but it’s not going to happen this spring. After snow there’s the melting and frost coming out of the ground and it becomes monsoon season at the golf course for a while and the river running through overflows its banks. My golf partner is hunkered down in the Florida panhandle and we’ll both get back there when we get back there.

My wife wants that weather to continue because it means she’s staying here longer.

I have had a couple local workers here tell me that, “You don’t want to be here in the summer!” However, my friend in Clearwater has lived here for 32 years and doesn’t mind it. I guess it depends on whether you can work inside or not. He was a pilot and worked “indoors.”

:palm_tree::sunglasses::palm_tree:

George Gershwin answered the question of.the best time to check your oil in the song “Bess, Yo Is My Woman Now” from his opera “Porgy and Bess”. One of the lines in the lyrics is “Morning time and evening time and summer time and winter time”. Follow Gershwin’s guidelines and you will be checking your oil correctly.

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If you stay long enough, you will get used to it. I used to spend extended periods in FL for work when I was younger. I’d go for a half hour or 45 minute run in the late afternoon. Still in the 90s and very humid. Of course, I couldn’t tell it was humid because i was sweating so much. Just stay hydrated and hit the pool periodically to cool off.

Fortunately, my son gave me a Camel Back “hydrator” for my last birthday. He rides bicycles and knows about this stuff. It carries 1.5 liters of H20 on my back and conveniently locates a tube near my mouth. I can get drinks while I’m hauling down the trail on my bicycle. I took the Giant Transend EX today (big bike, rides like a dream). I drank almost a liter this a.m. I headed in the northwest direction (where the 15-20 mph wind was blowing from) and rode 16.51 miles round-trip to & through Robinson Preserve (salt water marsh). I head up-wind first so that my tired legs get a push on the way home downwind. Then coffee and breakfast.

I checked oil in the Caravan before I came inside. It was still above “full” and as clean as it could be!
CSA :palm_tree::sunglasses::palm_tree:

Enough already CSA. We get the point.

Regarding checking oil, I really don’t think the thermal coefficient of expansion is significant to worry about the temperature. The average engine allows plenty of leeway for that small amount of variance. It does take a few minutes to run down out of the heads, however, so I’d recommend allowing a few minutes for that to happen if you’re checking the oil while on a drive.

If you monitor your oil regularly, as I do, I do recommend that you do it under roughly the same conditions every time. I check mine first thing in the morning in my garage. The floor Is level and a constant temperature better reveals small changes from the previous check. It’s a little bit of an “engine health” monitor IMHO. But I’m obsessive about it, and I really don’t recommend getting obsessive about one’s oil level. For me it just alleviates a bit of boredom.

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I second the motion.

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Good! Then it’s passed, whatever it was, ha , ha! :lizard:
CSA :palm_tree::sunglasses::palm_tree:

I propose that common sense answer gives US a break . . . no more palm trees and smiling face wearing shades, at least for a few days

I’m happy for you, as are the rest of us, no doubt

That said, there’s only so much a man can take . . . :roll_eyes:

on a side note . . . my cats catch a lot lizards. Had to bring that up, since csa apparently wants to talk about lizards

Just to keep it car-related . . . I’ve never had Geico insurance, auto or otherwise

@common_sense_answer I do not mind the palm trees, now L really wonder what percentage of people ever check their oil, I would think it gracious to call it 15%

I’m inclined to agree. I suspect that most people simply rely on their shop to do the due diligence, and when the car wears out or has problems they just get another, never realizing that it never had to wear out or have problems so soon in the first place. I doubt if even those living paycheck-to-paycheck realize how important fluid monitoring is.

One neighbor refuses to lift her hood. I tried to tell her how easy it was to check fluid levels, and even offered to show her son what to do. She looked at me as if I was from another planet. My cover blown, I decided not to continue that conversation.

Back when I was first driving…there were very few self-serve gas stations. All were full service. They pumped your gas and always checked the oil.