Should you change oil when the motor is warm, or cold?

warm. stupid character limit.

the way i look at it... it can go either way...

if its warm... make sure its reaaaal warm... burning hot would be best!

cold, good because everything is drained from up top and what not... but if the car is cold and you drive it quickly into your garage from outside, you defeated the purpose.

i always do mine warm. not hot, dont want to burn yourself. and too cold seems to me that the oil will not drain completly (or take forever to fully drain)

i usially do it warm. i wait an hour or so after a short drive for it to cool down and so most of the oil can drain down from the top.
the good side of doing it cold is that mostly all the oil is already in the pan ready to be drained. but the bad side is that the oill is thicker when cold so you might not get all of it out as it can bond itself to the pan. that *** my opinion, really its just your personal preference

ideally, warm as the oil will flow out better. But I said, screw that! a long time ago.... I just do it cold so I don't have to worry about burning myself on anything (oil or valve cover when changing the filter!).

I say do it cold. :)

Think about it:
1. Why waste gas for the car to idle 10 mins?
2. Why risk burning yourself?
3. Why shouldn't the oil flow just as good when it's cold?
4. After the car sits overnight, *WHERE DOES MOST OF THE DIRTY OIL DRAIN? THAT'S RIGHT.....IN THE OIL PAN, SILLY!!!!* :biggthump :D

I change mine warm. But changing the oil filter sucks when it is warm. i usally drain the oil then let the engine cool down for 30 minutes or so then change the filter.

I'm having a hard time thinking of a reason to change it cold, other than not ouching your hand when you drop the drain plug in the oil pan and have to fish it out with your hand :)

When I add oil to my G20 I can see the new oil on the dipstick in a matter of a minute or two....there is no need to wait ages after shutting the car off to drain it. When I change mine I run the car a mintue or two to warm it up (if I haven't just driven it) and then drain, letting it drain while I do the filter, etc.

David

usually i drive to the parts store to get oil, than forget i shoulda taken another car. after kicking my own ass, i promptly burn my hand draining the 10,000 degree oil. seems to work good though.

whoa you guys change your oil?
i didnt know SR20's had to have the oil changed...;)

LOL, 10,000 degrees hahah...

it seems to me that warm would be ideal....when the engine is super hot , grabing the filter gets really tough...and when the engine is super cols getting the filter off sucks too...its a catch 22 deal to me, al depends on preference...either way i change my oil every 1.5 K miles....

i always get the motor really hot, drain the oil for about 20 mins while it cools. i plug it back up and fill it with cheap oil and run it for a couple minutes, then drain the oil again for another 20 minutes. then i change the filter and fill it up with mobile 1.

To me it is a lot easier to change oil when the motor is still a little warm and not cold. It seems the oil drains easier & faster when warm. The only good thing about the motor being cold, is that it makes it easier to get the oil filter off...just my .02 cents

I like to do it cold and just walk away from the car for about an hour. All the oil is in the pan at that point. If you start the car you recircluate a lot of the oil and to me it will not all drain out.
If I am in a rush, I do it warm or cold.

i dont' usually burn my hands on hot oil. It's usually when I jam my hands down next to a hot engine to change the dumb oil filter that i burn myself.

-patchy