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- 2019 CX-5 Signature
Um, doesn't waiting until the next morning to check, meet their requirement?The basic concept is pretty simple: a warm engine has more oil in the engine itself and less in the pan than a cold engine.
For the 2020's, the North American manual says this on page 6-27:
"Inspecting Engine Oil Level
1. Be sure the vehicle is on a level surface.
2. Warm up the engine to normal operating temperature.
3. Turn it off and wait at least 5 minutes for the oil to return to the oil pan.
4. Pull out the dipstick, wipe it clean, and reinsert it fully."
Normal operating temperature can be gauged off the coolant temperature--run the car until the water temp gauge stops going up.
This is middle of the road between warm and cold. More oil will drain into the pan overnight than after 5 minutes.
This begs a question. Does the service tech follow this procedure when checking the oil on a refill? Probably not since spewing carbon monoxide dioxide in a closed garage and spending another 20 minutes on the job is not something he's inclined to do.
More likely the tech will underfill it a bit. Oil expands when hot. After 5 minutes of cool down the oil is still pretty hot. The tech is putting cold oil in. He might recon it will average out.
Keep in mind there is a tolerance. A half quart low or high is not a big deal and could be the amount of variation under the different conditions. The thing to do is check the oil right after an oil change after the prescribed 5 minute cool down. If it's reads a bit low no biggie though you could top it off. If it reads a bit high no biggie; it won't be enough to blow a seal or gasket. Frankly, I think you'd have to be driving the thing with no oil on the stick or the whole stick covered in oil to do any damage.
So, check it right after an oil change under the specific 5 minute cool down (on level ground) to see if it is within tolerance. If it's OK, somewhat high or low, then you have a benchmark against which to check later to see if you're losing oil or not.
Alternatively, if it's within tolerance as above, you could then check it again overnight and reset your benchmark to cold conditions. This is my preferred approach since I check the oil at least a couple hours after driving since I also check tire pressure at the same time. It takes quite a while for tires to get cold.
This may seem overly fastidious because it is. But if you're concerned about oil loss for some reason, this is a way to monitor it.
3. Turn it off and wait at least 5 minutes for the oil to return to the oil pan.
In what window of time does "at least" end?