Here is something a little strange....But not in a way to be ignored!.

Went to check my oil this AM. Im up in northeast, pretty cold up here right now.

My oil level on the stick showed the oil VERY low. Just barely wet.

Drove the car last evening in very cold weather and parked it last evening,No oil light ever came on, A look under the car and all around the engine bay shows ZERO oil leaks..not even a drop!....yet why is stick showing low oil? Car is on level parking ground.

Anything to do with the cold maybe?

Could be that your dipstick was not inserted all the way? When did you last change oil? Sometimes brand new clean oil is hard to see on the dipstick. Maybe your oil return lines are clogged and not allowing the oil to drain back to the pan properly.

Thanks! actually i made sure the stick was all the way in the pan a few times. Same thing. I last changed the oil about 600 miles ago and although still relatively clean its "dirty" enough to see it.

After a few more checks...The side of the stick shows level high enough...but seems like thats oil from the side of the dipstick tube because of the oil just being shown on sides of the stick.

I guess i`ll have to check the oil return lines as i cant think of anything else. NOT something i need right now in the weather and my work garage about 10 miles away...I certainly dont want to drive the car there.

One would think i dont know how to check my own oil but i guess i should share this story.

After checking the oil a few more times, I still saw a very low condition and temperatures here have changed little...still quite cold.

I felt it was not a good idea to start the car with what appeared so low a level and so cold out and so i added a half quart first...Oil level still too low ....so i added the full quart. Oil level now appearing high enough to start the car.

So i start the car and all looks ok and take a few mile jaunt down the road. I come back and let the car sit for 15 minutes and checked oil again. Now the oil level appears too high.

So my only conclusion is the cold must have coagulated the oil in the car previously to make it appear too low...I am just guessing but i have been working on my own cars and do 80% of my own repairs and i have never had that happen before in 25 years of driving.

So to remedy this i am going to change the oil filter to bring the oil level back down at least a half quart, Now have to figure out how to get it back down the other half.

I feel ridiculous but i would rather share the story in case it happens to someone else.

I forgot to add smiley face at the end of " now just have to figure out how to get the other half quart out" A little self effacing joke is what i intended....without smiley face it looks like im going to try to figure out how to remove a half a quart of oil Im just going to do a complete oil change. :) (didnt forget smiley face this time)