I have no way of starting my car and warm it to get the compression.
Can I take the compression when the engine is cold?

Thanks

 

I always thought you were supposed to do it when the car was cold. I was always told that you should never remove your spark plugs when the car is warm for fear of stripping the threads out.

 

no its supposed to be at about 100F or something for the test. Read the manual. And I never thought about stripping the threads because the car is hot, I just never change my plugs when its hot so I dont burn the **** out of myself. Doing a compression test you will burn yourself but at least its only for the 2 top plugs.

 

I have one of those fancy graphing compression testers and I will say that warmed-up is the best way to do it because you get the most consistent numbers from test to test.

However you can get perfectly good "ballpark" numbers when it is cold. Just be sure the tester is screwed in snugly by hand (no need to use a wrench!).