oil question

[irishbiker]

Hi all

I have a question about my oil consumption.

I got the bike at 13000 and it is now 15300, during that time i have added nearly 2 quarts of oil.

When i bought it the previous owner told me the oil had been changed to synthetic on the 12000k service, this high oil consumption leads me to believe the engine is not broken in properly. My riding style is not too aggressive however i do accelerate quite hard through the first 4 gears.

So my question is should i change the oil and revert to mineral oil until the engine breaks in properly? Or am i completely mis diagnosing the situation?

If i do revert to mineral oil i am assuming i will have to change the filter also? Also any suggestions on what oil to use if i need to change it?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Warren

[Biff's R]

My bike still goes through some oil on occasion. Certain things tend to be common when it does burn oil though.

Short trips, leaving the bike on the sidestand, cold temps, etc. seem to be common when I burn a bit of oil.

I am running synthetic right now, and have 29k on the bike. I actually think that it says that 1 qt/1000 miles is within the limits. I gotta look in my manual though.

[DJ Downunder]

I ran a top quality fully synthetic from only 600 miles (1000 klms) and I now have over 60,000 klms on the clock.

I've just started to use Castrol Magnitec..It's a semi synthetic..and a bit cheaper.

I would not go back to mineral oil because synthetics do a far better job...IMO..and you should not worry too much about it using a lot of oil.

They all do that.. ...(well most do)

DJ

[mnnden]

My "02" has used oil since it was new,( about 1 qt X 1000 mi), it now has a little over 30k , one would think that at that usage, it would "blow smoke" but it doesn't, sometimes just a whisper of white at take off.The high oil use is annoying but you get use to it, I went back to the mineral oil just because of the cost, about the only good thing is you do not have to "Change Oil" just the filter once in awhile. (just kidding) I still change the oil on a regular basis, although I really don't know why. Den

[towerworker]

I have heard many say that a quart per 1000 miles is normal but I never experienced anywhere near that in my r ownership. I bought an 03 new and put 42,000 miles on it prior to totaling the bike in an accident I changed my oil and filter every 3000 miles and used Castrol 20/50 conventional oil. I possibly added half a quart per 3K on average. And that slowed down alot as the miles racked up.

I ran synthetic only one time and then for just 2000 miles. That's another story.

I suppose the way you break one in plays a part. I didn't dog mine but didn't run it easy either. I would hit the rev limiter on a regular basis.

Wayne
04R

[CycleRob]

irishbiker,

I would wait until the next oil change to change back to conventional 20W-50 oil. Synthetics require extreme riding to achieve a break-in and will prolong the oil burning until then.

Your bike is not broken in yet. The consumption drops to about 1/2 qt/6,000 miles when it is. Mine took almost 18,000 miles because of my conservative riding. The way you have to ride it to speed up the break-in requires a track day. Doing it on the street may put you in jail unless it's off-peak time in a remote area within a State plagued by Police budget cuts.

Shifting right at the redline every so often, even with only 1/2 throttle acceleration, is necessary because the connecting rods stretch elastically a miniscule amount making the top piston rings travel further than they ever will, to an unused part of the cylinder wall. If you never go to redline, a shelf develops in the cylinderwall between the normal wear pattern and where the rings never went yet because of the low RPMs. That's not desirable. It's a small detail you can add to justify takin-it-2-the-red every so often (after 600 miles). Mine is usually 1st gear and ~1/2 throttle.

-enjoy-

.

[boxermania]

+1 on CycleRob's comment

It all has to do with the coating applied to the aluminum cylinder, Nikasil, as it has great wear resistance. The downside, as CycleRob so estated, is that it requires the engine to run hard until the break in process is completed.

To further complicate things, premature use of synthetic oil (good for these engines because they are air cooled and there is a temperature gradient front to rear on the cylinder), which has better lubrication characteristics than dino oil will in most instances delay the break in period.

Some owners, burn oil well into the 30K to 40K miles range. I will also presume that some have oil control ring issues, but not enough to affect operation.

[RBrider]

Mine used about a qt per 1000 mi up to about 15,000 miles. Then it just stopped.

On the recent Arkansas bash ride, I logged 3600 miles in 9 days and didn't use any oil(that I could tell).

I used 20=50 Castrol up to 12,000, then switched to Mobil 1 20=50. The 15-50 mobil 1 would work too, I think.

I don't think I've ever hit the rev limiter on mine, but I do run it hard in the middle revs in the twisty's.

Good luck with yours.

RB

[rockstercliff]

I used the BMW dino oil till the 12000 mile check, started out using a quart for every 3000 miles, down to less than a quart between 9k-12k. Now use Mobil 1 20w50 and in the first 1000 miles since check up[ at 12k], it hasnt shown any useage. Watch your oil fill cap, mine got loose and it was blowing out a bit till I caught it and changed the o-rings.

[boxermania]

RB

I also ran Castrol GT 20W50 on mine until about 5500 miles when the oil consumption slowed down. I was familiar with the Nikasil and consequently rode my bike into the happy zone, as Patrick would say, not all the time, but when the opportunity presented itself......mostly on the intermediate gears.

At 5500 miles we, our riding group, went with Royal Purple in the same weight range. Royal Purple is a bit slicker than the competition and the choice was primarily economical as one of our friends was the distributor and we got it on quantity and almost at cost.

Typically we would do a wholesale change on all the rides at the end of the season, late October/November and go until the same period the folowing year. Mileage on the bikes was anywhere from 3,000 to 7,500 for the period as most of us had and rode two bikes.......

[irishbiker]

Thank you all for the advice

I am nearly due an oil change so will do that in the next week and replace with regular 20w 50 and see how the consumption goes.

I will also redline the bike more in lower gears on the local back roads to aid the process, a track day sounds like fun as well.

Thanks once again, this is a great forum.

[frbank6]

Mine has continued to use about a quart every 1k miles. I've used regular oil up until the last change at 23k, when I switched to synthetic. I haven't ridden enough to tell if it's using more or less.

[Boxer]

Mine uses almost four quarts every 6,000 miles.

[Sunbeemer]

[towerworker]

My 03 used almost 4 quarts every 3000 miles!!

That's twice as much as yours Boxer!!



Wayne

[tor1150r]

My 04 seemed to stop consuming at around the 20k km mark. From then, until I traded it at 70k km, it used ~1/2 liter every 5000 km.