04' with a healthy appetite for Oil..

[DAQ421]

The joy of Northern California living is there are places that demand this type of riding all over the place. I will do my best to test your idea.

Peter,

Prescription: take two CA36 trips (Fortuna to Red Bluff and back) and call us in the morning.

I'll be down there myself next month for "oil consumption therapy".

I am always looking for reasons to ride. Let me know, if you don't mind, when you intend to ride 36 and I'll see if I can meet you at some point.

Just a thought..


-Peter

[sjbmw]

My '04 R1150R drank almost a quart of dino every 1000 miles, up to approx 18k. Then it dropped off considerably.
At about 24k, I switched to 100% synthetic, and never lose a drop now.

I was advised by a BMW mechanic a long time ago, the more the boxer motor is babied early in it's life, the longer it will drink oil. If the 17k miles on your bike were of the "cream puff" usage, the oil use could make sense.

By cream puff, I mean rarely stepping above 4k rpm with the bike, I know guys that shift bikes the same way each ride, and stay within a certain rpm range, always. (They are good safe riders, I mean no disrespect, but this can cause a boxer to drink more oil than it should.)

The instructions I got when I picked up my bike was to ignore the "first 600 miles" thing, and use the entire powerband.
Don't beat the bike, but don't baby it. The sooner the motor works, the sooner the parts seat.

[DAQ421]

I am working diligently to work the engine out thoroughly..

I'll report later on the results.

-Pete

[hawkdad]

My '03 did the same, seemed to be burning lots when I first got her..

I noticed my oil consumption goes up when I baby the engine.. if I let her just idle around.. just cruiser style running say around 3200 to 3500 rpms.. she drinks lots of oil.. but if I run her around 4K.. I burn almost no oil..

I always liked the throaty sound she makes at the lower rpms.. but thats not how she's built to run..

I found the same advice worked for getting consistent reads. Let it sit on the side stand before checking.. then center stand

If I'm on a multi day road tour.. I usually fill her up when on the side stand, letting her drain.. then go pay for my gas (never pay AT the pump).. then come back out and put her on the center stand and check.

btw. using Castrol 20/50 GTX au' natural... change every 2500 miles