How Often do you change your oil...?

[offcamber]

You can choose two options....

I am coming up on 6600 miles on the S10...I changed the oil at 600 and 3600....I did the filter as well even though the manual says every other change. How many of you change it every 3k or do you wait longer. I run Mobil 1 10w40 motorcycle racing oil. It seems to me that with full synthetic I should be able to get 6k out of the oil.

Don't want to start another oil thread but curious what others are doing.

Lets not start a "my oil/filter is better than yours" thread or Synthetic vs blends vs conventional....

 

[hANNAbONE]

Re: How Often od you change your oil...?

I use synthetic exclusively

I change @ 5000 miles (*so I put in 6000 in the vote*)

 

[Dallara]

Re: How Often od you change your oil...?

~


I changed my oil and filter several times in the first 3,000 miles. It's an old habit, and I do it just to make sure I get as much assembly debris and early break-in tailings out of the engine as quickly as possible.

I used Yamalube 20w-50 "Performance All-Purpose" four-stroke mineral oil for the first 6,000 miles and then switched to Mobil 1 20w-50 full-synthetic "V-Twin" motorcycle-specific oil. Again, old habit... Break 'em in on mineral oil and then switch to synthetic.

I use Yamaha OEM Denso oil filters, and I change both the oil and the filter every 4,000 to 5,000 miles, so I'm not sure which of your choices you would want me to click. I usually also change my final drive lubricant at the same time. It's just too cheap not to, and I get to inspect the final drive condition that way. There I used Yamalube shaft drive lube for the first 6,000 miles and then switched to Mobil 1 75w-90 LS full synthetic gear lube with a touch of LubroMoly "MoS2 Anti-Friction for Gears" mixed in.

My bike is just over two-years old (picked up 08/03/11) and has over 33,000 miles on it as I type this, and I have no lubrication related issues or seal leaks of any kind in all that time.

Dallara



~

 

[offcamber]

Re: How Often od you change your oil...?

I added a 7th option for those that go more than 3 but less than 6

 

[Mark R.]

I use Mobil 1 15w-50 synthetic non-motorcycle specific oil, and Mobil 1 75w-140 synthetic in the final drive, and change both every 3000 miles, with a new Yamaha filter. It's too frequent, I know, but that's how I roll.

I just did the full change at 6000 miles. I have magnetic drain plugs in the engine, and both had a bit of fine filings on them, as did the drain plug on the final drive. The final drive oil was thrashed - looked like silver liquid in spots. Glad that stuff is out of there.

 

[Firefight911]

I go every 5000 only because it's easier to remember than every 4000. That being said, I use oil made for motorcycles (vagueness is deliberate here). I've performed various oil analysis tests on oil with former motorcycles (cars as well) and have proven conclusively to myself that there is no benefit to changing any more often than the recommendation of the manufacturer. In fact, the oil qualities were well within specs and could have gone much longer than manufacturer recommendation but a couple quarts of oil are cheap by comparison to a warranty debate should something go on or a motor purchase if I some how STUPIDLY think I know more than those who are trained and paid by a manufacturer who is putting millions and millions of dollars of research in to product development and betting their success on it.

I do, however, always and firmly hang on to the old school philosophy similar to Dallara. New motors get oil changes at 500 miles, 1500 miles, 3000 miles, 5000, miles and then every 5000 thereafter. Final drive at 500 and then again at 5000 miles and 10000 miles. Every 10000 miles thereafter (every other oil change).

 

[terrysig]

Not to get involved in an oil thread but since you asked and it was the same for my previous 3 FJRs as well as the S10:

engine, filter, washers and drive every 4k (or there abouts)

- engine gets shell rotella conventional
- drive gets mobil 1 75 - 90 synth
- the mobil 1 "shorty" filter to fit my sw-motech plate
- new copper and crush aluminum washers via belmetric

no problems

 

[BadKarmaPa]

At 500 miles : engine oil & filter and final drive, with Yamalube

At 1200 miles : engine oil & filter and final drive, with Yamalube

At 3000 miles : engine oil & filter and final drive with Mobile 1 4T, and Mobile 1 gear lube

After that every 5 to 6k with Mobile 1 and filter

At 13k she went in the shop with a drippy final drive. I'm still waiting for the outcome of that.

 

[offcamber]

Its interesting how people are different. I rarely if ever change the crush washer and have never had a leak....If I have a new one I put it on but I usually keep the old ones as spares....Just doesn't seem necessary to change every time.

 

[~TABASCO~]

I use Synthetic 10-40... I normally will change the oil in the neighborhood of 5-6-7K..

 

[offcamber]

So the eraly results suggest most run synthetic and most go over 3K many over 6K....This isn't surprising.

 

[Dallara]

So the eraly results suggest most run synthetic and most go over 3K many over 6K....This isn't surprising.

What I find interesting is that as I type this only 46.2% of the respondents run a conventional, a full-synthetic, or a mineral-synthetic "blend" oil...

What do the other 53.8% use? ::025::

Castor bean oil perhaps? Peanut, safflower, corn, etc. cooking oil?

Dallara



~

 

[Rasher]

Semi Synthetic at 6k so far, did an early change when I got the bike at 150 miles, then the dealer services at 600 miles and 6,000 miles, will let the dealer do the 12k service as this will be just before warranty runs out.

Can't see any issue with sticking to schedule, but I would do an extra here and there change if the mileage dropped to a point where I was not clocking up 6k in a year or so, then I would just change come spring time on an annual basis - although clocking up miles is coming all too easy with this bike.

 

[sail2xxs]

I change the oil and filter on my bike every 3000-3800 miles (depends on trip timing), use regular Rotella T 15w40, and Yamaha filters. Crush washers are original, and work fine.

Chris

 

[EricV]

I also did oil changes at 50 miles after a break in routine, then 500, then at 5k intervals after that. Switched to synthetic at ~5k. Rotella T6 w/8 oz of STP oil treatment for added zinc.

Worth noting is that the US manuals spec 4k intervals, but EU manuals spec 6200 mile/10k kms intervals. Splitting the difference at 5k for simplicity.

I test my oil and have not found it to contain harmful levels of contaminants, even at 10k miles, though it was noticeably more 'dirty' than at the regular 5k intervals and shifting was getting notchy. I change the filter every time, so far using Yamaha Denso filters.

 

[simmons1]

Rotella dino at 600 miles. Rotella T6 every 5,000 miles starting 3K. Super Tech ST6607 or Champion Labs PH2876 filters at every oil change.

 

[cosmic]

620 mls - Yamalube sint + filter
6200 mls - Yamalube sint + filter
12400 mls - Motul V300 + filter...

©

 

[tubebender]

I add a little Blendzall to the gas ::26::

 

[TreeMuncher]

From some past research that I did, I concluded that the oil never goes bad as fast as manufacturers recommend that you change the oil. The most important thing to do is to keep a CLEAN OIL. As long as the filtration system is working well, the oil will not go bad. But, this normally requires bypass oil filtration to filter down to about 2 microns or so. On my engines with bypass filters, I always double drain intervals or go longer. Years of oil testing proved that the oil always remained very good even if I more than tripled the drain interval. And this was with conventional diesel motor oils.

Synthetics are designed for longer service life - one of their main benefits. When I use synthetics, I usually push the drain interval and IF I double it, I ALWAYS change the filter at the recommended interval or close to it and then again when I change the oil.

Until I put 20k miles on the S10, I ran dino oil and changed it at 500, 1500, 5000 and then every 5k miles. Once I hit the 20k mile mark, I started running Mobil 1 synthetic motorcycle oil for sportbikes. Now I change the filters every 5k and the oil 5k or 10k depending on mileage before a trip. My only concern is that the spin on filters do not generally filter down far enough in size of particles. If I had a bypass filter on this bike, I would be confident to run 20k miles between drain intervals but as it is without, I will rarely, if ever, pass the 10k mark without a drain.

During my very first drain interval, I put the drain plugs on the lathe, counterbored them and epoxied neodymium magnets within to catch any steel particles. Early drain intervals caught some free iron particles but after 10k miles, there is almost nothing that sticks to the drain plugs. This is sort of like a canary in the mine shaft in case something is going bad over a period of time.

Good short article concerning bypass filtration here: http://www.blackstone-labs.com/by-pass-oil-filtration.php

I think that I will do some research and see if any units might fit the Tenere. I plan to keep this one a long time. This IS the best motorcycle that I have ever owned.

 

[Roge]

Things move on oil has improved and Yamaha engines are designed with a service interval so why is still deamed necessary to service a 2010> bike the same as a 1970 one. The book says semi synthetic oil every 10000kms so thats good enough for me