Normal Oil Consumption?

[Rocketman51]

Returned home from the Un early Friday Morning. 1910 Miles. No tickets! No road rash! Averaged about 37 mpg. Used about 2/3 of quart of oil. Anybody know what is considered normal oil usage for a RT with 60K miles. Tnx

[greiffster]

I believe anything under 1L/1000Km is considered "normal" by BMW. Mine uses a very predictable 1oz/100 miles. You are within spec.

[Twinsig]

ditto! 1 qt per 5k mi here. Sleep well.

[Stan Walker]

Some are better, some are worse. You are well within the BMW spec.

 

Roughly speaking my '02 R1150RT uses about 4 oz. per 1000 miles while touring. To put that differently; if I fill it to the upper MAX mark in the sight glass I can go about 4000 miles before it hits the lower MIN mark. Short trips around town will use a small amount more than that.

 

That's with 129,000 miles on the bike. It's never used much oil, not even when new during the first few thousand miles.

 

Stan

[SinNH]

My 00 uses a quart in around 1800 miles depending on the brand, always has in about 100,00 miles.

[MT Wallet]

What do you think your average speed was for the 37mpg? Nice bike!

[strataj]

The oil consumed in the above posts may be within BMW specs but that is high to me for a bike with that kind of miles. I'd expect to see that level of consumption for bikes was under 25,000 miles. It's important to run these motors, some say like you stole it. If you are under 4k RPM all the time your rings never set correctly. By 35k a proper broke in OilHead will stop bring oil or lest not adding oil between 6k oil changes. This is from my experience, not only with my 02R1150RT but my riding buddies too.

 

Jay

 

Jay

[DavidMantle]

just under a pint for 5k miles and average of 50 mpg Imperial gallons .

[AndyS]

It's important to run these motors, some say like you stole it. If you are under 4k RPM all the time your rings never set correctly.

 

Jay

Rubbish.

[tallman]

Perhaps.

But the ones we saw w/high oil consumption (outside BMW spec) were usually babied.

Often a 100-150 miles of higher rpms cured that.

Don't recall ever seeing one broken in by the book w/increasing revs/mileage and then some free spirited throttle have high oil consumtion.

 

That said, these models vary greatly in oil consumption from bike to bike.

 

Same rider owning different bikes could have different results.

Some seem to have very little change (my '96 RSL would, at most, use 8 oz between 6k oil changes) and others would be right at the BMW spec for consumption yet run just fine.

 

Now my brick. Oil level stays constant until next change.

[AndyS]

I am not saying that they should never be hurried. What I AM saying is that they don't ALWAYS need to be thrashed/hurried.

[Rod C]

I've put just over 3,200 miles on my '02 R1150RT since I bought it last year and it steadily uses a quart every 1,000 miles! I hate that. My Honda didn't use one drop in 30K miles.

 

I've been doing what I can to try the higher revs, spirited driving approach. If nothing else, it's fun! But I've had zero results in 3,000 miles of doing so.

 

The bike just now crossed 25K miles, mostly sat for the previous 3 years before I bought it, and I am sure it had been babied before that. Old guy owned it. And it mostly looks like brand new.

 

If it was 20% less buzzy and didn't use oil, it would be the perfect bike.