Oil change interval

[Rick Ward]

Anyone use Motul 5100 in their RT.  If so, what mileage between changes?  Thanks

 

[AndyS]

Mileage between changes remain the same for all oil as far as BMW are concerned.

[dirtrider]

16 hours ago, Rick Ward said:

Anyone use Motul 5100 in their RT.  If so, what mileage between changes?  Thanks

 

 

Morning Rick

 

What Motul 5100  are you thinking of using?

 

Personally, I don't use the Motul 5100  oil's in older vehicles as number of the Motul 5100 series oil is Ester based oil. 

 

Ester based motor oils aren't always fully compatible with the seals older engines so in some cases can some cause oil seepage.  

 

At one time Ester based oil was the rage but with modern PAO based oils being much improved you don't hear that much  about Ester based oils  today. 

 

Ester based oil's still have their place in some motoring situations  but to me not so much in every day usage in older vehicles.  

[Rick Ward]

Thanks DR, Motul 5100 was used in my recent oil/filter change.  I was wondering how many miles should I travel before replacing?  I currently have 56000 on the bike.

[dirtrider]

49 minutes ago, Rick Ward said:

Thanks DR, Motul 5100 was used in my recent oil/filter change.  I was wondering how many miles should I travel before replacing?  I currently have 56000 on the bike.

 

Afternoon Rick

 

Well!, that depends on a number of things.

 

Like how long will it take you to ride the miles, under what ambient conditions do you usually ride in, type of riding  that you do, how far that you  usually ride  once started & under way, etc.

 

A good place to start is to go by what's written in your riders  manual then adjust from there.

 

If you can tell us more about where you usually ride, under what conditions, ambient temp ranges that you ride in, type of rider that our are, etc   then we can probably help you adjust your oil change intervals to fit your riding conditions. 

 

 

 

 

[Miguel!]

The manual recommends every 6K miles but you can do it more often. I do it once a year in the winter regardless of mileage when I've more time for maintenance and not riding as much. I’m strictly a recreational, fair-weather rider averaging 6-8 hours a week on the bike, not a long distance tourer nor commuter and rarely put on 6K miles in a year.

 

I recently changed my engine oil and filter, swapping out synthetic oil for Spectro 4 20W50 mineral oil, as originally specified by BMW for the 1100, after about 3500 miles. I went back to the mineral oil for several reasons: it's less expensive, it's what BMW originally specified and Chris Harris reported that of all the the oilheads he's serviced, the ones that had leaks used synthetic oil.

 

The Spectro 4 was tricky to find but it is available on Amazon for ~$30/4-liters with free delivery, link above. After the oil change, the engine was quite remarkably smoother and acoustically quieter. I also felt the shifting was smoother, tho I don’t know why that would be. A very knowledgeable BMWST.com member told me the smoothness and quietness was mostly likely due to just changing the oil, not the mineral vs synthetic. 

 

Caveat: I'm not a not a mechanic nor have the depth of experience that many other members do. Its just my rational and relatively-limited experience.

 

Best

Miguel

[tallman]

All BMW service/maintenance was/is time/mileage dependent.

 

3-8,000, IMO, with experience guiding.

 

Send your oil off t be analyzed when you change.

You'll get specific feedback for you situation.

Very worthwhile.

BITD, when David was Proprietor, he sent oil off to Blackstone, and others did too.

Interesting % results for particular ingredients.

Don't know if those posts still exist.

Best wishes.

[RandyShields]

5 hours ago, tallman said:

All BMW service/maintenance was/is time/mileage dependent.

 

3-8,000, IMO, with experience guiding.

 

Send your oil off t be analyzed when you change.

You'll get specific feedback for you situation.

Very worthwhile.

BITD, when David was Proprietor, he sent oil off to Blackstone, and others did too.

Interesting % results for particular ingredients.

Don't know if those posts still exist.

Best wishes.

Please elaborate on the suggestion to have your used oil analyzed.  What can it tell you?

 

Thanks.

[Mrclubike]

I like to change it every 5000 miles in the Airhead and Oil head

mostly because it is just a good even number I can remember

5000

10000

15000

20000

and so on

[tallman]

Randy, check out Blackstone, their site and kits.

Good info.

Can see how your oil choice is working, more.

[dave_a]

On 2/27/2020 at 3:12 PM, Miguel! said:

The manual recommends every 6K miles but you can do it more often. I do it once a year in the winter regardless of mileage when I've more time for maintenance and not riding as much. I’m strictly a recreational, fair-weather rider averaging 6-8 hours a week on the bike, not a long distance tourer nor commuter and rarely put on 6K miles in a year.

 

I recently changed my engine oil and filter, swapping out synthetic oil for Spectro 4 20W50 mineral oil, as originally specified by BMW for the 1100, after about 3500 miles. I went back to the mineral oil for several reasons: it's less expensive, it's what BMW originally specified and Chris Harris reported that of all the the oilheads he's serviced, the ones that had leaks used synthetic oil.

 

The Spectro 4 was tricky to find but it is available on Amazon for ~$30/4-liters with free delivery, link above. After the oil change, the engine was quite remarkably smoother and acoustically quieter. I also felt the shifting was smoother, tho I don’t know why that would be. A very knowledgeable BMWST.com member told me the smoothness and quietness was mostly likely due to just changing the oil, not the mineral vs synthetic. 

 

Caveat: I'm not a not a mechanic nor have the depth of experience that many other members do. Its just my rational and relatively-limited experience.

 

Best

Miguel

The transmission doesn't share engine oil. So ....maybe that improvement was just based on an oil change well done.

[Lowndes]

On 2/27/2020 at 9:14 PM, RandyShields said:

Please elaborate on the suggestion to have your used oil analyzed.  What can it tell you?

 

Thanks.

 

Randy,

 

I was curious, too.  Go to https://www.blackstone-labs.com/engine-types/motorcycle/#  and click on the "SAMPLE REPORTS".  Interesting analysis/comments there. 

[Miguel!]

4 hours ago, dave_a said:

The transmission doesn't share engine oil. So ....maybe that improvement was just based on an oil change well done.

Actually, I changed the engine oil and rode the bike for a week or so. The reduction in noise and vibration was remarkable as I said above. About about a week later, I changed the transmission and final drive oil to see if I got any further improvement. I did get a just notable improvement in shifting but not much. It possible, I was just my wishful thinking tho :). 

 

I'm done with fluid changes till next winter. I hope to get out for a ride this weekend.

 

Best

Miguel

[RandyShields]

9 hours ago, Lowndes said:

 

Randy,

 

I was curious, too.  Go to https://www.blackstone-labs.com/engine-types/motorcycle/#  and click on the "SAMPLE REPORTS".  Interesting analysis/comments there. 

I did.  Very helpful and interesting info. Thanks to you and Tallman.