synthetic oil

[kelley]

I want to switch to synthetic oil on my next oil change. I'm curious if one brand is better than another. I also wonder if I should do anything to flush out all the old oil before adding the synthetic and how often the synthetic oil should be changed. Any knowledge would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Kelley

[TracyPrier]

Hi Kelley

What mileage has the bike done? Common advise is not to run synthetic until the engine is well and truly run in. I am yet to do my first change on my new bike (well new to me, she's done 60,000km) but when I had my 1100rt-p I ran it on Golden Spectro oil. Apparantly this is the same company that makes the official BMW oil... only relabelled.

Full syn is real expensive down here so I'll probably stick to semi-syn 20/50 Spectro in the 850.

The other thing I'll be doing soon is replacing the trans and final drive oil with full-syn 75/140w. I did this with the RT and found gear changes smoothed out a bit, went into first easier etc.

here's the full syn
http://www.spectro-oils.com/products/4s ... ducts=tour

and semi syn
http://www.spectro-oils.com/products/4s ... ducts=tour

Cheers
Tracy

[ErikM]

Is there a "best" not sure but if push came to shove I'd say Amsoil. Very good info on oils here http://www.amsoil.com/products/streetbi ... Paper.aspx

[ka5ysy]

The engine has no idea what kind of oil you are using. I only use full synthetic because it is simply a better choice than dinosaur juice for a lot of reasons, Period. You spent a lot of money on the motorcycle, so why go cheap on the oil you use ?

[maduko]

Since you're dealing with a dry clutch it's not really necessary to buy motorcycle-specific oil.

Castrol Syntec works great and it's plentiful.

[deilenberger]

Since you're dealing with a dry clutch it's not really necessary to buy motorcycle-specific oil.

Castrol Syntec works great and it's plentiful.

Gawd - I hate responding since I know this will result in an oil thread - but..

Not necessarily so. Some of the "energy saving" oil currently made for cars are made to be catalytic converter friendly, and some of the extreme pressure additives that used to be used in all oils have been greatly reduced in these oils. In the normal course of things - it wouldn't make a difference - but in the case of an oil/air cooled engine, where you may get stuck in traffic and the oil starts heating up well above what it would ever get to in a car - it might. The extreme pressure additives are the "last ditch" protection against metal to metal contact (which in an engine - is a bad thing.) They generally are some minerals such as zinc - in a form that can be suspended in the oil - that form a soft barrier between the metal to metal bits if the oil becomes too thin, or stops circulating for some reason. They also help protect areas where the oil film tends to break down - such as camshaft lobes.

For this reason - BMW-AG on the oilhead engines - had/has in place a letter to their dealers requiring the use of oils rated SG/SH - which was the last SAE designation before "energy saving" oils came into being. The letter implies that no oil with a rating HIGHER than SG/SH be used in an oilhead (or any BMW engine at the time.) It might be noted that BMW's own oils - the dino and synthetic ARE rated as SG/SH oils - and do not have any newer rating designation on them.

One possible way to safely use auto oils in the bike - is use higher viscosity oils. Generally 15W-50 oils (and higher multi-vis) oils are exempt from the EPA requirements for lessened levels of the EP additives. These oils will NOT be listed on the bottle as "Energy Savings". Mobil-1, 15W-50 is generally considered acceptable - and at least the last time I saw a listing of additives, still had the higher levels of EP additives, which would make it OK for our bikes.

That all said - while under warranty - to avoid even the possibility of a discussion with BMW-NA on what oil I've been using - if I had an engine warranty claim - I use BMW oils (and filters and all other parts.) I'm sure someone will yell "Magnusson-Moss" - but as someone said - arriving in the service department yelling "I'm covered under Magnusson-Moss so you have to warranty me" will have no effect except garnering hysterical laughter from the service personel.

You can use whatever you want to use - no skin off my nose - I've explained why I use BMW parts, and that's the last I'll say about it. You won't convince me not to - so please don't bother trying. I'm sure you've been using auto oils in your bike for 1,000,000,000 miles and nothing bad ever happened. That's great, but I'm gonna continue using "approved" oil in my bike. It's my bike, and my money to waste. What YOU do is fine for you - go for it.

It's also worth noting - most major oil manufacturers do offer motorcycle specific oils - and in tests I've seen they do contain elevated levels of EP lubricants. Some are specificially rated SG/SH. Might just be a reason for that.

[deilenberger]

Oh - to answer the OP's question. I went to BMW 15W-50 Synthetic at my first normal oil change - 6,000 miles. The engine had stopped using measureable amounts of oil at around 3,200 miles after a nice ride in West Virginia.