SMOKE!

[Brady]

When I hit about 9k, my bike stopped using oil overnight. I had my 12k serivce 1500 miles ago and it has started using again. They put synthetic in at the service, don't know if that makes any difference but thought I would mention it. Two times now (not in a row) when I start the bike I get a large grey smoke cloud. Any ideas?

[geothepencil]

Any ideas?

Put 20-50 regular BMW oil back into it, don't overfill it and see what happens. Also shut it off with the bike upright and THEN put it on the sidestand. Mine fogged the neighborhood a couple times on starting, but has never changed in its usage in 20K. About an ounce per hundred miles. Good luck.

geo

[challey]

Once or twice on start-up, my R has given off the grey smoke (and smell) characteristic of oil ingested into the cylinder(s). I've always chalked it up to random movement in the alignment of the piston rings allowing oil to seep past. I think it happened twice before I switched to synthetic and once since then.

You say that your oil consumption has increased. I think that synthetic is a little more prone to get by the rings so that what you describe may be "normal", especially if the cylinder walls are not completely worn in. If the smoking just an occasional thing, I don't think I'd worry about.

I'm sure others with a better technical background will provide more authoritative info.

Charlie

[Sit]

From everything I have heard, parking and leaving the bike on the side stand will cause it to smoke on start up if parked for a long period. This is due to oil pooling in the left cylinder and getting past the rings. If you are going to park it over night etc, try putting it on the center stand and see if that helps.

[Sunbeemer]

I got blue start-up smoke for the first 12000 miles when I left the bike on the sidestand for a while, so I usually left it on the centerstand. Now with nearly 20,000 miles, it doesn't do it anymore.

I've heard that synthetic oils can seep past your seals as well. There is some debate over this however. I don't use it so I don't know for sure. I tried semi-synth for ~3000 miles and my filler cap o-rings and cam cover o-rings started to weep, so I stopped using it. Replaced the filler cap and neck o-rings, and the cam cover stopped on it's own after going back to dino.

Am now considering using 1 qt synthetic + 3 qts. dino to get the best of both for the hot summer.