Too much time on the oil?
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Too much time on the oil?
My bike "bought used" was purchased new on Feb 07. Oil was changed in Aug 07 "600 mile service". So now it is almost 3 years old in the engine. But I have 1800 miles on the odometer which puts only 800 miles on the oil. The oil looks pretty clean in the sight glass. I'm wondering if the oil could have been changed by the prior owner because of the time period. I have his records but there is nothing on a recent oil change. Does anyone have any suggestions as to if it would be all right to use this oil if it's 3 years old in the engine. And should the oil look pretty clean with 800 miles on it? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Paul Sondey - north Joisey
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deilenberger
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Re: Too much time on the oil?
Hi Paul,
I'd do a change for piece of mind. At 1,800 miles the bike really isn't done breaking in yet - so you could use BMW's standard non-synthetic oil, or any decent motorcycle oil meeting the spec's (I assume the bike is now out of warranty, so use of BMW's oil isn't as critical..) Once the bike stops using oil - you might consider switching over to a synthetic.
The reason I mentioned piece of mind - it depends on how the bike was stored since it was basically sitting unused. Oil can age when exposed to air - it oxidizes and some of the thinner molecules evaporate (very slowly) off. The crankcase is vented, even with the engine not running - so heating and cooling of the engine just due to hot and cold temperatures around the bike will draw air in (when cooling) and push air out (when it's heating up) of the engine. If the air was really dry - not so bad, not too much moisture gets dragged in.. but - if the bike was in NJ, we know the air is rarely very dry, so we have to assume some moisture gets into the crankcase. That moisture tends to condense out on the cold metal surfaces inside the crankcase - mixing with sulphur that has blown past the rings (the sulphur is in the fuel..) This creates sulphuric acid in the oil. Not a good thing - it tends to attack metal in the engine. Since the engine still isn't broken in - there could be enough sulphur in the crankcase that it makes a difference.
Engine oil has neutralizers to buffer out the acid, but these become depleted, even when the bike is just sitting like this one must have been.
Best thing to do IMHO - change the oil - mebbe Friday. You can probably get away with reusing the oil filter (you could unscrew it, drain it and resinstall it), but it would be nice to have 4 clean quarts of oil in it. Then plan on changing it (and the filter) again in a week (or two) when you reach 6,000 miles..
And by then - if you take it up into the western part of NJ and run it up and down 519/521/579 a few dozen times - it will probably have well seated rings and it won't be an issue anymore, and you can use the normal maintenance schedule.
Hey - super riding weather today, tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday.. be easy to get a thousand miles on the bike. come meet a group of us down in Cherry Hill Saturday AM, at the new BMW/Ducati service shop opened by former employees of DeSimone BMW. We'll be going for lunch around 12:30 or so. Ping me if you want details.
I'd do a change for piece of mind. At 1,800 miles the bike really isn't done breaking in yet - so you could use BMW's standard non-synthetic oil, or any decent motorcycle oil meeting the spec's (I assume the bike is now out of warranty, so use of BMW's oil isn't as critical..) Once the bike stops using oil - you might consider switching over to a synthetic.
The reason I mentioned piece of mind - it depends on how the bike was stored since it was basically sitting unused. Oil can age when exposed to air - it oxidizes and some of the thinner molecules evaporate (very slowly) off. The crankcase is vented, even with the engine not running - so heating and cooling of the engine just due to hot and cold temperatures around the bike will draw air in (when cooling) and push air out (when it's heating up) of the engine. If the air was really dry - not so bad, not too much moisture gets dragged in.. but - if the bike was in NJ, we know the air is rarely very dry, so we have to assume some moisture gets into the crankcase. That moisture tends to condense out on the cold metal surfaces inside the crankcase - mixing with sulphur that has blown past the rings (the sulphur is in the fuel..) This creates sulphuric acid in the oil. Not a good thing - it tends to attack metal in the engine. Since the engine still isn't broken in - there could be enough sulphur in the crankcase that it makes a difference.
Engine oil has neutralizers to buffer out the acid, but these become depleted, even when the bike is just sitting like this one must have been.
Best thing to do IMHO - change the oil - mebbe Friday. You can probably get away with reusing the oil filter (you could unscrew it, drain it and resinstall it), but it would be nice to have 4 clean quarts of oil in it. Then plan on changing it (and the filter) again in a week (or two) when you reach 6,000 miles..
And by then - if you take it up into the western part of NJ and run it up and down 519/521/579 a few dozen times - it will probably have well seated rings and it won't be an issue anymore, and you can use the normal maintenance schedule.Hey - super riding weather today, tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday.. be easy to get a thousand miles on the bike.
come meet a group of us down in Cherry Hill Saturday AM, at the new BMW/Ducati service shop opened by former employees of DeSimone BMW. We'll be going for lunch around 12:30 or so. Ping me if you want details.Don Eilenberger - NJ Shore
2012 R1200R - I love this bike!
2012 R1200R - I love this bike!
Re: Too much time on the oil?
Don, thanks a lot. Your knowledge convinced me to take the safe route. I knew time counts in some instances but didn't know the details.
I may take you up on the invite sometime in the future, but as I said before I'm riding with these guys in a local club. But the main reason is the distance. If we got a ride scheduled down that way some day I could inquire if that'd be a good time to link up. I could break away from ride and do it. I may look forward to being in a parade of BMWs.
Did you see they've finally made coming to a full stop when a pedestrian steps off the curb, law, in Jersey today. Try to keep that in mind and tell your friends about it. Time will tell how vigorously they're going to inforce it. I was out in California for a time some years back and I had to get used to not stepping off the curb until I was ready to cross. That's the law there and cars would come to a stop as soon as you left the curb.
I may take you up on the invite sometime in the future, but as I said before I'm riding with these guys in a local club. But the main reason is the distance. If we got a ride scheduled down that way some day I could inquire if that'd be a good time to link up. I could break away from ride and do it. I may look forward to being in a parade of BMWs.
Did you see they've finally made coming to a full stop when a pedestrian steps off the curb, law, in Jersey today. Try to keep that in mind and tell your friends about it. Time will tell how vigorously they're going to inforce it. I was out in California for a time some years back and I had to get used to not stepping off the curb until I was ready to cross. That's the law there and cars would come to a stop as soon as you left the curb.
Paul Sondey - north Joisey