BMW R1200R R1150R/T F800 K1200R R1100R/T R1250R RnineT Message Board

Looking at the oil level window, it seems impossible to tell if there is any oil in the engine. But it was running before I got it. I added a whole quart and can see nothing in the window. It is that I just didn't add enough oil or do the old windows become impossible to see through? How do I know how much oil I have in the engine? With a capacity of only three and a half quarts or so, I don't know if it's overfilled or under filled.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Thanks!

Easiest is to drain the oil into a container and then re-fill

Good clean oil can be hard to see in the window if overfilled - also sometime oil gets hed up in the coolers so what starts good ends up overfilled

Try starting the engine to circulate the oil, only during five seconds.
Turn it off and look at the oil level window, you should see the oil level to rise in the oil level window.
Probably oil level in your bike is too high.
Best regards.

Bike has to hit a certain temperature to open the oil coolers, can't remember the number right now though. It is always best to change the oil after a bit of a ride, that way the oil cooler are dumped. As long as the oil is within the red circle your good. Alot of folks like to have at the half way mark, I used to be the same way, until speaking with several different veteran BMW mechanics, who said they prefer it about 3/4 of the way up in the circle. I have run it both ways and don't see any difference in performance.

That is around 62° Celsius. If one does not see any level in the filler window it means you have either not enough or too much oil. In that case I would drain all the oil and then refill. Have a look at the little window until you see the level rising. Half way up the little window is best ...

Brgds
Oliver

Thank you for your responses! It turned out to be underfilled. I've drained and refilled and now can see the level.

Rgds

I know this ia an old thread, but as a side note, it only takes 4 oz of oil to bring the level from the bottom of the sight glass to the middle.