what oil to use

[iancullen7]

here's another daft Q what is the oil type should i be using on my 3en1 with 33k on the clock ie 10w30 as it says on the bike or is it okay to use 10w40 synethetic car oil like mobil1 as i have been reading conflicting articles on the web about motorcycle oils not being any better than most synethetic oils on the market if you have any thoughts on this pls let me hear them. cheers ian

[Taggyd]

10w-40 is ok for our climate! just make sure you match up the api numbers on the oil for those for the bike. some car oils have different numbers so 'could' damage things if run for long on it i was told, though they are the same viscosity! something to do with differing chemcals in it i think. Any bike shop will be able to advise i'm sure! i use motul 4100 10w-40 in mine no probs.

[ROB-RD350]

I use 10W40 semi synthetic car oil in my 3TJ, over 3000 miles with no problems or clutch slip.

[oollit]

Car oil is not designed for bike engines and really shouldn't be used is bike engines. There are chemicals and friction modifiers added which are benificial in cars but not in bikes.

Bike oil is designed to be used in engines with higher rpm, wet clutches and combined engine/gearboxes.
I could see the point in using it car oil was really really cheap, but decent car oil is as expenive as bike oil, so whats the point?

I used car oil (i had some lying about in my garage) in my 3TJ and i had trouble with clutch slip when the bike was cold and the big end started knocking after abot 2500kms. I am not blaming the oil completely for the demise of my engine, but i believe that using the wrong oil played a part in it. I have never used car oil again in any of my bikes since that happened.

You hear lots of people saying that they have been using car oil for 3,000, 5,000 or even 10,000 miles without any problems, and i am sure that is the case, but all the bike manufactorers have tested their bikes for hundreds of thousands of miles and none of them recomend using car oil.

At the end of the day it is up to the bike owner to decide what oil they are going to run, but why spend thousands on buying and keeping older bikes on the road and then fall at the last hurdle and run the engine on oil that is possibly not up to the job.

Personally i use Silkolene oils as it gets good reviews and is reasonably priced. I have used Silkolene Ride oil in my CBR600 for the last 15 months without any problems.

[Evilchicken0]

I agree with Oollit use a 10/40 semi synth bike oil.

Car engines use lower revs and the gear box cogs are bigger so you gat a different usage, bike engines tear down a car oil faster.

I don't think there's much difference between the different brands but if you have any concerns then change it more often. Obvously it's a bit cheaper to buy 4 or 5l so you can change and top the oil up as needed.

Check the oil before you ride for while then you'll get a feel for the consumption. Don't wait for the oil light to come on because it's a pressure switch not a level indicator.

[qwakers]

Car oil is not designed for bike engines and really shouldn't be used is bike engines. There are chemicals and friction modifiers added which are benificial in cars but not in bikes.

Bike oil is designed to be used in engines with higher rpm, wet clutches and combined engine/gearboxes.
I could see the point in using it car oil was really really cheap, but decent car oil is as expenive as bike oil, so whats the point?

I used car oil (i had some lying about in my garage) in my 3TJ and i had trouble with clutch slip when the bike was cold and the big end started knocking after abot 2500kms. I am not blaming the oil completely for the demise of my engine, but i believe that using the wrong oil played a part in it. I have never used car oil again in any of my bikes since that happened.

You hear lots of people saying that they have been using car oil for 3,000, 5,000 or even 10,000 miles without any problems, and i am sure that is the case, but all the bike manufactorers have tested their bikes for hundreds of thousands of miles and none of them recomend using car oil.

At the end of the day it is up to the bike owner to decide what oil they are going to run, but why spend thousands on buying and keeping older bikes on the road and then fall at the last hurdle and run the engine on oil that is possibly not up to the job.

Personally i use Silkolene oils as it gets good reviews and is reasonably priced. I have used Silkolene Ride oil in my CBR600 for the last 15 months without any problems.

not quite true. BMW reccommend 20w50 car oil ONLY (not bike oil) in their boxer engines...

[oollit]

^ Ok, i stand corrected, perhaps i should have said "most bike manufactorers", BMW tractors and Harleys aside, which to the best of my limited knowledge, have seperate gearboxes and operate at lower rpm's.

But at the end of the day it is better to use the oil that the manufactorers recomend.

[ROB-RD350]

I could see the point in using it car oil was really really cheap, but decent car oil is as expenive as bike oil, so whats the point?

I get car oil free from work and seeing as the bike is only worth £500-600 don't see the point in paying £25-30 for bike spec oil, i change it every 1500ish miles.

Obviously if i had a bike worth £3000+ i'd use proper bike oil.

[iancullen7]

well this is were i found the article on car Vs motorcycle oil http://www.nightrider.com/biketech/oiltest1.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; all done by a prof of pyshics and even mcn were involved basically the article talks about polymers and additives and viscosity retention that motorcycle oil claim to do better than car oil but the car synthetic oils now days have the same polymers and additives in anyway bottom line the result for viscosity rention test were as follows on a bike engine after 1500m 1,mobile1 83% 2,castrol synthetic 74.5% 3,castro gtx 68% 4,honda hp4 65.6% 5,spectro4 63.9% so there we have it the 3 car oils all out perform the 2 motorcycle oils am no dr or prof its just that you can pick these oils at asda cheaply than pay a premium price for motorcycle oils it does make 4 interesting reading

[oollit]

I have seen a thread on another Forum where a similar test was rubbished due to the fact that the oils were not tested for long enough, ie not over enough miles for any potential problems to show up.
One of the main points was that a car oil will break down quicker than a bike oil, which is not going to show up after 1500 miles. I will see if i can did up a link to that thread.

I do sometimes wonder if bike specific oil it is a big scam to con us out of our hard earned money, but seeing that i am in the motor trade and get all my oil at trade prices, and then offset the cost against my taxes, i will contiue to use bike oil regardless if my bike is worth £500 or £5000.