Engine rattle on start.

[Chris Terry]

13000 miles on her (the gs12 that is) of mostly good riding. But a couple of times lately after standing for an hour or so, when I start the engine it rattles for a second or two. It sounds to me like lack of lube until the oil pressure comes up. Has anyone had this ?

 

[Tommo]

Yes I have. Just wondering if a slightly thicker oil would be better at the moment its got Castrol GP 10w40 in.

 

[Decster]

Yes I have. Just wondering if a slightly thicker oil would be better at the moment its got Castrol GP 10w40 in.

20w50 is the recommended oil.

 

[iangough]

My 04 GS has now, thanks to a recent trip to morocco etc, done 44.5k miles. It started rattling fora bout 5-7k. BMW recommended that 20/50 oil was used for the exact reasons stated above. It's a workaround. You'll find it will rattle alot if your continually gunning it in 2nd and 3rd gear going from 5 - 7.5k revs too. Rattling is the noise an engine makes when oil cant get inbetween the metal bits! I've been convinced my bike is going to 'blow-up' one day,and it's been into the dealership on a couple of occassions, as sometimes the rattling does not stop on one side, until i rev the engine. But to-date, it has not failed. (the rest of the bike has on mant occassions, but the engine has stayed solid, if not a little noisey !!
Whenever i have a loan bike i choose the boxer engine type, just so i can compare. None of them rattle half as much as my one does, so it's just one of those things.
Another little cheat to stop it rattling when reving high then low, high then low etc in 2nd and 3rd, is just to put an extra 1/3 of a litre of oil in the engine. This helps on long trips too, cos you dont have to take any extra with you.
There's lot of 'how do i check the oil' on this site too.
The way i do it, is leave the bike running, and if i can see the oil running/sploshing around within the top 2mm of the circular window, then that's enough !!

 

[oblertone]

Or ...

is leave the bike running, and if i can see the oil running/sploshing around within the top 2mm of the circular window, then that's enough !!

... maybe too much; it's all in the book

 

[Deleted account 210609001]

The way i do it, is leave the bike running, and if i can see the oil running/sploshing around within the top 2mm of the circular window, then that's enough !!

Sounds like a good way to blow oil seals to me, but if it's working for you then good luck!

I get a different kind of noise on start-up sometimes, for up to five seconds. I've convinced myself it's waitign for oil pressure to build up enough for the camchain adjusters to do their thing.

If you hear rattling while revving in 2nd or 3rd, you need better earplugs. No more rattling!

 

[iangough]

Sounds like a good way to blow oil seals to me, but if it's working for you then good luck!

I get a different kind of noise on start-up sometimes, for up to five seconds. I've convinced myself it's waitign for oil pressure to build up enough for the camchain adjusters to do their thing.

If you hear rattling while revving in 2nd or 3rd, you need better earplugs. No more rattling!

Oil Seals: I thought the bike blew out oil from the breather and the air intake tubes if the pressure was too high.Anyway, it's been ok for the last 35k or so like this.

earplugs: Tried many, orange foam ones seem to be better than the expensive ones i had specially made.....

Anyway as said above, we all have our methods, and its pretty academic at this over attentive level, we're just showing a bit of bike love.

 

[spock]

I get a rum'ow noise un'orl, when I fire my ow bike up,
mostly it's her indoors shouting,"now where are you going":sunshine

 

[Chris Terry]

I get a rum'ow noise un'orl, when I fire my ow bike up,

Is this in some foreign code

 

[Engineer]

13000 miles on her (the gs12 that is) of mostly good riding. But a couple of times lately after standing for an hour or so, when I start the engine it rattles for a second or two. It sounds to me like lack of lube until the oil pressure comes up. Has anyone had this ?

Mine does this - reckon they all do - I think that it's the cam chain tensioner needing a few revolutions of the engine to get it's oil supply up to pressure. I don't think that it's a problem - it has probably always done this, but maybe my ears have become tuned into it over the last 23,500 odd miles.

 

[Ken H.]

I've convinced myself it's waitign for oil pressure to build up enough for the camchain adjusters to do their thing.

That is exactly what it is. There is (yet another) updated tensioner to attempt to stop, or at least minimize the slack chain at start up noise, but really it is just an annoyance and does no real harm. The boxer motor has been doing this since at least 1996.

 

[Bullwinkle]

The boxer motor has been doing this since at least 1996.

Actually, my 1993 R1100RS has been doing it very reliably since it was several months old. It continues to do it 14 years and 100,000 plus miles later.