Oil consumption ...again

[Gecko]

I have been using Castrol fully synthetic R4 Superbike 5w-40 oil since the bike had it's 10,000km service. This was the oil recommended by my local BMW dealer. The bike a 1999 R1100GS is now 6 years old and now has about 82,000km.

I have been servicing it myself for the past few years and oil consumption has just been something I have learned to live with. I have been using about 1 liter of oil for about 4000 to 5000km which is not as bad as some bikes but worse than others. I have also continued using the same Castrol R4 oil recommended by the dealer.

Last week I decided to try a cheaper oil from Hein Gericke. I bought 5 liters of their fully synthetic 10w-50 oil which has the same API SG rating as the castrol oil I was using previously. Apparently Hein Gericke oil is made by Motul oil so it's pukker good gear not just some cheap rubbish of questionable origin.

This weekend we headed off down to the Ardennes for some camping and probably covered about 1200km in 4 days. I would have expected to have seen some oil consumption and probably topped up the oil at least once during this trip but the oil level has stayed absolutely spot on and not a drop needed.

Moral of the story is that if you are finding you are using a lot of oil , maybe think about trying a different grade oil. My change from 5w-40 to 10w-50 seems to be helping. It also saved me a load of money because the Castrol R4 oil was bloody expensive and was costing me about Euro 13 per liter. The Hein Gericke oil is Euro 27 for 5 liters and if the bike isn't using it I guess I'll be saving money between services too

 

[Ste@SSB]

5w oil in a GS?... did it not sound like a washing machine?...

R4 is totally unnecessary in such a low reving engine ...

 

[Gecko]

It didn't sound like a washing machine to begin with - it was more like a sewing machine on steroids but I fitted a Remus which cured that.
You are right about 5w being unnecessary - but what did I know at the time ? I was a new BMW owner following the advice of the experienced BMW dealer who advised that oil. Hindsight is a very exact science. The new oil seems fine and is saving me a lot of money and the reputation of the BMW dealer is in tatters with anyone I know after this and several other examples of ripping me off.
(the dealer is in Belgium so don't panic all you UK GSers)

 

[Tsiklonaut]

Replace the oil-rings on piston?

Though, 1 litre per 5K seems OK for GS. BWM says maximum oil consumption is 100ml per 100 kilometres. So yours is well in specs.

But if you're pedant enough, then new oil-rings should help alot i think.

 

[Sea Lion]

If it has used that amount of oil from new and you have always used fully synth, doesn't sound like worn rings.

Many modern cars have problems with oil consumption because of fully synth oils and conservative driving never lets the rings bed properly. To cure, use mineral oil for a bit and give it good thrashing for the next few thousand miles.