Oil consumption GS 80 Basic/Kalahari.

[Captain Black]

Just got back last night from a great trip to the south of France and Italy. My GS 80 was brilliant and i managed a good 70/85mph all the way from Manchester, then down the French Autoroutes Dijon/Lyon/Toulon to get to the south coast as quick as possible. It really did perform very well, felt strong a solid all the way down, managing a total of 2450 miles in a week, mostly on the Motorway. I put Halfords 20/50 in after my service, but went through my spare half litre and another full litre of BP 10/40 semi synth on route. Does that seem heavy oil consumption ? Had a slight oily mist in the exhaust on the way down, and my mate said he saw a light puff of smoke once. I tryed the roll off the throttle down a motorway hill at about 90mph then wack the throttle open but my pal said no sign of any oil burn. Whats normal usage on the oil front if any ?


Oh just to add 50 mpg at motorway sppeds...is that normal ?? Ta

 

[John Armstrong]

Used about 1/2 litre going to Cortina and back , two up etc etc with an '88 R100GS.

I guessed at about 45mpg overall.

 

[(RIP) maverick]

All my airheads use around 300-500ml per 1000 miles, I always thought this was "normal"

 

[Captain Black]

Maybe its because i did lots of fast motorway miles ??...

 

[(RIP) maverick]

Maybe its because i did lots of fast motorway miles ??...

Probably although my oil consumption is not much different on the open road. I had a 1100GS that only stopped using oil at 60 000 miles.

 

[Captain Black]

Probably although my oil consumption is not much different on the open road. I had a 1100GS that only stopped using oil at 60 000 miles.

Thanks maverick. I'm guessing the answer is it's fairly standard to have to keep topping up on a longish trip then. I will take more oil next time. 1.5 litres just seemed a lot of oil in 2.5k miles though.

 

[Kenny]

That does seem a tad high to me....must be the result of a lovely hot engine getting spanked !!!

 

[fayeslane]

About 800mls in 6000 kms on my R100GSPD. Fair bit of redline involved through the curvy bits. Even modern bikes use a little bit of oil.

 

[GSPeter]

R 80 GS Basic uses oil

Hi Captain, your oil consumption is more or less normal for this engine, the valve guides and piston rings pass a tiny ammount out for every turn. What could be a shocker is if you do a lot of town driving, short distances, engine hot, and then cold, you will get a lot of condensation. Which gives you a false oil level before a long hard journey. When you really get going the water evaporates, and you have less oil available to serve the engine.
I usually change oil before a long trip, and always carry half liter with me, just have a routine with checking tyres, oil, loose bits and luggage, it is soon routine.
Safe travel'
Peter, in Oslo

 

[VAL. H.]

Just got back last night from a great trip to the south of France and Italy. My GS 80 was brilliant and i managed a good 70/85mph all the way from Manchester, then down the French Autoroutes Dijon/Lyon/Toulon to get to the south coast as quick as possible. It really did perform very well, felt strong a solid all the way down, managing a total of 2450 miles in a week, mostly on the Motorway. I put Halfords 20/50 in after my service, but went through my spare half litre and another full litre of BP 10/40 semi synth on route. Does that seem heavy oil consumption ? Had a slight oily mist in the exhaust on the way down, and my mate said he saw a light puff of smoke once. I tryed the roll off the throttle down a motorway hill at about 90mph then wack the throttle open but my pal said no sign of any oil burn. Whats normal usage on the oil front if any ?


Oh just to add 50 mpg at motorway sppeds...is that normal ?? Ta

Your MPG is excelent, Your oil usage is pants. Something's not right there. I wouldn't think it's a problem with the bike though.

In normal use the bike shouldn't use that much oil. With your MPG figure it would suggest your bike is set up well and running very efficiantly. Getting 50mpg at reletively high speeds dosen't go with poor oil consumption. There are those on here who can only dream of 50mpg too.

I would expect our gs's (1200 and 100) to use no more than half a liter over a 2500-3000 mile trip between them. That's quater of a liter each. Admittedly we're travelling a fair bit slower, but whole days on the motorway didn't increase consumption to any where near that rate.

Can I sugest; your excessive oil consumption is simply due to having too much in the engine and that it is ditching the excess through the breather and burning it off.

"I always keep my oil at max, I never over fill it" I here you say. Well here's something to try.

Over the years I have been involved with BMW Boxers 'both oil and air head' and a subscriber to this site there have been many discussions about oil. I have also tried a few things myself.

What I have found is that both my 1200gs (owned from new and covered 56000mls) and Jill's 100gs (currently showing 136000mls and covered 6000 in her three years of ownership) is that they both prefer to run with the oil level at around half full. If I top them up to full, they both appear to use quite a bit. Keeping them around half, they both use almost nothing.

Try this: Fill the oil to it's max and then check the oil before every ride. Do this in the same place every time (see below). Don't top the oil up. Be brave. Keep an eye on it. as you use the bike, the level will reduce quite quickly and should come to a happy medium where it will stay where it seems to almost stop useing any at all. This will be the bikes optimum level. Get yourself familiar with this and don't add any more than nesesary to keep it at this leval. You should now find that your oil expenditure is much redused too

As mentioned above, something I have noticed with the boxers is that the oil must be checked with the bike on it's main stand and in exactly the same place each time, to get a consistent reading. Moving the bike just one foot forward/backward on a seemingly leval garage floor can give a completely different reading

Our riding is quite vareid including long motorway trips and fully loaded tours through Europe.


HTH Val.

 

[(RIP) Proff]

Just got back last night from a great trip to the south of France and Italy. My GS 80 was brilliant and i managed a good 70/85mph all the way from Manchester, then down the French Autoroutes Dijon/Lyon/Toulon to get to the south coast as quick as possible. It really did perform very well, felt strong a solid all the way down, managing a total of 2450 miles in a week, mostly on the Motorway. I put Halfords 20/50 in after my service, but went through my spare half litre and another full litre of BP 10/40 semi synth on route. Does that seem heavy oil consumption ? Had a slight oily mist in the exhaust on the way down, and my mate said he saw a light puff of smoke once. I tryed the roll off the throttle down a motorway hill at about 90mph then wack the throttle open but my pal said no sign of any oil burn. Whats normal usage on the oil front if any ?


Oh just to add 50 mpg at motorway sppeds...is that normal ?? Ta

Used about 1/2 litre going to Cortina and back , two up etc etc with an '88 R100GS.

I guessed at about 45mpg overall.

All my airheads use around 300-500ml per 1000 miles, I always thought this was "normal"

Maybe its because i did lots of fast motorway miles ??...

Mine all seem to use about 400ml per 1000 miles..
BUT as Val H sez, you watch them, they get to a certain point and stay there.. BUT don't get complacent and neglect to check regularly as the bastard will suddenly decide to use 500ml or so and suddenly you're below minimum damhik

 

[AberdeenAngus]

Thanks maverick. I'm guessing the answer is it's fairly standard to have to keep topping up on a longish trip then. I will take more oil next time. 1.5 litres just seemed a lot of oil in 2.5k miles though.

...or you could take a small amount for immediate needs and buy more wherever you are going. Just a thought.

 

[Shep]

It's fecked, I'll give you a rio for it

 

[Kenny]

It's fecked, I'll give you a rio for it

You just want his carbs ( then again I want his rear offside foot rest mount )

 

[Captain Black]

Your MPG is excelent, Your oil usage is pants. Something's not right there. I wouldn't think it's a problem with the bike though.

In normal use the bike shouldn't use that much oil. With your MPG figure it would suggest your bike is set up well and running very efficiantly. Getting 50mpg at reletively high speeds dosen't go with poor oil consumption. There are those on here who can only dream of 50mpg too.

I would expect our gs's (1200 and 100) to use no more than half a liter over a 2500-3000 mile trip between them. That's quater of a liter each. Admittedly we're travelling a fair bit slower, but whole days on the motorway didn't increase consumption to any where near that rate.

Can I sugest; your excessive oil consumption is simply due to having too much in the engine and that it is ditching the excess through the breather and burning it off.

"I always keep my oil at max, I never over fill it" I here you say. Well here's something to try.

Over the years I have been involved with BMW Boxers 'both oil and air head' and a subscriber to this site there have been many discussions about oil. I have also tried a few things myself.

What I have found is that both my 1200gs (owned from new and covered 56000mls) and Jill's 100gs (currently showing 136000mls and covered 6000 in her three years of ownership) is that they both prefer to run with the oil level at around half full. If I top them up to full, they both appear to use quite a bit. Keeping them around half, they both use almost nothing.

Try this: Fill the oil to it's max and then check the oil before every ride. Do this in the same place every time (see below). Don't top the oil up. Be brave. Keep an eye on it. as you use the bike, the level will reduce quite quickly and should come to a happy medium where it will stay where it seems to almost stop useing any at all. This will be the bikes optimum level. Get yourself familiar with this and don't add any more than nesesary to keep it at this leval. You should now find that your oil expenditure is much redused too

As mentioned above, something I have noticed with the boxers is that the oil must be checked with the bike on it's main stand and in exactly the same place each time, to get a consistent reading. Moving the bike just one foot forward/backward on a seemingly leval garage floor can give a completely different reading

Our riding is quite vareid including long motorway trips and fully loaded tours through Europe.


HTH Val.

Thats food for thought, thanks val. I did have some oil on the centre stand and around the gear shift, not a lot but deffo enough to notice it. I also thought i had some coming from the screw cap dipstick, which i put down to the O ring being knacked on the screw in cap. The interesting thing is that i service the bike before i went so i put the correct ammount in with the oil filter change, it went from max to min in about 1100 kms, i only checked it by chance in Dijon as i thought it would be fine, it necked almost all of my emergency 0.5 litre of halfords 20/50, after that i got i bit paranoid as we were gunning it most of the way i just added oil as needed on the dipstick, just a little every other fuel stop to keep it on the max really as i had visions of it seizing at 90mph so i played it safe. It ran like a swiss watch, lovely blue pipes now! I'll take a look at where the oil is tmrw when i clean all the crap and flies off tmrw. I dont mind adding oil, it just seemed high oil consumption, that said we didnt hang about for 80% pf the journey that was on the motorways, and it was bloody hot, well into the 30s. Just thought maybe my valve seals were goosed or something.

 

[Captain Black]

...or you could take a small amount for immediate needs and buy more wherever you are going. Just a thought.

Yeah but you cant get the same oil you started off with usually, plus the robbing b4stards on the french autoroutes want 15 euros a litre!! i almost choked on my 5 euro butty when he said that!!

 

[(RIP) Proff]

Yeah but you cant get the same oil you started off with usually, plus the robbing b4stards on the french autoroutes want 15 euros a litre!! i almost choked on my 5 euro butty when he said that!!

Try Carrefour or SuperU, as they do a 20/50 or 15/40 at a very competitive price

 

[Captain Black]

Try Carrefour or SuperU, as they do a 20/50 or 15/40 at a very competitive price

Thanks Proff i will search them out next time, i checked the oil on the Autoroute and when i saw it was on the min marker after such a short time, blind panic set it, i just ran round and round shouting "oil oil oil i need oil" it was then the bloke in the shop waved me forward and had my kecks down for the oil and a butty. i think he could tell i was a heavy user and would have paid anything at that moment for a crude fix. Thing is you've gotta lug the litre around anyway so i'll just take it from the begining. I'll be taking john west butty fillers as well next time!

 

[Paul Rochdale]

I'm just back from a 2,700 mile trip to Bergen/Oslo/Malmo/Copenhagen on my 1989 R100GS-PD and checked my oil level on returning home. I had filled to the max before leaving but there was nothing on the dipstick. Now I always measure the oil level by unscrewing the thing then resting it on the top of the filling hole, and presumed this was the correct method. Yes? Anyway my handbook says "0.6 litre from max to min level" so according to previous posts, this seems about right. If so I MUST check my oil level more regularly.

The bike also has a tendency to weave especially on roads which have ribs, especially in poorly lit Norwegian tunnels, and found the front tyre 8psi DOWN. No apparent leaks so it must be something I failed to check. Oil topped up - the tip about "no more than halfway" seems to make sense - and tyre re-inflated so time to take her out for a spin to see if there's improvement.

 

[Paul Rochdale]

(Later) I have now discovered my digital tyre pressure gauge is wildly exagerating it's reading so what should have read 32psi read 54psi. Time to buy a better one. Chatting to a friend, neither is the oil consumption anything to worry about.