Oil question.

[markyt]

I made a bit of an error today I realised my oil in my 1150gs was far too low. I could only get my hands on some Halfords 20w50 oil at a rush to put in to get me home (less than a mile) but wondered what will that do to me engine if anything as it did seem to run nice. Im not asking what oil to put in for fear of opening a fooking nightmare thread but i am confused about the API SG and SE bit when it comes to Oil. My question therefore is will i be OK to run the stuff i've put in which is SE although the Gs should be API SG or should i change it again soonest.

cheers (Bring on the abuse )

 

[Deleted account 220427001]

will be ok fella no harm done

 

[JoeC]

As above or if you are really worried then leave it in for a bit longer and use it as an engine flush.

 

[markyt]

so should i change it or is it ok to use it. I dont know the difference between API SG which the Gs should be and SE which the oil ive used is

 

[notadrop]

It wont harm the engine.

 

[wessie]

the pertinent question is, how much did you put in to bring it up to the right level?

If you put in half a litre then what was the fuss in the first place, and why the fuss now?

If you put in 2 litres or more then you have bigger worries such as where did the other 2 litres go and what happened whilst you were riding around with just 2 litres in the system?

 

[ahutcheon]

so should i change it or is it ok to use it. I dont know the difference between API SG which the Gs should be and SE which the oil ive used is

Difference between SE and SG is details of the oil specification (stuff like anti-scuff additives). SE is an older spec, so will probably just have less of some things (from my limited reading, it's only recent, much later than SG, specs that started taking stuff out to ensure compatibility with modern cats and the like).

All API spec engine oils mix just fine. You may have changes the proportion of some of the oil components a tiny bit (you'll have added, what, half a litre of oil to the 3.5 that was in the engine?).

If it was me, I'd just ride it. Actually, I'd have stuck in a bit of 10W40 SG or higher spec if that was what I could get, 'cos the change in thickness of the resulting mix would be trivial. But either/either.

Above assumes "far too low" was at the bottom of the oil window or thereabouts; I wouldn't use the SE stuff for an oil change, and I wouldn't be pouting several litres in as a top-up. But if you had to do that, the oil spec isn't the biggest issue...

 

[JohnnyBoxer]

the pertinent question is, how much did you put in to bring it up to the right level?

If you put in half a litre then what was the fuss in the first place, and why the fuss now?

If you put in 2 litres or more then you have bigger worries such as where did the other 2 litres go and what happened whilst you were riding around with just 2 litres in the system?

I think that is very pertinent too