Whick Oil ?

Gecko · Mar 30, 2003

I have always used Castrol R4 Superbike oil. B*W recommend it and my dealer supplies it but it sure isn't cheap. Being from the old school I reckon you can't really change the engine oil enough but at about GBP 7.50 a litre it costs about 30 quid a pop to change the oil .
Anyone have any good alternative suggestions for fully synthetic engine oils , how much and why ?
Cheers
Gecko

deefa · Mar 30, 2003

personaly i don't bother with fully synth till its well and truly bedded in, i use castrol gps till it is cuz thats what they reckon they put in it at the services.
spoke to a guy a while back who knows an awful lot about oils and he reckond your good old halfords fully synth bike oil was as good as the others. thats what i run my dirtbike on and its been fine. it does get changed every 500 miles though

Bill · Mar 31, 2003

I use Ford 15/40 at 4£ a gallon - Superb

the celt · Mar 31, 2003

I use castrol gps semi , halfords where selling it at £17.99 for 4L bmw in brentford sell it at £7.99 a litre complete rip off.
regards
the celt

Jimb · Mar 31, 2003

Castrol GTX

Youi shouldn't put fully synth in till its done 15,000 to 20,000 and stopped using oil, if you put it in before that it will not bed in and will use oil forever.

Castrol GTX till it stops using oil then synth or semi synth after that, Makro have an offer on at the moment 5l = £5.49 for GTX, 5L = £10.99 Magnatec.

Be carefull with Synthetic oils, this ain't no Honda

Big Den · Apr 1, 2003

Jimb

I now feel a lot better, i was told by the dealer on collection of new ADV that it uses Castrol GTX, I said "what normal car oil" to which the answer was yes.
I have been topping up with GTX since (got the Makro can aswell) while shooting the breeze with a fellow GS'er yesterday he mentioned that he was told GPS semi. Thing is both bikes came from same dealer, I phoned dealer, service engaged, spoke to sales they said semi syn definatly not mineral oil (GTX) WTF !!
I suffer from severe mechanical sympathy syndrome and it will piss me off greatly if the dealer has given me the wrong info.

I am phoning dealer again now !!

Big Den · Apr 1, 2003

Spoke to service manager, apparently it is Castrol GPS semi but quality mineral will not do any harm. Wish I could remember who told me GTX !!

THE PICT · Apr 1, 2003

To be honest,in the R259 engines as long as you change the oil and filter every 6000 miles(or 3000 if your me) it is ok to use mineral or semi-synthetic.Use GTX or GPS.The mineral oil I would use for about 12000 then the GPS but it wont harm your engine if you keep using the GTX.
I used to use Halfords own make mineral oil for about £3 for 4l on my K1100.The engine lasted well over 150,000 miles and everythin was well within tolerance.

Jimb · Apr 1, 2003

Big Den

Because its a dry clutch it does not require an oil with the additive for wet clutches, it just uses ordinary car engine oil of the correct grade, once run in you can use semi synth which will extend the life greatly, you have to carefull will full synth due to the bearing seals, some full synth oils will destroy the plastic.

Greg Masters · Apr 1, 2003

Re: Big Den

Jimb said:
Because its a dry clutch it does not require an oil with the additive for wet clutches, it just uses ordinary car engine oil of the correct grade, once run in you can use semi synth which will extend the life greatly, you have to carefull will full synth due to the bearing seals, some full synth oils will destroy the plastic.

Jimb

You're certainly spot-on about the dry clutch - I use regular car oil in my 1150 ('Er Indoors' F650GS is a different matter!).

I suspect the business about destroying plastic is an urban myth. Does anyone have any firm evidence one way or t'other?

Greg

cookie · Apr 1, 2003

no firm evidence, but i have heard of ppl putting synthetic oil in gearboxes (mostly vw) that have had mineral for years & then starting leaking at seals.
then i found out vw has factory filled with synth in gearboxes since early 80's.

never taken any notice of such things myself. never had a leak.
i think ppl overfill & cause probs.

ps. new vw quatum synthetic oil in old notchy vw boxes can do remarkable good for shift quality sometimes. liquid synchro in a can

Gecko · Apr 1, 2003

Hmmm....this is getting interesting. Do we actually have a topic developing where we do not have any real consensus of opinion. :confused:

Also - what about moving from fully synth to semi synth ? More frequent changes mean more expense - would this actually work out any better than just leaving the fully synth stuff in between services. Any thoughts ? I don't mind changing the oil relatively frequently but the B*W importer here recommends the Castrol R4, it gets put in during services but changing it more frequently is not at all economical.
By the way - the bike is well run in , I am up at 46,000kms . First 10,000km were done on mineral oil then swapped to the R4 which is what the B*W boys advised.

the celt · Apr 1, 2003

I thought about putting R4 in mine but after speaking to a bmw tech, it was not going to be to any great benfit, so saving money the gps i use well up for the job. this is on a 1996 1100gs with 52000 on clock, with oil change every 3000 miles or there about.
what about gear and final drive how offend do you change your oil I usually do it with the engine, with EP90 again from halfords £2.75 a litre.

Big Den · Apr 1, 2003

Cookie

I came across the VW thing years ago swopped a gbox and put it on its side and red stuff poured out, thought some sod had put power steering fluid in it but it had synth in it.

The mineral for 12-15k sounds logical to me, the service manager said years ago the oil was shite and these engines still did 100k +, most branded are far higher quality nowa days.

anyway I've got the best of both worlds part mineral and part semi-synth

MiGSel · Apr 2, 2003

the celt said:
...what about gear and final drive how offend do you change your oil I usually do it with the engine...

That's way too often, maintenance scheme says every 20k km.

For the engine I use full synth Castrol, change every 10k. I can't imagine changing oil every 5k, as that would come to every 6-7 weeks in my case. I don't fancy getting greasy that often.

I've been using Castrol synth in my previous bikes too for 12 years now. I'm very pleased with it and have never experienced any problems. The inside of the engine always looks very clean.

Minor disadvantage is the price, but if you change semi synt every 5k, that's about the same I guess.

cookie · Apr 2, 2003

this thread is more or less duplicated in the cheap seats

Frankie Boy · Apr 2, 2003

I phoned Sawbridgeworth BMW last night as I have a 6 month old GS in need of oil and cant source GPS locally.

The guy I spoke to sounded knowledgable and helpful and told me to use GTX car oil 10/40 at least until its 6,000 mile service and maybe change to GPS semi-synth at that point.

Shame I missed the advice on Makro prices, I paid £15.00 !

cookie · Apr 2, 2003

few years ago there was an article in performance bike where they dismantled the engine from a cb600 belonging to one of their wheelie hooligans.

he'd owned it from new, despatched it, learned to rear wheel steer on it, done 50,000 odd miles and never had it serviced or changed the oil.

i think it was tony scott who examined it and pronounced it all within manufacturers tolerances.

it did look a bit stained inside, but not bad though.

the celt · Apr 2, 2003

migsel you are probably right, but theres madness behind my thinking I do about 250 miles a week in central london stop starts, don't get up into top gears much westend and city riding, so my thinking is this my engine has probably done the same ammount of work as say a 500 mile journey on main roads. and time it takes to change oil its no real problem, but as you say probably a bit soon but it cant harm it.

MacDram · Apr 2, 2003

cookie said:
few years ago there was an article in performance bike where they dismantled the engine from a cb600 belonging to one of their wheelie hooligans.

he'd owned it from new, despatched it, learned to rear wheel steer on it, done 50,000 odd miles and never had it serviced or changed the oil.

i think it was tony scott who examined it and pronounced it all within manufacturers tolerances.

it did look a bit stained inside, but not bad though.

Aye, ye can't beat good old 20/50.

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