which oil?

have covered 1600 miles on bike needs a drop of oil what kind should i use

its a 1150gs its a new bike

To prevent overfilling which may damage your engine I suggest you only top using 100/200ml slugs. Then leave the bike to stand before checking the level again.

As you are only likely to need about 200ml of oil to raise the level from the bottom of the sight glass to just above the mid point, it does not really matter which brand of oil you use.

200ml of 15w/40 oil added to a sump full of 10w/40 is not going to alter the overal viscoscity significantly.

Your owner's manual will tell you the spec of oil to use.

For example API SG

Therefore, if you have a can of oil in your garage that meets this spec then use it for top up purposes. Castrol GTX will do.

For an oil to get an API classification it must mix with all other oils in the same and lower classifications. (This only applies to oils for petrol engines, diesel engine oils do not have to meet earlier specs).

This stuff about not mixing brands, mineral or synthetic is complete bollox.

Mark Rodgers said:

l

Wessie

The advice given was intended for an obvious newbie to the bike and wrenching. Some of the riders here are obviously more particular than you when it comes to feeding the beast. I personally stick by the advice given as best practice.

No doubt the GS would actually 'run' on horse shit if one were inclined.

You have not impressed me (or probably anyone) with your attempt to belittle the (simple and commonsense) advice given to Andy on a subject a lot of us take for granted and usually sigh when it is raised as a thread.

Mark

Click to expand...

while remaining unimpressed i think wessie has a real world view of the synthetic/mineral mixing quandry.

maybe not best practise, but not a problem.

just to throw a spanner in the works, is GTX API SG? i would have thought it was SH or SJ. don't have a can to hand.
don't BMW say you MUST NOT use oil with higher spec than SG as zinc content is too low.

personally use SJ in my airhead.

cookie said:

don't BMW say you MUST NOT use oil with higher spec than SG as zinc content is too low.

Click to expand...

Do they?

City Slicker said:

Do they?

Click to expand...

Actually they do - but neither the very knowledgable lady at Castrol Technical nor any of the bike techies from BMW GB that I spoke to at the NEC could tell me why!

The nice lady at Castrol suggested that the higher the Sx classification, the better the oil. I use SL (but not in my good lady's 650!)

Greg

Mark Rodgers said:

l

You have not impressed me (or probably anyone) with your attempt to belittle the (simple and commonsense) advice given to Andy on a subject a lot of us take for granted and usually sigh when it is raised as a thread.

Click to expand...

I think my 1st two paragraphs came into the "simple and commonsense" category as overfilling is something that new owners of boxers can do because of the vagueries of the sight glass.

I agree with your comment about "best practice". However, my bike needs about half a litre of oil between services. I'm not going to lose sleep over using Castrol GTX to top up the level, even though my dealer used Castrol GPS semi synthetic at the last service.

If someone has a bike with a low oil level then they should top up the oil with whatever is available as long as it is compatible with the bike. Riding a bike with the correct oil level, even if it means mixing B&Q own brand with almost a sump full of Mobil1 is preferrable to riding with a low oil level.

If you felt that the personal opinion expressed at the end of the post was meant to belittle you or anyone else then you are wrong. I do believe that you over-egged the importance of using the same brand and I expressed an alternative opinion.

Surely, that is what forums such as this are for? People can express a variety of opinions and it is up to each individual to weigh up those opinions to form their own view. There is no obligation in the forum charter to write posts to impress people.

If you want to check my facts then I invite you to visit www.api.org

i think the reason for not using any oil rated higher than SG is cos bmw feel that the reduced zinc content of the oil does not offer enough protection for their engines.

why it's OK for everyone else i don't know. BMWs don't appear to use any bleeding edge technology in their construction that would require critical lubrication.

oils from SH onward have lower zinc levels to protect catalytic converters from contamination, but late beemers have cats.

i wish i could find the BMW tech bullitin that refers to the above, but i've lost it. it would be nice to know when it was dated. maybe it refers to airheads only but i don't think so.

WTF do you buy SG oil now anyway? value 20/50?

Aren't regular bike oils SG (ie those that don't have friction modifiers so that they can be used with wet clutches)?

Greg

very possibly.