AUTOMOBILE OIL or MOTORCYCLE OIL?

[ivweekends]

Someone once told me oils made for cars are good enough for bikes. Does anyone know if that's true? Do I need to get motorcycle-specific oil or can use car motor oils just the same??

Also, my bike is fairly new and coming up due for 1st service (600 miles). Dealers want to charge 2.5 hours because they say they need to adjust a bunch of things on the bike. Is it really just an oil change that is important at 600 miles or does all that other "adjustments" dealer wants to charge me for valuable and critical too?

Any info. is greatly appreciated!

 

[monstermike4343]

cars mainly use full synthetic oils and for bikes it works too good so the clutch will slip so watch out for that try a half synthetic..other than that ive always used castrol gtx and i never mix oils or change from one to another cause its cheaper or has a different additive

as for the adjustments they want to make sure your clutch and throttle are properly adjusted as well as brakes

 

[JSP]

Someone once told me oils made for cars are good enough for bikes. Does anyone know if that's true? Do I need to get motorcycle-specific oil or can use car motor oils just the same??

Also, my bike is fairly new and coming up due for 1st service (600 miles). Dealers want to charge 2.5 hours because they say they need to adjust a bunch of things on the bike. Is it really just an oil change that is important at 600 miles or does all that other "adjustments" dealer wants to charge me for valuable and critical too?

Any info. is greatly appreciated!

If you use a car oil make sure it is not energy conserving in the API circle. Lots of people use Rotella. As long as it meets the manufacturers required oil specs you are good. I still stay stick with a MC oil... But thats JMO.

As far as the initial service. You can do it all yourself. Mainly oil change and if they actually DO anything else, they check clutch lever play, chain slack, tolerances etc. All spelled out in your owners manual. I refuse to have the dealer do ANY service on my bike.

 

[JSP]

cars mainly use full synthetic oils and for bikes it works too good so the clutch will slip so watch out for that try a half synthetic

Cars use any oil. Bike can use any oil as well. I as well as millions of others run fully synthetic. That has nothing to do with the wet clutch. Its if you use an oil with friction modifiers that will cause the clutch to slip.

 

[Nastybutler]

If you use a car oil make sure it is not energy conserving in the API circle. Lots of people use Rotella. As long as it meets the manufacturers required oil specs you are good. I still stay stick with a MC oil... But thats JMO.

As far as the initial service. You can do it all yourself. Mainly oil change and if they actually DO anything else, they check clutch lever play, chain slack, tolerances etc. All spelled out in your owners manual. I refuse to have the dealer do ANY service on my bike.

Same here. Your owner's manual tells you what gets done at each service interval, and if you're mechanically inclined at all, you can do all the checks yourself. Also, I'd use an oil specifically designed for motorcycles if you can find it. You don't need to go full synthetic yet, but at least a conventional motorcycle oil will ensure you don't have any transmission issues. Conventional 10W-40 car oil will do if you must. Just don't use fully synthetic car oil.

 

[monstermike4343]

Cars use any oil. Bike can use any oil as well. I as well as millions of others run fully synthetic. That has nothing to do with the wet clutch. Its if you use an oil with friction modifiers that will cause the clutch to slip.

this is coming from many years of dirtbike racing the full synthetic has always seemed to make my clutch slip maybe its just me but i always done what the family has from racing

 

[JSP]

And you can switch back and forth between synthetic and non synthetic and semi with no issues.

 

[monstermike4343]

i have always used one oil and never had any problems

 

[Chucker]

Why not use motorcycle oil? I buy Motul 5100 and it runs me barely more than car oil would.

 

[JSP]

i have always used one oil and never had any problems

Well of course not But going back and forth between oil brands/types wont hurt anything either. I've run so many different brands and types of oil through my bikes you would think im OCD. Just went from Full Synthetic Mobil 1 racing to dino Yamalube. The Yamalube actually quiets down the bike considerably. I change oil around 2500 miles no matter anyways. I like to play with oils and see what works best for my specific bike. There are tons of oil myths out there. Most all are false.

 

[monstermike4343]

castrol gtx is what im comfy with haha is what i guess im tryin to say

 

[Perdurable]

i don't recommend car motor oil at all the fz6R has a wet clutch your car dose not and i believe car oil has a friction agent in it with is bad for ur clutch!!! use rotella t 70$ for a 5 gallon pail its used in disel trucks and runs great in wet clutches

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[Marthy]

:surrender::surrender::surrender:

 

[yellowfz]

We use Valvoline formulated for bikes. Valvoline.com > Products > Valvoline > Motorcycle ATV Oil Valvoline > Valvoline® 4-Stroke Motorcycle Oil

 

[monstermike4343]

ok i lied.. i have an unopend bottle of what i used last time its valvoline 20w-50 motorcycle 4 stroke oil with "superior wet clutch protection" ..i swear i was using castrol gtx but that was for my truck haha my bad guys

i changed both my bike and truck oil 2 weeks ago

 

[Perdurable]

ok i lied.. i have an unopend bottle of what i used last time its valvoline 20w-50 motorcycle 4 stroke oil with "superior wet clutch protection" ..i swear i was using castrol gtx but that was for my truck haha my bad guys

i changed both my bike and truck oil 2 weeks ago

good haha

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[raybob]

As long as it has the JASO-MA rating, you're good to go ("Energy Conserving" oils won't have the JASO-MA rating).

I use the rotella synthetic from wally world.

Bob

 

[Alex6]

As long as it has the JASO-MA rating, you're good to go ("Energy Conserving" oils won't have the JASO-MA rating).
Bob

That pretty much excludes all car oils.

With so many m/c specific oils on the market why even consider auto oil?
In that case, why not some cooking oil?

 

[UselessPickles]

BTW... Rotella T6 full synthetic diesel oil has the JASO-MA rating. Nice inexpensive option.

 

[raybob]

T6 synthetic is $18.99/gallon here. Price is right!

Bob