Oil Change Advise

[Badeye]

Hi Guys,

I did an oil & filter change nearly 3K miles ago and with me commuting everyday i thought now would be a good time to do an oil change. Last time i use Castrol Power1 4T Semi Synth and was wondering should i use this again or go for a fully synth oil? would there be any advantages or disadvantages to using a fully synth oil?

I've read that some ppl say the engine runs alot smoother, don't know how true this is?

All advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Simon

[alfa.rbt]

I've been asking that Q before and been told not to use it cos a) there will be not much benefit b) clutch may slip

[-Ralph-]

a) there will be not much benefit b) clutch may slip

+1

[Badeye]

right i'll be sticking with the semi synth, cheers guys

[yorkie_chris]

Benefit is questionable and the clutch slip thing is boll*cks

[Badeye]

really, what does everyone else run? I've had no probs with the castrol power1 4T semi synth i've been using so i might just carry on using that

Thanks Guys

[yorkie_chris]

Mostly semi, some run full.
Nothing wrong with that castrol except for price :)

[Badeye]

yeah ur not wrong, cost me £30 for 4Ltr of it, i got just under 1.5ltr left so just gonna get an extra 1Ltr 2moz and that should be enough to do the change (£10 per 1Ltr bottle)

[yorkie_chris]

I think the next oil I get will probably be sold at £4.50/l (valvoline stuff)

[AndyBrad]

Synth is better and will last longer than semi. It's more temperature and shear stable. Changing at 3k semi will be fine. If you have a hot, air cooled or just want nice stuff use synth

Clutch slip is utter crap!!

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[yorkie_chris]

Not much chance of my air cooled getting near hot given the 140 miles of p*ssing rain misery today :-P

I haven't noticed any drawback to semi on the SV, they don't run hot, especially the nakeds, and the 3000 mile interval is conservative. Most oil is killed not by shear but by short-run contamination. IMO.

[AndyBrad]

Possibly but its hard to test contamination and its effects

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[BoostFairy]

There are a few interesting american papers on this, but essentially lots of them point to short journeys causing a higher level of oil contamination leading to oil performance loss and hence increased engine wear. So for short journeys (commuting) it wont much matter imo a good synth vs a good semi synth, as long as the oil change intervals are nice and short. Its generally accepted that fully synth is superior in Higher RPM/higher oil temperature applications where the long synthetic chains help to maintain a good bearing oil film.

[-Ralph-]

the clutch slip thing is boll*cks

Clutch slip is utter crap!!

Never heard of clutch slip on the SV, but on the XT it's quite a common complaint where friction modifiers are in the oil, so I wouldn't categorically say it's bollox.

XT's do tend to travel though, so often such oil changes are done in places where choice of oils are limited and the XT is one of these bikes where you can run it on ALMOST anything, so folk tend to stick in whatever they can get their hands on.

[yorkie_chris]

Perhaps I should have added to my reply, which is in the context of 2 different oils both rated JASO MA/MA2 (wet clutch compatible...) for use in the SV.

[Biker Biggles]

What did Hitler's bike run on?:D

[BoostFairy]

I can't answer that with out a ban,