Oil change volume - how much?

[kieranc]

Having recently realised I've done 4.5k without an oil change I got some oil and a filter and set about it today. It was full to the top line when I started and nice and warm. I drained the oil, removed and replaced the filter, put the sump plug back in, tipped in 2.4 litres, ran it for a few minutes, left it for a few minutes and checked the level.
It was only about 1/3 of the way up the sight glass so I chucked the last 200ml of oil I had in which has taken it to almost full... but why has it taken so much more than it should? Have I done something daft? I only drained a little over 2l out, I don't see how I can have put more in and it show lower on the sight glass..
Any insight or ideas? It hadn't changed after a few hours, I'll take it for a spin tomorrow and see what happens. It might have been paranoia but the gears seemed to feel different afterwards, more difficult to find neutral, big clunk going from N -> 2 (although I don't know if it did that before...)
Apologies for the daft question, I thought this would be a nice easy job but it's the first time I've changed the oil in a bike and I don't want to **** it up! Cheers.

[Serdna]

Well it sounds like you put too much in. Did you check the oil with the bike on level ground on its two wheels held upright? This will probably take 2 people the first few times you do it, one to sit on the bike and 1 to check. If the bike is on the side stand you will get an incorrect reading. My bike runs best with the oil level half way between the lines. With bikes you should check the oil level quite frequently.

[speedyandypandy]

The filter holds the rest, a new filter will bring the amount of oil you need to put in up, a good trick is to poor 1-1 1/2 dl into the filter and let it soak,the few seconds it takes to go through a totally dry filter could in theory create a mini starvation wear on the engine, and I would only fill it up to half way between L and F when the oil is cold. pointy or curvy?

[kieranc]

Oh sorry meant to say, curvy 02.
The manual says 2.3 without filter, 2.4 with... although I've been taking that as gospel, could be inaccurate. Still, half a litre over seems a lot. I checked it upright and level, a few times.

[speedyandypandy]

I'll get the haynes out, but you've only put 2.6 six into it, from what I can sum up from your original post. I would be worried if you put 0.5 or more above 2.4 into it. Could be that the filter could hold more than 1 dl, which I think it does. But don't worry, if the level is between L & F when it's cold and just under the F when warm thats ok.

[speedyandypandy]

oh, the gear changes can be different, it can feel different with different oils, same with valve'tick' even if your valve clearance is good, some oils make the engine just a db or 2 more noisy, some make it smoother, I wouldn't worry if I where you, as long as you have oil in it thats good enough.

[yorkie_chris]

Don't bother worrying about ml's. Either the spec is wrong or the marks on the oil bottles are wrong but they always seem to take a bit more.

Just make sure oil goes to F mark on sight glass and there is no problem.

[philbond07]

Pfffrt had a similar issue recently after oilchange on my K3 before winterstop.
New hiflofiltro filter, initially put in like 2.5liters in total, included prefilled filter.
But since I was in a hurry, forgot to start it up for a short while and recheck oil level. Unforgivable. Instead made a trip of about 30km, reved it to max 8000rpm. Came back and realised oil level was way too low, even not visible in sightglass.
Had to add about 400ml to get it just under Hi level. Of course I' m worried now it might have done some damage.
After end of the 30km trip I couldn't hear any abnormal knocking noises or so. Crank, rods, bigends, cams hope all is still ok and the sv-lump has some "safety factor" under the L-mark.

[yorkie_chris]

If it still sounds alright chances are you have not damaged it too badly. If there is damage there is nothing you can do about it so no point worrying.

[philbond07]

Hehe thanks for the empathetic approach of telling me chances are slim nothing at all has happened. Can live with that.

[andrewsmith]

Don't bother worrying about ml's. Either the spec is wrong or the marks on the oil bottles are wrong but they always seem to take a bit more.

Just make sure oil goes to F mark on sight glass and there is no problem.

As YC

I'm sure is about 2.6l (if you get OCD about it) on a oil and filter change. The filter holds quite a bit of oil. If you do a change, steadily pour 2l into the motor, give it a few minutes to flow and settle, then slowly keep topping it up to full.

Give the engine a quick crank once its the the F mark, recheck, then run it for 10 secs at idle, kill it, let it settle and recheck. Then run it for 10 minutes on the stand, let it cool, recheck and ride

[philbond07]

Yes well that's how it should be done, did it like that past 9 years. But not this time. I am quite sure though I put 2.5 liters in there initially, according to indicators on motul 5100 10w40 4liter-cans. Could it be that the hiflofiltro contains like 300ml more oil than a genuine suzi filter?