Should my oil look like this after 3000 miles?

[DarrenSV650S]

It has done 7000 miles in total and 3000 since its last service where they supposedly changed the oil.
But it doesn't look all that healthy to me:( Its next service is in 500 miles but I didn't think it would turn this colour after just 3000 miles:confused:

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k164/DarrenStewartTait/S2010001-1.jpg
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k164/DarrenStewartTait/S2010003-2.jpg

[Alpinestarhero]

Dosnt look bad to me; what sort of riding do you do? short, shapr blasts with alot of accelerating and decelarating, or long rides with constant cruising speeds?

Matt

[hovis]

looks ok to me......................?

[DarrenSV650S]

Usually quite long rides, maybe 100 or 200 miles, but sometimes stopping a couple of times too. Recently been using it for work which is about 15 miles, but I always let is warm up to about 50 C before riding.

[Stu]

Don't let it warm up then, you should ride off straight away on pointies with FI

[gettin2dizzy]

I was told to wait until the temp gauge displays a reading.

[DarrenSV650S]

Don't let it warm up then, you should ride off straight away on pointies with FI
Is that supposed to be funny?

[the_lone_wolf]

quoth the manual:

"Allow sufficient time after starting a warm or cold engine before revving or applying load to let lubricating oil circulate to all engine components"

don't think there's anything about warming up in there...

[fizzwheel]

theres two schools of thought on warming up.

School 1

Start bike and gently ride away till the engine is up to temperature and dont thrash it till it is properly warmed up.

School 2

Start bike, let it warm up to temperature and then ride it away.

As for the colour of that oil, looks pretty normal for that sort of milleage to me. But I'm no mechanic, its consistent with what the oil in my bikes looks like after that sort of milleage.

If you're that worried about it, then change it, or book your bike in for its service now and get it done early. No harm is getting it done sooner especially if you're concerned about it or about to do along journey.

Like getting2dizzy I tend to wait till I've got a temperature reading on my GSXR and then I ride it away gently for the first few miles before I start enjoying myself.

[the_lone_wolf]

for the record, seeing as the manual has nowt to say on the matter i usually start the engine, wheel the bike out of the garage, using the clutch while the engine is idling to move over the gravel, then let it warm while i put my helmet and gloves on, then it's usually up to 50-60 degrees so i ride away normally but don't give it any stick until the tyres have warmed up a bit...

[Well Oiled]

Oil can get discoloured pretty quick but that doesn't mean it's knackered. If it has decent anti-oxidants and base (acid-fighting) components (which it should if it's a decent one), and hasn't thickened up, it should be fine. 3000 miles is nowt for a decent oil.

[Biker Biggles]

If it was changed 3000 miles ago it should be fine for the 500 miles until the service.But you seem to have doubts about whether it was done or not?

[DarrenSV650S]

If it was changed 3000 miles ago it should be fine for the 500 miles until the service.But you seem to have doubts about whether it was done or not?Just because I didn't think it would turn that colour after just 3000 but it seems to be normal so never mind.

Cheers:)

[jonboy99]

My bikes oil has always turned black within a few hundred miles. Only worry if it's got metal flakes/colouration.

I ride off straight away - letting it warm up at a standstill just means it's running cold for longer.

[lukemillar]

Yeah, mine used to go that colour a few hundred miles after I had changed it. Last time I did a service, I had loads of almost empty 5L bottles - enough to make up and oil change + a new bottle I had just bought. So I drained, filled up with the leftovers, ran it for a little bit, then drained and filled up again - sort of like a flush. New stuff stayed clean and clear for much longer but still eventually went dark!

I'm not necessarily recommending doing this - just I had leftovers, so thought I might as well use them up. I know a few others on here, by a cheap oil and run it through every 2nd/3rd service or so, to flush, before filling it up with proper stuff.

[muffles]

Re: the temperature gauge, I think Fizz implied this but remember it's the coolant temperature and not the oil temperature.

Oil takes longer to warm up, and behaves differently (IIRC that's what the viscosity definition is, e.g. 10/40 is 10 cold, 40 warm or something like that - I'm not 100% sure on that so don't rely on it without checking).

So whether you wait for the oil to warm up is dependent on whether you think it needs to be warm to properly protect your bike. I don't personally know why you'd need to wait for the coolant to warm up though (i.e. what does it tell you?). Just need the oil to circulate (a few seconds?) and then thrash it.

[muffles]

a cheap oil and run it through every 2nd/3rd service or so, to flush, before filling it up with proper stuff.

Not sure if it's more expensive or not but can't you get engine flush specifically for that? Hmm thinking about it, if it's specifically for that it'll probably be more expensive :lol:

[the_lone_wolf]

Re: the temperature gauge, I think Fizz implied this but remember it's the coolant temperature and not the oil temperature.

Oil takes longer to warm up, and behaves differently (IIRC that's what the viscosity definition is, e.g. 10/40 is 10 cold, 40 warm or something like that - I'm not 100% sure on that so don't rely on it without checking).

So whether you wait for the oil to warm up is dependent on whether you think it needs to be warm to properly protect your bike. I don't personally know why you'd need to wait for the coolant to warm up though (i.e. what does it tell you?). Just need the oil to circulate (a few seconds?) and then thrash it.
i think the idea of letting the engine warm up isn't to get the oil flowing, like you say once it's coating the surfaces it's starting to do it's job - i think it's more to do with the fact that metal expands as it heats up and when the engine is cold the parts don't fit together as well as once it's up to operating temperature, because different metals in the engine expand at different rates:)

edit: although written by those wierdy beardy harley davidson riders, this article seems to make sense - http://www.americanrider.com/output.cfm?id=1021933

[kwak zzr]

would be nice if it stayed nice and clean wouldnt it:)

[muffles]

Ah, that makes sense about the clearances. I would guess the coolant temp is a pretty good indicator of the temperature of the metals in the engine. So it sounds like an ideal warm up is to not let it idle *at all* but to ride around; and once the oil is warm (and coolant, but that gets warm first) you can thrash it.

So all we're missing are oil temperature gauges :D oh well!

[the_lone_wolf]

Ah, that makes sense about the clearances. I would guess the coolant temp is a pretty good indicator of the temperature of the metals in the engine. So it sounds like an ideal warm up is to not let it idle *at all* but to ride around; and once the oil is warm (and coolant, but that gets warm first) you can thrash it.

So all we're missing are oil temperature gauges :D oh well!
i would imagine that if anything the engine is going to be warmer than the coolant, as the former heats the latter, so probably a good indicator

tbh i reckon modern engines, cars and bikes, are pretty resilient to most things, but to treat them with a bit of TLC can't be a bad thing:thumbsup:

[ejohnh]

The oil looks ok to me. When I used to use a thin oil to flush car engines . Used to be able to get specific flushing oil. Cant be a bad thing to remove any built up sludge before filling with new oil.

I usually start mine on choke and then take it off and use the throttle to keep the revs high enough so that it doesn't cut out. As soon as it will idle with no throttle I assume it is ready to ride.

[embee]

The best procedure is definitely to start, allow to settle for something like 20-30sec just to warm enough to allow the choke to be taken off or the afterstart enrichment to ramp down if injected (typically ramps off in 10sec), then ride off gently. FI fuelling will continue to adjust as it warms, but there is an enrichment phase during cranking and "afterstart" in addition to the temperature related function.

Gradually ease the load and speed up as it warms and don't thrash it until everything is up to normal temperature.

As described above, the ideal situation is where all components are more or less at "normal" temperature, this is the condition in which engines are designed to work.

Part of the warm-up is to get the cylinder surface temperatures above the dew point where condensation can occur, and the cylinder wall oil film becomes contaminated.

Most oil contamination comes either from soot, fuel, and water absorbed into the cylinder wall oil film, or from contaminants carried in blowby gas which gets past the ring pack. Fuel formulation can have a significant influence on the amount of contamination and sludging, as can the oil itself.

The pics posted look fine to me. If the thin oil film running down the window when you tip it looks reasonably golden (or red if using GPS), it's probably fine. Bulk oil appearance can be a bit deceptive. If you get used to it, you can often smell if the oil is heavily contaminated, noses are quite sensitive to these things! :^o

PS - don't use flushing oils, bad idea.

[andyaikido]

... lots of info...
PS - don't use flushing oils, bad idea.

Why not?

[embee]

Generally speaking flushing oils are very low viscosity and don't have anything significant in the way of anti-wear additives. OK so you're not going to ride/drive using it, but cams and followers especially are at risk while it's in there.

In a relatively clean modern engine it serves no useful purpose.

Here's a cheerful account of oils (and other things in teh other "bibles")
http://www.carbibles.com/engineoil_bible.html

[veggiz]

I've got a newbie's oil question here:

When i bought the bike, I asked where I had to fill oil, and he said that it didn't use oil, I just had to change the motoroil ?

Isn't there an oiltank, that mixes with the gasoline ??

[fizzwheel]

Isn't there an oiltank, that mixes with the gasoline ??

No, the SV has a 4 Stroke engine ( like a car ) your thinking of 2 strokes that need premix or a seperate tank for lubrication purposes.

You'll need to check the engine oil regularly, you can do this by looking at the level through the sight glass on the right hand side engine cover, theres a filler plug just above the sight glass that you unscrew to add oil in should it need it.

Best to use dedicated motorcycle engine oil IMHO

HTH

[SVeeedy Gonzales]

Looks dirty to me - but without seeing it more clearly it's hard to tell. Also depends on the oil used - some types will look dirty more quickly and even the lovely light coloured stuff gets dirty after 3-4000 miles.

If you're unsure if the dealer changed it, the easy solution is to change it yourself next time. At least then you know what's in there, how much went in and that it was changed at all.

[Viney]

No, the SV has a 4 Stroke engine ( like a car ) your thinking of 2 strokes that need premix or a seperate tank for lubrication purposes.

You'll need to check the engine oil regularly, you can do this by looking at the level through the sight glass on the right hand side engine cover whilst holding the bike upright, theres a filler plug just above the sight glass that you unscrew to add oil in should it need it.

Best to use dedicated motorcycle engine oil IMHO

HTH

Just thought id add that