Can we mix oils? are oil different for car and motorcycle?

Hi,

Last weekend I noticed that oil level of my SV650S K2 was lower then minimum! and I decided to top it up, so picked a bottle of synthetic oil from sainbury service station and filled in! inspite of my 11 years son kept reading the book and insisting that I should rather drain and replace all oil than mixing!, (I have no clue what oil was in there before as I bought preowned only few months back)

Also does the oil for Motor Bike and Car make any difference if its marked 10 - 40W?

Your comments and suggestions will be appreciated...

[Scoobs]

Shouldn't use oils meant for cars they are full of friction inhibitors that play havoc with wet clutches. Might be alright on bikes with a dry clutch though.

Mixing bike oils is OK, but some manufacturers don't recommend fully synthetic as this to can have adverse effects on the clutch slipping. I am sure a quick top up won't hurt though.

[Biker Biggles]

OK so how much car oil did you put in?You are not mean't to but I doubt it really matters that much.When is the bike next due an oil change?Topping up with the wrong oil and running like that for a few hundred miles before it gets changed won't do any harm I guess.Far better than running low on oil.

RTFM......

Originally Posted by Scoobs

Shouldn't use oils meant for cars they are full of friction inhibitors that play havoc with wet clutches. Might be alright on bikes with a dry clutch though.

I have been running "car oil" (Shell Helix Ultra) for three years on my SV, there's no issues with the clutch.

As mentioned, bike oil has special additives for wet clutches, if you look on the bottle bike oil has … ah sod it, this must be written somewhere<searches the net for API codes>

Here you go, this says it all!! http://www.thumperfaq.com/oil.htm

Not a new article, but something to think about... http://www.xs11.com/stories/mcnoil94.htm

WE sell silkolene and there line is much the same,do not use car oils on bikes as they contain many addatives which may cause clutch slip,...on the other side they tell me that if we sell any fully synth to a customer and it causes clutch problems they will pay for the repairs.

[21QUEST]

Jeez , you guys worry too much(rich coming from me : .

Point is , there is no real reason not to use bike specific oil but picture the scenario

Low on oil but only oil you have available is for a car. Two choices run as is(low) and almost definitely feck your engine or top up with you car oil9and maybe get clutch slip) and change as soon as possible if worried .


Maybe there is a third option which is don't use bike till you can get a bike specific oil.


The important factor is 'How important is it to have important to have the use of the bike? at that point in time'.


Cheers
Ben

ps : As has been said any oil(maybe not cooking oil) is better than no oil but change if it's keeping you awake at night

I have only used standard car oil in all of the bikes I've owned, from Castrol XL and Castrolite to the modern Castrol GTX and Magnatec. Haven't had any problems.