No it is not about what kind of oil to use....

I had been wanting to do an oil change on my bike (first since I bought it in July) before putting the bike up for the winter. Well I kept putting it off further and further and now the really crappy weather is here to stay it looks like. I had every intention of doing it 2 weeks ago when the temp hit 40* but after riding out to the dealer to get the filter I found out that their weekend hours changed in the winter time. SO that leaves me where I am now. From what I have read it is best to ride the bike for a little while to get it up to temp before changing the oil. I guess I could just let it idle in the garage for a while and the motor would get up to temp at least, but that would not do anything for the Primary or Trans. So I am just curious on your thoughts about just changing the oil without being able to ride the bike first...

Thanks
Phil

 

Go for it. Better than not changing it at all. Idling for a short time will suspend the particles. I'd hold off on the tranny and primary though.

 

I agree with dFREDb. Warm your motor and change that oil at least. You could change the other two but with them not being warm you're not going to get a clean drain on them. Then again, it's the beginning of feb. and you're in the St. Louis area, I'm certain that in another 2or 3 weeks it will be warm enough to ride again and you will have the opportunity change all three holes. It's not like you are in the northern part of the nation where we won't be riding for at least 2 more months.

 

Much ado over nothing. Drain and refill. Just like they do at the dealer for $300.

 

It's always best to change the oil when it's hot, but you're kidding yourself if you think your dealers service department gets them all up to temp before changing the oil.

 

If I am not badly mistaken, even idling in neutral, you have movement in both the primary and the transmission. So, both should warm also, the transmission maybe not so much, but the primary will have just as much movement as if you were on the road. Me thinks anyway.

 

Get a strong fan to move air across cylinders and you can run it till pigs fly sitting still. That will get all your oils nice and warm.

 

Maybe you could go on a short 15-20 minute ride and get everything up to temp. then change the fluids.

 

That was my original plan but there is to much snow and ice on the ground right now.

Phil

 

I did a search on the internet the other day about cold vs. hot oil changes. I know one cannot believe everything on the internet but I wanted to see what type of discussions/opinions were out there.

From what I found, the primary argument for warm/hot changes seems to be that you will get all the stuff that settled to the bottom mixed in with the oil and that this will ensure a more thorough removal of contaminants. Obviously the oil will drain faster because it is a little thinner.

The argument for draining cold is that you allow the engine oil to return to the oil pan overnight and that you will be getting more of the oil out that would have been sitting in various places inside the engine.

So, which is better...draining warm/hot oil that has just been mixed or draining cold oil that has been allowed to settle to the oil pan all night...

I can see where both arguments may have some validity. One comment that I did find in my search was that if you are warming up the oil to mix all the contaminants then you might have something wrong with your engine. The oil filter will take out anything larger than the filter media (5 to 20µ depending on the filter). Anything smaller than that is probably going to stay in suspension and drain whether the oil is hot or cold.

If your garage or wherever you have your bike stored is fairly warm, I'd go ahead and change it without running the bike. I do my own oil changes and I always allow the bike to sit overnight before an oil change.

Decide which you think makes the best sense to you.