My first Oilhead post!!! - an oil question........

[BubbaZanetti]

i've made the move from the airheads!

anyway, i'm purchasing a 99' R1100S this week and i've got a few oil questions:

1 the bike only has 3975 miles on it, i'm assuing its pretty much "broken in" but should i put synthetic oil/gear oil in it now or wait a bit longer and stick with regular oil for this service????

2 i'm not sure how old the oil in the bike is and, is there an easy way to tell if its synthetic already??? (i've only had older cars and the airhead so i've dealt exclusively with "dino-oil")


also, bmw filters or not, i've heard mixed reviews

i realize i may be opening a huge can of opiniated worms here, so fire away! :type

[DarrylRi]

i've made the move from the airheads!

anyway, i'm purchasing a 99' R1100S this week and i've got a few oil questions:

1 the bike only has 3975 miles on it, i'm assuing its pretty much "broken in" but should i put synthetic oil/gear oil in it now or wait a bit longer and stick with regular oil for this service????Congratulations!

4k miles is NOTHING for these bikes. The motors take 10-20,000 miles to really break in and become smooth. The motor in my '94 R11RS self destructed last year -- after 182,000 miles! -- and you could still see the crosshatching in the cylinder walls:

http://darryl.crafty-fox.com/mcpics/2004/europe1/r11rs_motor/P4273384_med.jpg

[lorazepam]

Congrats on the new bike Bubba! I would recommend Dino oil until around 10k or so, but as far as the gear oil, synthetic would be fine to start out with.

I would change all the fluids on the bike, since with such low milage for the year, you may have water and other contaminates residing in there.

BMW filters are fine, and going to other manufacturers may cause you problems when trying to remove them.

Once again welcome to oilhead ownership!!

[BubbaZanetti]

would you go back to non-synth if it has, for some reason, already been switched over to synthetic????

[riderR1150GSAdv]

Grrrrrrrr, :jester not another oilthread?!! :D
I couldn't resist but you brought up a good point about switching oil back and forth. I would use synthetic oil even though the engine has about 4K on it. It will not hurt the engine at all and since the technology in oils has changed a lot over the years, new cars (porsche,corvette, ferrari) come with syn oil from the factory. All have high performance motors and run fine on syn from new.
I changed to syn on my LT at 3K. I do use BMW oilfilters since the bike is under warranty but, I use Mobil-1 oil as it seems to be the best around and cheaper than BMW oil which is Castrol and I have had a bad experience with their dino oil leaving me with bad vibes. And what Lorezapam said make sure to change all the liquids in the bike, specially the brakes.
Hope this helps! :wave

[bikerfish1100]

welcome to the world of S-ing Bubba. you're gonna love the differences between the S and whatever airhead you were on.
best forum on the net for all things R11S- www.pelicanparts.com

if it has synth it the motor now, leave it in. if it seems to be burning alot (>1liter/600miles), dump it and replace with dino to let the rings seat properly (Spectro is among the best rated m/c oils). i switched over to semi-synth in my S around 20K. will probably switch to full synth when i use up that case.

[kbasa]

welcome to the world of S-ing Bubba. you're gonna love the differences between the S and whatever airhead you were on.
best forum on the net for all things R11S- www.pelicanparts.com

if it has synth it the motor now, leave it in. if it seems to be burning alot (>1liter/600miles), dump it and replace with dino to let the rings seat properly (Spectro is among the best rated m/c oils). i switched over to semi-synth in my S around 20K. will probably switch to full synth when i use up that case.

What he said. I swapped my S to full synth at about 20K. I always used the BMW filters. Over the course of the life of the bike, you may save $40 by using other filter brands.

I'd recommend a few things for your S - Check under the seat and look at the rubber gizmos the seat rests on. Take some teflon tape and wrap the posts those things fit on to. Mine kept falling off until I wrapped the posts and made a better interference fit. Watch out for the rear turn signals. They're kind of fragile. Be careful with the toolkit tray. I managed to break the little gizmos that hold the tray into the holder in the rear fender.

Putting an orange bulb in the tail light will make the red lens glow kind of eerily. :D

Congrats, man! :thumb

[RebeccaV]

Congratualtions BZ!! Please post pictures of the new ride when you can!

[dano]

Change to full-synthetic whenever you're ready. No need to wait any longer.

As far as oil filters go, if you have no problem paying $12.00 and up for one by BMW, go for it.

I prefer to buy one that is every bit as good as OEM, but costs MUCH less. My RT can't tell the difference, but my wallet sure can. :D

[110997]

I bought my R1100GS with 11K on it and it started running much smoother around 16K. So you have a way to go before break in is complete. I use Mobil 1 from Walmart and Wix filters from any auto parts stores.


Enjoy the new bike

Derek