Oilhead that won't keep oil in its heads

[BubbaZanetti]

or in its engine at all,

so anyway, i've asked around a bit, but figured i'd seek out even more advice:

quick history; purchased bike in feb with 3800 miles, rode to 9000 miles on bmw 20/50 dino oil, burned roughly 1qt per 1000 miles. switched to castrol 20/50 car dino from 9-12K, oil burning dropped significantly (added less than a quart over that 3K) at 12K i switched to Mobil 1 "15,000 mile" (gold cap) oil and have been running it since. bike now has close to 18K on it and its burning a lot of oil again.

i'm gonna change the oil/filter tomorrow. some guys on my pellican parts board suggested i switch back to dino and flog the hell out of the thing for a few hundred miles on a warm day. i'm inclined to do this, but want to see what you guys think. i tend to use this site as my tech "touring" suggetion page whereas the R1100S site is my "sport" tech page.............

[kbasa]

I always ran the BMW stuff in my bike. :dunno

It would drink oil if i ran the crap out of it, but if I rode it more "normally" it didn't really drink much.

[lorazepam]

Hey Bubba, you might want to let someone else *flog the crap* out of it considering your attraction to LEO's lately. It also seems to coincide with your purchase of said piece of motorcycle art. :laugh

[BubbaZanetti]

the more "normally" i ride it, the worse it is, uses a fair ammount of oil commuting, but is fine when i'm out with friends riding harder

[mcarter676]

My 04 RT is the same. 1 qt / 1000 miles of BMW's finest 20w50. I have 19,000 miles on it now. Never gets worse / never gets better. This is my second 1150 bike, and the first followed the same pattern. I am very close to saying goodby to BMW's but I love the way the bike looks, rides and feels. I wonder if you and I have one of those few bad ones, or if we are the only ones not afraid to admit it! When I take it in for the 18k service next week (yeah, I'm late) I am really going to have a talk with the dealer. Maybe a K bike is in my future??

Now for the Smart A.. comment. I guess I will never make a west cost trip since I can't carry 5-6 quarts of oil with me.

[CustomSarge]

a quart every 1000 miles ?!!!

If you're not fouling plugs, it Must be a leak (BIG vote by me).
Something is WAY amiss here; a quart in a K (1000mi) by burning is palatable (sp?) smoke on a constant basis.

I'd degrease the HELL out of the machine and the take it out for progressively longer rides. Minimize wind, traffic, curves etc: slow/effusive leaks are found by Careful Inspection.

I "found" a blown "valve/topcap cap" seal after it "wet (soaked!)" my leg in SAE30.
I'm still discovering Just What it takes to deal with Oilheads; not that they're bad, just Different. Please feed the InfoStream...(not the tourists) <<<)))

[BubbaZanetti]

yeah, this is defenetly the way it is,

no leaks, i tend to wash the bike every few weeks cause it is kept outside, and that means scrub brush to the engine, and checking for leaks, i tighetend all the M6 bolts i could find, there's no appreciable oil leaking from anywhere, the plugs seem fine, although a look in the cylinder through the spark plug hole shows a lot of carbon buildup and such. there is minimal oil in the airbox (a couple drops every few months) my friends do report noticable clouds of smoke if i really gun it. i asked if it was a bluish oil smoke or a dirty carbon smoke, they report defenetly just dirty carbon smoke. so i'm at a loss. it really is a frustrating quality of the bike, since i love the rest of the thing so much............

[John Brase]

Bubba,

Just as a data point... My 1150 was filled at it's 6k service and today, at 9400 miles, I put in the last of the spare quart I bought. And, I don't think mine is fully broken in yet. You might want to go back to dino for a while.

John

[Rich]

Bubba,

Just as a data point... My 1150 was filled at it's 6k service and today, at 9400 miles, I put in the last of the spare quart I bought. And, I don't think mine is fully broken in yet. You might want to go back to dino for a while.

John

This is how mine is too. I add less than 1/2 a quart in a 3000 mile oil change interval. I guess that is good after reading this thread.

[bob1150]

This is how mine is too. I add less than 1/2 a quart in a 3000 mile oil change interval. I guess that is good after reading this thread.
And I was thinking my '04 1150GS was using too much oil! At a little under 12K miles it used 28 oz of BMW 20/50 on a 4000 mile trip in July. I was wondering why most of the Jap bikes I've had haven't used any oil from day one and this (my first BMW) is using so much. Guess I'm not doing so bad after all. I do love this thing. I just can't understand why BMW (and other car manuf.) can make auto engines with a 10K or 15K oil change interval out of the factory and not use oil, but can't do any better than this with their boxer engines. I'm making a little corner in my bags for spare oil.

[whereami]

:german 2003 gs with 14000. uses 1/2 qt every3000. dealer said usually stops between 18000 and 25000 miles when broken in. we'll see. i sure do love the bike regardless.

[torags]

When you top of do you fill to the top of the glass. If you do you may be over filling. the oil swells when hot.

When you inspect thru the plug hole, if the color (on top of piston) of the carbon is middle toast that's good. If its dark or black somethings wrong (split ring - excessive oil backpressure forcing blowby).

Blowby can also occur as a result of poor breakin. The rings have to seat & they won't if the bike is babied during breakin.

[BubbaZanetti]

torags,

i always keep it between 1/4 and 3/4 on the sidestand on a slightly incline driveway (i'm somewhere between sidestand and centerstand in terms of vertical)

read what others have said about it: Here (http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=240695&perpage=20&pagenumber=1)

[Stuff2C]

Ride it from west coast to east coast @ a constant 7000 rpm's. That will fix the problem one way or another. :brad

seriously one of my oilheads took 20k miles to quit burning oil. :jawdrop but was fine after that.

[j-budimlya]

torags,

i always keep it between 1/4 and 3/4 on the sidestand on a slightly incline driveway (i'm somewhere between sidestand and centerstand in terms of vertical)

read what others have said about it: Here (http://forums.pelicanparts.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=240695&perpage=20&pagenumber=1)

Every time you put it on the side stand...it will pass a fair amount of oil into the cylinder...and then you pass it on...

try the center stand for a while.....

[olsalt]

Every time you put it on the side stand...it will pass a fair amount of oil into the cylinder...and then you pass it on...

try the center stand for a while..... Amen to this!
Since my CL dosen't have a centerstand, if I park it for more than 1 day, I put a 2 x4 under the centerstand to minimize oil infiltration. It works for me. Of course you must be on a level surface. :laugh

[Bfish]

not an expert but been told that not good to go back to dino after running on synthetic. may want to check on that. it's also very important to try to check it level and consistently when warm to get a good reading.

[BubbaZanetti]

UPDATE:

put dino in last friday, i've put about 500 miles on since and oil burn is negligable (1 or 2 oz's maybe) i've been running it up to 7 or 8K a bunch per instructions from other sources.

i'm wondering if the bike just likes castrol 20/50 better than mobil 15/50, maybe i should try the castrol semi synth???

[Bfish]

stick with dino. no big deal with synthetic. engine runs a tad cooler which down here is an issue. i' m at 12+k on my rt, using dino. oil consumption has dropped to about 1 quart every 2500mi. probably try syn at 20k miles.

[PUDGYPAINTGUY]

I just had my GSA in for it's rather late 12K service and it was recommended that I stick with dino oil in the engine since I change it every 3K anyway and to use 75/140 synthetic in the transmission and drive cases...and the synth in the drive and tranny really seem to make it shift smoother. Even if I used synth in the motor I could not stand seeing it in there for 6K...what would I tinker with if I had to wait that long?...lol

[jm1515]

I just had my GSA in for it's rather late 12K service and it was recommended that I stick with dino oil in the engine since I change it every 3K anyway and to use 75/140 synthetic in the transmission and drive cases...and the synth in the drive and tranny really seem to make it shift smoother. Even if I used synth in the motor I could not stand seeing it in there for 6K...what would I tinker with if I had to wait that long?...lol
Extended change intervals are not, for me at least, the reason I'm going to switch to Mobil1 or some such at my next oil change (~10000mi).
I'll still change at 4 or 5000mi, even tho BMW says 6000mi is fine.
It's the proven, un-debateable (to me) superior protection that syn offers while it's in your engine, working.
Particularly the fact that syn will help your engine run cooler. To me, this is critical and highly desirable for a mostly air cooled engine. Never a concern in my water cooled rides...
...or maybe I'm just full of shyte as a result of a marketing brainwash??
:dunno

[PUDGYPAINTGUY]

Jim this is definitely one of those almost religous discussions isn't it? I had scoured the web for articles for oil selection and just when you think you have figured one answer one more opinion comes into play that has "hard facts" through a test that the guy or organization did that proves white really is lack..lol. Personal belief and preference seems to be the answer for sure.

Another option I had considered was te semi-synthetic like some of the new bikes use from the factory. My decision for the continued use of dino oil in the engine was definitely influenced by the frequent oil changes, and also by the northern climate in which I live not creating too much heat damage potential...MI has never been accused of being hot...well except in August by the natives maybe...lol. The main thing is that you have made a decision...as the quote says "a good decision today is better than a perfect decision tomorrow"...lol

[FredRydr]

...some guys on my pellican parts board suggested i switch back to dino and flog the hell out of the thing for a few hundred miles....

I agree. Maybe not flog the hell out of it, but if it was me, I'd just run it on dino for 6,000 miles (i.e., one or two oil changes) and see if there is any reduction.

Fred

[jm1515]

Jim this is definitely one of those almost religous discussions isn't it? I had scoured the web for articles for oil selection and just when you think you have figured one answer one more opinion comes into play that has "hard facts" through a test that the guy or organization did that proves white really is lack..lol. Personal belief and preference seems to be the answer for sure.
....

Absolutely right ppg...
I hope I did not sound too strong in my comments. I am brainwashed, after all. ;)
I believe in what I posted...but that does not mean any other opinion is not valid.
I love oil threads....... :bottle

[BubbaZanetti]

now comes the inevitable.................


"how cold is too cold to run 20W50 non synthetic." i took this bike out a couple of times last year in the low 20s/high teens and it didn't not sound particularly happy on start up. but at the same time, once its up to operating temps, is a 10/30 or 10/40 really gonna be a decent choice???

[110997]

I bought my R1100GS with 10K on it, and it ate as much oil as yours has been.

It has 30K on it now and doesn't use oil. Somewhere around 19K it stopped. I've run Mobil 1 since I've owned it. After it broke in (around 15K) I started running it 5-6K (til the oil changes from tan of light brown) between changes.

If I was in your situation I'd run it hard for a bit, let it get warm 6-7 bars. That should seat the rings.

It may take a little longer than most but it'll stop eating oil.

You didn't mention what year your bike was, if its a 95-97 it may have the older style head gaskets that might be letting a little soil seep in to the combustion chamber. Use a scope to check your heads. If there any are fouled, then I'd recommend you replace both gaskets with the newer style. Its actually very easy if you follow the directions.

Good luck! :bikes

Keep the rubber down
Derek

[BubbaZanetti]

I bought my R1100GS with 10K on it, and it ate as much oil as yours has been.

It has 30K on it now and doesn't use oil. Somewhere around 19K it stopped. I've run Mobil 1 since I've owned it. After it broke in (around 15K) I started running it 5-6K (til the oil changes from tan of light brown) between changes.

If I was in your situation I'd run it hard for a bit, let it get warm 6-7 bars. That should seat the rings.

It may take a little longer than most but it'll stop eating oil.

You didn't mention what year your bike was, if its a 95-97 it may have the older style head gaskets that might be letting a little soil seep in to the combustion chamber. Use a scope to check your heads. If there any are fouled, then I'd recommend you replace both gaskets with the newer style. Its actually very easy if you follow the directions.

Good luck! :bikes

Keep the rubber down
Derek



from one derek to another, thanks for the advice..........what are these "bars" you speak of??? haha, jk, the S has no rider information system, the only way to tell how hot my bike is getting is to feel the cylinder. i've been told by some guys who do a lot of track stuff with the S's that pressure, not temperature is what you need to seat the rings properly. the bike's a 99, so i don't think its a gasket issue, but hopefully it'll settle down soon, i've got 18.6K on it now and for some reason it seems like 19-20K is a magical number for a lot of people................

[roybarnes]

:german 2003 gs with 14000. uses 1/2 qt every3000. dealer said usually stops between 18000 and 25000 miles when broken in. we'll see. i sure do love the bike regardless.
I think 25,000 is still not broken in. I have 115,000 on mine and it is using less oil all the time. It is now less than 1qt, in 6,000 miles.

[jwhite518]

My 04 RT is the same. 1 qt / 1000 miles of BMW's finest 20w50. I have 19,000 miles on it now. Never gets worse / never gets better. This is my second 1150 bike, and the first followed the same pattern. I am very close to saying goodby to BMW's but I love the way the bike looks, rides and feels. I wonder if you and I have one of those few bad ones, or if we are the only ones not afraid to admit it! When I take it in for the 18k service next week (yeah, I'm late) I am really going to have a talk with the dealer. Maybe a K bike is in my future??

Now for the Smart A.. comment. I guess I will never make a west cost trip since I can't carry 5-6 quarts of oil with me.

Don't blame BMW. It's probably a poor ring seat that happened when the motor was brand new. Did you buy the bike new? How did you break it in? If you babied it, the rings didn't seat properly and now it burns oil. Proper break in procedure is to ride the piss out of it. Honest!

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm