Really High Oil consumption

[SweetT]

I've noticed that when I cruise at speeds near or at 100mph (which I do more often than I should admit, I live in Oklahoma afterall!) my oil consumption is VERY high! I'm talking about a quart every 700miles! Its to the point where before I leave on a trip of more than 300 miles I always carry a quart of oil with me. My last trip had me adding oil at every other gas stop.

If I keep the engine speed at or below 5k rpm then oil consumption isn't an issue.

I am using motorcycle specific "natural" oil with a 10-40 vis. Should I be using 20-50?

Oh, and please dont offer the solution "Well Tarren, why dont you just slow down?" Riding my K makes me so happy! :brad

[kbasa]

What's the manual say about oil types?

[SweetT]

Oh, come to think of it the last oil change was done by the PO at the BMW dealer I dont know what vis of oil they used, but I assume it was the correct type. I've just been adding the 10-40 vis motorcycle oil because I bought a case of it at autozone last spring.

[username]

hmmmm.

perhaps you should consider doing an oil and filter change, and then putting in the recommended weight, and just for kicks, brand of oil. ride it a while and see what happens.

[BubbaZanetti]

strange, i burn more at lower rps, cruising at or below 4K, 5K and above and my consumption is nearly nil

just goes to show how different K's and R's really are...........

[jdiaz]

I've noticed that when I cruise at speeds near or at 100mph (which I do more often than I should admit, I live in Oklahoma afterall!) my oil consumption is VERY high! I'm talking about a quart every 700miles! Its to the point where before I leave on a trip of more than 300 miles I always carry a quart of oil with me. My last trip had me adding oil at every other gas stop.

I probably would not add oil mid-day with a 1200RS. You don't really know what's sitting up in the oil cooler when you check. Also, run the level at the mid-point when you start out cold.

Its possible its a guzzler....my K1200RS drank oil, but my 1200LT has never seemed to consume anything.

[j-budimlya]

this summer did an hour and a half of crossing the Extraterrestial Highway in Nevada @ 100F and 100 MPH.....two things happened...

My 1150GS burned more oil than normal...and my son on a R1100R burned off the remaining tread from his rear tire...Bridgestone Battleaxe 020....

Not sure how much I used...but more thannormal...and Iwas running Mobile one 15-50W

And had fun doing it....

BTW, same thing happens on a hard day in the mountain twisties...at 5-7,000 RPM

[knary]

I probably would not add oil mid-day with a 1200RS. You don't really know what's sitting up in the oil cooler when you check. Also, run the level at the mid-point when you start out cold.

Its possible its a guzzler....my K1200RS drank oil, but my 1200LT has never seemed to consume anything.

Do the 'old' K12's burn the oil to the mid-point too? My old K would burn through oil like mad...until I realized that it apparently didn't want to be filled any higher than that mid-point. Anything beyond that vanished. Maybe the bike was haunted.

[SweetT]

It will burn oil past the midpoint in the sightglass. There were a couple of times that even after having stopped 30 min for lunch, there would be no oil visible in the sight glass.

I went ahead and changed the oil and filter last night and added the correct type of oil. I'm taking another trip with my dad (he just bought a K1200RS on saturday!) this weekend, so I'll just have to wait and see what happens then.

[eric2]

Nobody asked how many miles he had on it? :banghead

FWIW when i got my 98 it had 36k on it, and I was
pissed when it cleared the sight glass after 400 miles
of traveling.

The records indicated the PO used full synth exclusively
so I changed to HD 40 after I read this (http://www.gunsmoke.com/scot/k12/sj_oil.html)

Since then i've added
almost 60k to it and the oil consumption has improved
somewhat, up to about 2000 miles/quart. Dunno
about useage at 100 + ;)

Best,
Eric
Austin

[j-budimlya]

http://jimbud.smugmug.com/photos/23142008-M.jpg


You can just about run as fast as you dare for 150 miles....no cross streets...
http://jimbud.smugmug.com/photos/23142007-M.jpg

And probably nice to have a friend with too...

It took us about an hour and a half to ride the road...

funny thing was it never felt fast...your sense of speed is all relative...

And I saw my first herd of wild horses too...I wish the deer would run away like the horses did...

[qkvic]

Yo Sweet T
My old 85 k100rs has over 100000 miles on it and although oil consumption was never a problem it di use oil at one time.
any oil consumption stopped entirely when i went to synthetic oil.
I now run amsoil 20w50 and oil consumption is not a problem. Your gas mileage may even improve.
I don't know how many miles you have on your machine but just ensure it is well broken in before you use synthetic .it is so slippery the rings won't bed in .
Hope this helps,
Vic