Oil Colour

[crickleymal]

How quickly should the oil go black on these bikes? When I bought the bike 3000 miles back the shop were supposed to have changed the oil and filter. However in the sight glass it looks quite dark.

[andybesy]

Normal for it to look dark after 3,000 miles, especially through the glass.

Depending on the year (and thus your service interval) you'll be changing it again in 1,000 miles or at 6k.

Personally I like to change every 4,000 even though my service interval is 6k, you can feel the difference in the old oil.

Andy

[sinto]

If it's clear, your not using the bike, get out and ride it and it changes to a darker colour as it goes round your engine grabbing the rubbish within and lubricating it at the same time, hence the reason given by Andy about changing it at certain time scales

[crickleymal]

It's just that my Divvy would keep the oil fairly clear for the best part of 6k miles and my wife's Skoda keeps the oil clear for the whole time between the 10k oil changes. 3K seemed a rather short time for it to go black.

[His Dudeness]

3000 isn't a a short time for it to go black. It probably went black after the first 100 miles

[clayt74]

I agree, the age of these bikes doesn't matter how often you replace oil n filters, the carbon will very quickly change the colour...... But that doesn't affect the oil doing its job. I change my oil every  4 months approx 3.5-4k miles and change filter every other oil change, it still dark but not full of crud and you can still feel the viscosity

[Jules-C]

Oil going dark shows its doing its job stopping carbon etc settling out into sludgy deposits.

Oil through window looks darker than same oil on dipstick. Mine goes pretty dark just running engine for minute to fill filter after oil change before checking level

[crickleymal]

Rightio. Any recommendation for oil? I've got half a gallon of Halfords finest synthetic in the garage but I don't rate their oils very highly. I just got it to flush the crap put of the Divvy's replacement engine.

[sinto]

Rightio. Any recommendation for oil? I've got half a gallon of Halfords finest synthetic in the garage but I don't rate their oils very highly. I just got it to flush the crap put of the Divvy's replacement engine.

Read this and look at what happens when you use fully synthetic
http://foc-u.co.uk/index.php/topic,17020.0.html

[clayt74]

I use bog standard  silkelene semi 4...........with regular changes I don't believe you need anything more?

[maxzer1500]

Oil shouldn't go black that quickly, had many bikes where the oil stayed clean and i think they were 8000 mile intervals and they didn't burn any, they weren't Yamahas though. The job the oil does in a petrol engine is a bit different to a diesel, with a diesel the carbon is supposed to end up in the oil. I think in some cases not using the correct oil don't throw up problems for the individual user, once had a car that was sweet as then decided it was ok to use a certain Comma oil in it, knackered it.