Being able to perform basic maintenance on a motorcycle is a very rewarding and useful thing to be able to do, it will save you money, give you more time to ride the bike and allow you to become better acquainted with the state of your machine. This article explains how to perform perhaps the most common service procedure there is, an oil-change.
A motorcycle dealership will charge you £100+ for this service, when it need only cost you £25 in consumables, and thirty minutes of your time. Why not do it yourself? To complete this basic form of servicing, you will typically need the following for a sports-bike:
-Replacement oil filter
-4L of either semi or fully-synthetic 10w/40 oil
-4mm Alan-key
-Appropriate socket for sump-plug
-Oil filter grip
-Oil pan
-Gloves
Why should you change your oil? You should change it because over time the oil will thicken as it picks up waste from your engine as it is run, and the performance of the oil decreases when it becomes soiled. Fresh, high-performance oil will lengthen the life-span of your engine and increase power output.
When should you change your oil? Most of the time it’s best to follow the owners-manual recommendation, though if like us you do a lot of trackdays, you will be wanting to change it more often, as the higher the load on the engine, the quicker the oil will age. As a personal rule, we change it every three to four trackdays. You can make your own decision here, but changing it overly often will bring no benefits.
With regards to what type of oil to use, there's a couple of schools of thought, whichever you choose, it won't make a huge difference to the end-result. The first school of thought is that you should always run semi-synthetic oil, the stuff the manufacturers recommend, and the other is that after 4k miles, or after half that with mainly track use, you can use fully-synthetic oil. Don't run fully-synthetic oil before this milage, as the engine needs time to properly bed in.
Step 1:If possible, put your bike on two stands to raise it off the ground, making it easier to gain access to the sump and oil filter. Run the engine for a few minutes to warm the oil up. Be careful to place the fairings in a secure place as not to get scratched by tools or feet. We find the living room a good place for this! On some bikes, you need only to remove one side fairing, to get access to the sump and oil filter, don’t make our mistake and take the wrong side off, have a look first! Insert the oil pan under the sump.
Step 2:Remove the oil-filler cap, traditionally on an inline-four engine; this will be on the right-hand side, on the clutch cover. This will allow the oil to flow more freely out of the engine when the sump plug is removed. Find the appropriate socket for the sump plug and whilst taking care not to round-off the bolt, loosen it, but do not remove it. Use your fingers to undo the bolt, as when it is at the end of the thread, the weight of the oil above it will want to spit it into the oil pan, which means fishing around for it. When the bolt is removed, let the oil pour into the pan for a while. Your engine is now empty of oil, so don’t even think about running the engine.
Step 3:The manufacturers recommend changing the washer used on the bolt each time it’s removed, but we didn’t have one at hand, and the bike was very new, so we left it in there, you may want to replace it at your discretion. Put the bolt and washer back in and if you have a torque-wrench, do it up to the manufacturers recommended torque setting. If you don’t have a torque-wrench, you will need to be more careful as the sumps are made of aluminium and the bolts of steel, so it’s quite easy to strip the thread, or crack the sump if you over-tighten the bolt, and this would be a VERY bad thing to do, take care! Tighten the bolt up, if by hand, we would recommend hand-tight, then just a nip to secure it, though we appreciate everyone’s idea of a nip is different, which is why you should use a torque-wrench ideally.
Move the oil pan so it’s underneath the oil filter. Removing the oil filter is next. The oil filter is one big bolt almost, it screws onto the engine, so if you have a filter removing tool, use this, otherwise if like us you find you have the wrong sized tool, an alternative is to puncture the filter mid-point with a screwdriver and use that to get leverage to loosen it. This may sound extreme, but the filter is not going to be used any more, so it’s fine to do so. We used a hammer to puncture the filter.
Unscrew the filter, taking care as there will be oil inside it that will need to drain into your pan underneath. When you’ve taken it off, put the filter in the pan.
Step 4:Open both your new filter package and oil carton. Take the new filter and smear a layer of fresh oil around the rubber seal with your finger. Lubricating the ring will ensure that when you screw the filter back in place, it doesn’t stretch or tear the ring. You can also pour a small amount of oil into the filter to ensure that the engine has some oil in the system the first time you fire it up again (the lubrication system is quite extensive, much like the intestines in the human body).
Screw the new filter back in place carefully, and hand-tighten. If you have a filter tool, use this to tighten it further, otherwise using your hands with strength will be more than adequate, it does not need to be super-tight. Some motorcycles have retaining systems to add further protection against any potential loosening, such as the Kawasaki pictured.
Step 5:You are now ready to fill the engine up with new oil. By the oil filler hole, there should be a marking on the engine that says how much oil can be held by it. Some bikes go as far as to tell you how much with, or without the oil filter changed. Typically it’s no more than four litres for Sportsbikes, but check before you buy the oil, you don’t want to be left short. Having the bike on stands also ensures it’s level, making it easier to get a reading from the hour-glass port on the engine when filling it up.
Use a funnel to pour two thirds of your new oil into the engine. After this amount, it’s a good idea to replace the filler cap and start the engine for thirty seconds or so, just to spin up oil through the system, which will lower the reading on the hour-glass. It will take the entire amount of oil specified, to get a reading on the hour-glass typically, but be careful not to over-fill it, by keeping an eye on the hour-glass. When done filling, replace the cap and ensure it’s tight.
Step 6:Clean up any spilt oil on the bike/pavement, put the fairings back on and take the bike out for a test-ride. You want to make sure everything is a-okay before you use the bike again in anger.
If you spill oil on the pavement, there are cleaning products you can buy to remove it. This is a good idea if you don’t own the pavement and don’t want to get a bad name with your neighbours!
To dispose of the waste oil, find a container to pour it into, one with a securable cap. We typically keep previous oil canisters behind for just this purpose. You can then take the oil to a recycling station near you. Do not throw it into general waste, as it’s bad for the environment.
NotesThe first time you do this, it may take you a while, as you may not be familiar with how to remove the fairings, cautious over filling her up, and disposing of the waste materials, but after a couple of oil changes, you will be very quick at it and wonder why on earth you paid someone else to do it. Enjoy!
