Engine Oil Aging

I can't find any articles on the aging of motorcycle grade oil, wondered if
any oil scientists were lurking.

Obviously its highly recommended in service intervals but if a vehicle has
oil in over a year and only covered at most 500 miles (ie low miles use) -
is there any aging degredation to the mineral oil ?
I'm going to replace mine anyway (for that warm feeling of self satisfied
attention to detail) but why do they recommend such a service on the basis
of time, as well as mileage ?

Cheers

 

I am not an oil expert but my guess is that the recommendation for changing
oil after a particular time interval, even if mileage is below the limit for
a change, is based on the possibility/probability that the bike may have
been making frequent, short journeys. In these journeys the engine gets
little time to warm up and the oil has to "work harder", meaning more rapid
engine wear. Hence the need for more frequent oil changes.

 

I found some old oil in my garage, I was going to use it until I
spotted lumps in it.
Just put some new stuff in.

 

TMack wrote

Just oil?

There was a link posted less than two days ago to some major companies
web site, Shell I think.


There is a most useful and extremely well written and surprising easy to
understand ffaq there which may well answer this very question.


'Course if the OP can only afford to do 500 miles on his bike every year
then I can see how a tenner for some new oil might be something of an
issue.

 

That was what I was getting at.
I was just theoretically interested for instance, in a vehicle that has
contained oil but hadn't budged at all
in that time - would there still be a cause for an oil change if you knew it
might not be warranted ?
(ie an aging factor - but I guess in the age of synthetics the answer may be
that they don't).
I think the suggested "aging" is what you suggest above - contaminates
coming from improper use, low mileage etc.

Not really for the purpose of questioning my servicing, as I'd just change
it anyway year on year even if I had done 1 mile.

 

Not even then, as it's still only the cost of ten miles, or one week, of riding.

 

Oil have to admit that there are some other areas where I lack expertise.

 

Water and acid contamination coming from short spells of use is the most
likely reason.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a
Every post contains Nutri-Ceramide-R and Pre-Biotics
for your reading pleasure.
Folding@Home Team UKRM
http://vspx27.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=teampage&teamnum=47957

 

Sure. I just got some (hell it costs next to nothing). Just spent £100 on
service bits but that includes a Scottoiler, if you can call it service
parts.

 

What about no spells of use, just a long spell of no usage?


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

Right. Well I have some standard Rock 10x40 synthetic anyway, it was only
£15.
It's hardly a performance bike (well if it is its a downtuned one but is
modern engined) so should do the job.

On the note of limited riding, Its not really the sort of bike I'm happy
with on its own - it would be far nicer to have another far chuckable and
more balanced bike to ride. I've got a custom coming which should provide
that but I have a bit of a wait on my hands first - I'd find it easier to
get a bike like that out.
I would be well chuffed with something like a faired Triple or similar, ie a
proper riding machine rather than a pose sofa.

This one is a ballache given that I have to be exteremely careful to get it
in and out of its storage place - clearance is a problem. That's already
having widened the entry by almost double as well. (its about 6ft x 6ft
space or thereabouts I guess).
OH like it so I guess it will have to remain at least for a while )

 

Antonio:

It is always refined oil, so there can imo of course be degradation.
But mostly, they recommend it because of the degradation of the
additives.

see above. Got that answer from Fuchs Silkolene, they make high
quality motorcycle oils. They recommend changing about once a year.
If you haven't done much driving, you can wait longer, but I wouldn't
leave it in there for too long, because the mixture of acid fuel
components and additives can get to the gaskets of your engine.

Regards,
Clemens

 

In uk.rec.motorcycles, Antonio belched forth and ejected the following:

Condensation, at a guess. Gets in the oil, see.

 

If it's not been used at all since the last change it wouldn't bother me
in the slightest to run it as normal.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a
Every post contains Nutri-Ceramide-R and Pre-Biotics
for your reading pleasure.
Folding@Home Team UKRM
http://vspx27.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=teampage&teamnum=47957

 

The oil itself does not age much at all, under ideal conditions I
would guess it would still be fine after 5 or 10 years.
Now, storage conditions are seldom ideal and sometimes they
are horrible. If a bike was kept somewhere very damp and
where temperature variations were frequent and large, the
engine could inhale a lot of water.

So, what am I saying? Probably just to use common sense.

 

Nor me, but in another place, some wag told a newbie not to buy an
apparently otherwise superb VFR because it had sat for the last 12 months in
a garage and the owner hadn't changed the oil.

Some people are a bit anal about thi sort of stuff.


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

A few minutes with the engine temp above 100c will sort sort that out
though.


--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19

 

That's happened many times to various vehicles of mine - not a problem
yet.

They know just enough to be ignorant.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a
Every post contains Nutri-Ceramide-R and Pre-Biotics
for your reading pleasure.
Folding@Home Team UKRM
http://vspx27.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=teampage&teamnum=47957

 

In uk.rec.motorcycles, Beav belched forth and ejected the following:

And it will get rid of the 'mayonnaise'?

Would running an engine with the oil in that state be bad for it as it
wouldn't separate the bearings properly?

 

Shouldn't be an mayo unless you've got a leak somewhere.

If there's too much water in there, it won't help, water's like opil in that
it can't be compressed, so the bearings aren't going to die in the time it
takes to boil off.

Left to idle for a few minutes and the temp should be over 100 and that's
when the water from condensation will decide to **** off. If the water's
there because it's coming from the cooling system, it's unlikely to get
boiled off before it's replenished though.



--
Beav

VN 750
Zed 1000
OMF# 19