The Disappearing Oil Trick

Just had two weeks in Spain on the Pan - brilliant roads, friendly people,
lunatic car drivers, cheap everything.

On the way back, the Pan started vibrating through the footrests - at odd
times which I couldn't pin down to any one set of circumstances. It would
do it for a second or two, then all was OK again.

We stopped over and I checked the oil first thing in the morning. Nothing
in the glass viewer. Yes - that'd probably do it, but I was confused. Two
days previously, the level had been OK. I wasn't on a slope, I ran the
engine and let the oil settle again. Still no oil in the viewer. Took the
bike 100 yards to a garage, put it back on the centre stand, bought some
oil. Gave time to let oil settle down and filled it up to just under max.
It took about 3/4 litre.

I didn't get the vibration during the 3 hour run home.

Got home. Worried about where all this oil was going, I went to check the
level again. Full. Way above max. I had to let out (I guess) about half a
litre.

So where the hell did all that oil go to before ?

Any ideas ???? (and no - it wasn't on a slope, on a side stand or owt like
that).

John Heath

 

And then come back again? Gee, I'm going to stick my neck out here and
suggest maybe you didn't warm the oil up enough, as incredulous as it
sounds. Either that ot it was hiding from you for a joke.

 

Or, due to the heat, it had evaporated.

 

Can oil re-condense?

 

Cambells would make a fortune.

 

Without starting the engine at all ? If so, I'm as confused as you as to
where it was hiding.

This is more typical. The still comparatively cold oil gets pumped out
but takes a long time to drain back

Are you sure the bike isn't a diguised XT600, the whole thing seems very
familiar.

This story is another example of why one should always check oil level
after a ride, not before. It gives much more consistent results.

 

Easy.

Some sadistic bastard has swapped your Honda engine for a 2 litre VW Golf
GTI Petrol unit.
"They all do that sir" - yes, especially mine.

--
Dan L (Oldbloke)
My Bike 2000 Honda CB500
M'boy's Bike 1990 Suzuki TS50X (Heavily fortified)

BOTAFOT #140, DIAABTCOD #26

 

John Heath formulated on Saturday :

It might just possibly be that water has got into the sump and is
evaporating during the course of a run.

 

Centre stand, ran the engine and let it settle again, and got home, then
went to check the oil again, are the key words here. Me thinks that the
oil didn't have enough time to drain back into the sump. Probably from
the oil filter and camshaft galleries.

Check it when cold in the morning. Off the centre stand I believe...


--
SimonB - South Wales. BOF#32
email
http://simonb.zapik.co.uk
Triumph Sprint ST, ZXR750L2 Wazimbaki. Kawasaki Z1R *Still For Sale*
CON of the month http://zapik.com/simonb/fiddle.html

 

Listen, mate, if you had a BMW 'boxer' twin, you'd be used to this sort of
thing - seriously! I don't mean the vibration so much - what can you say
about the vibration of a horizontally-opposed twin - but the 'hiding' oil
phenomenon is perfectly normal. Didn't know it applied to Pans though - will
ask my chum Ed tomorrow, 'cos he's got one.

Rick

 

maybe Campbells would as well ? ;-) www.campbellsoup.co.uk

 

It might be different for yours, but Suzuki recommended running the
engine for about 2 mins to heat up the oil, then switching it off and
checking the level after 30 seconds. You might want to find out what
the exact method is to make sure you're checking the level correctly.

 

Jesus, yes, you too ?

My SO's [1] GTI does the same. Hers has done 20K and uses 3 times as
much oil as my 100K Mazda.

Guess who gets the job monitoring, buying & filling it ....

Cheers,

Paul.

[1] Well, "ex" if we're being pedantic ...

 

Zymurgy wrote:

Ho Yuss, 1 litre every 600 miles, which according to the manual, and the
dealer is "acceptable", from a 1999 model with 64K miles, although it's used
the same amount when I first bought it with 24K miles on the clock.

<snip>

--
Dan L (Oldbloke)
My Bike 2000 Honda CB500
M'boy's Bike 1990 Suzuki TS50X (Heavily fortified)

BOTAFOT #140, DIAABTCOD #26