Engine Oil

Adie have you just changed the spelling of your post?
Fancy words need correct spelling

 

Yes, I did. It's late, been a long day, got over excited with the rugby and am now knackered. I'm a graceless and unrepentant pedant so I do like to have the wirds spield proply.

 

DD the funny part is I refused to enter the debate as I clearly stated I haven't tried car oils in bikes.

Where do I state or indicate that I'm a non-believer?

I did state that I would only use what I thought was appropriate

 

Why does their need to be believers and non-believers we are talking about feckin oil!!
Buy what you want its your call.

Get over yourselves

 

LOL! that's certainly added another dimension...you can always bank on an oil debate to get things a little ...slippery

I have always used the oil i can afford (cheap) in most engines as long as it meets the recommended spec ...read API etc etc bugger the brand...i laugh at the people who have to have Calvin cline underwear and oil snobbery seems the same especially having run fairly highly tuned cars in the passed,
The oil debates could get quite heated on the car forums.....but i still used a cheap semi synthetic in my cars despite all saying that's wrong.......never had any problems at all...and saved myself a few quid, and although not so revenant here because of the recent engine types, with the older engines pretty much all modern oils are vastly over specked in comparison to the original makers recommended oil.

 

Never used car oil in my bikes but VTR 1000’s are the easiest bike ever to wheelie. T76 JCX where are you now?
Just checked, on SORN, no mot since 2015

 

ATF is a bit of a story in its own right. My Cobra Tremec manual 5 speed box used ........ ATF.

 

Hmmmmm ...... OK.

Let's try the comparison on car oils.

Euro car parts will sell me 5 litres of Shell Helix 10w/40 semi-synth., as recommended for my car, at £30.99 delivered. Works out to approximately £6.20 per litre.

https://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/c/...25c8a7e6587acd3a3bbe8442bf5fc18a0b87f6&000398


As a forum subscriber I could get 5 litres of Halfords own brand 10w/40 semi. synth. oil at £23 per, and some discount, bringing it down to perhaps £3.90 ish per litre (depending on the discount offered) but then I have to go to the store and collect - assuming they have it in stock.

https://www.halfords.com/motoring/e...rds-10w40-part-synthetic-petrol-diesel-oil-5l


Smith and Allan will sell me 20 litres of Unelite L 10w/40 semi synth., to the same specs as recommended by Vauxhall, for £60.18 delivered. Works out to approximately £3.00 per litre. Even using the 5 litre package price the comparative cost is only marginally more expensive (about 10 p.p.l.) than a discounted Halfords purchase.

https://www.smithandallan.com/produ...e-l-10w-40-engine-oil-semi-synthetic-api-sl-/


Thankfully, for me, having the bulk container isn't a problem and it does mean that the oil is already there and waiting for me to get up off my fat, lazy @rse and do the change!


Still too good to be true? Not in my world.

 

Yeah, but my mum always said I was a try'er. Or was it trying? MEH ...................................

 

just bought a 4L jug of this at £10.29:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10W40-10...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
Oil change in a few weeks

 

If you ever get it 722 negative feedback in the last 12 months!

 

722 out of 19000 that's better than some I have used on ebay, got PayPal protection anyway so not going to lose out.

 

Can't argue with that!

 

Here's a question regarding oils.
Is there any way for a mechanic or such to tell the difference between car and bike oil without sending off for analysis? I'm assuming not easily at least.
Just curious, in case the situation arises where the engine/gearbox goes bang (not literally!) for whatever reason, and the first thing a garage would say if they could tell would be "oooh, you've used the wrong oil there mate, that'll cost you..."

If car oil works in the bike, great, keep using it.
However, just be mindful that as somebody mentioned earlier on the thread about believing what you read on the internet. If you're bike doesn't take well to using car oil, you'll feel a bit daft explaining to the garage "some guy on the internets told me it would be fine"

 

There are far too many reasons for an engine or gearbox to fail other than oil, and if you do your own maintenance your also unlikely to take it to a garage that would say "oh you must have put in the wrong oil mate" besides i dont think anyone is going to advise to put a wrong type of oil in as unless you go and put ATF in a high performance engine by mistake most oils will do the job just fine.

 

Nicely summed up!

 

Hi,

Thanks for the answers, though I should probably have made it clearer in my post I am not against the idea of using car oil in a bike. As you say, personal experiences generally hold more weight than what the companies with vested interests of selling you stuff tell us.

My post was more about not taking somebody else's experience as the one you will have.
I have heard on here that car oil is fine, but I've also heard of somebody who had no end of trouble because they had used car oil (clutch slip etc).*
Different bikes, different experiences. Make sure if you do use it, it's all on yourself if the experience wasn't what you expected.


As for my comment about the engine going bang, it wasn't necessarily because of the oil itself, but a similar thing with insurance and finding an excuse to not pay out, they'll latch on to it. i.e. bike gets hit by car, but because you had heated grips you didn't declare, we're not paying.

* - I do have to clarify that I don't know the full story with that guy, so can't say for certain it was because of the oil itself, or if the gearbox was on it's out anyway or he hadn't followed the maintenance schedule, I am just going on what I was told at the time.

 

For the sake of just a few quid is it even worth consideration? I don't know enough about oil to comment on the merits of car oil in a bike but I know enough to be sure I'm not going to jeopardize my engine and it's generally not recommended. I can see the post coming "Help, my engine blew up! Some guy off the internet said it'll be ok. What can I do? He won't pay for my engine to be repaired" Of course, absolutely nobody will say "what the hell did you fill it with that for?" Decent car oil and bike oil from the same manufacturer of comparable grade is more or less the same price.

 

https://mobiloil.com/en/faq/ask-our...ts/difference-between-car-and-motorcycle-oils

https://www.quora.com/How-do-four-s...red-gearbox-lubricate-What-system-do-they-use

https://www.visordown.com/news/general/busting-myths-around-bike-engine-oil

So, it may be that a cheap and cheerful car oil that's devoid of friction modifiers may mean that your clutch doesn't slip. That just leaves the issue of shear stability or changes to viscosity. Clutch slippage may be the only way for a typical owner to base judgement bit it's arguably not the most critical factor. Premature wear needs engineering analysis over time and requires disassembly and careful assessment.