500 mile service

[bobtail]

So, technically, what is the difference between the innards of a BMW bike engine and the innards of the 2lt Audi A4, apart from the bleedin obvious!

Brand new Audi engine, brand new car and the salesman shakes lady friend by hand and tells her he will see her in a couple of years. Not 500 miles! Not a thousand miles!! In a couple of years!

Of course, variable service intervals meant she was back in about 18 months, still on original oil.

The days of running-in oil, flushing oil at oil change time etc, are all part of history in the car world.

Brian (none of whose recent cars have used any oil at all, to speak of)

Brian our Audi A5 does topping up that is!

Bob

[Phmode]

...and a whole lot of cars do (not sure the owners know that pf course), but the nonesense of a very early oil change have gone. I've only had two new bikes and they were both Hondas and that was in a different era, but both had oil changes at 500 miles, although Honda did that for free back then.

Brian (who just doesn't understand the difference)

[bobtail]

Was that oil change every 500 or just the first 500!!!!

[Phmode]

 

Brian (who bought the CBR on the Thursday and took it back for its free service on the Saturday)

[mab1067]

Well i certainly kicked off some great responses there. Spoke with dealer I bought bike from and indeed I do have the 600 miles service to carry out and not free of charge surprisingly enough. Only thing with North East Scotland is there are no Motorrad dealers. I knew that when I bough the bike but I will have a good 200 mile round trip to go for the service.
Good ride out to be honest right round east coast and along North coast or I could go via Speyside and take a Lecht passing. All good really bar the service cost.
Let you know how I get on and post a few pics when I get home.

[chriscanning]

Regardless of the pros cons of what oil is in etc you will need an annual service at the very least even after your 600 and stays in the garage for the next 12 months be it the factory warranty or the extended.

I've been in Vines when a punter has had egg on his face not having had the bike serviced as per and it had gone a bollock and his asking for good will

[TomL]

One of the most important functions of the first service is to change the engine oil and filter.

The bike comes with a special running in oil. This is a straight oil rather than a synthetic and allows the bearings, pistons and piston rings to bed in properly. The oil and filter then carry all the bits of running in swarf out of the engine when the oil is changed.

The conundrum is, do I run the engine in carefully, or do I thrash the nuts off it?

Run it in carefully and the bores can glaze up. Engine will burn lots of oil and never attain a good compression or full power.

Thrash the engine to run it in could work or it cause excessive wear causing it to burn lots of oil and never attain a good compression or full power.

Simple isn't it?

If it was my bike I would also ask them to change the final drive oil which you will have to pay extra for.

Just a question - where did you get the idea the oil is a break in oil?  Now I can't comment on bikes in Europe but the bikes here in the U.S.A. come with the exact oil that BMW recommends. 

If they use to do that it was many years ago - I know that my 2004 K1200GT - 2007 K1200S - 2010 F800GS - 2012 S1000RR - 2013 K1300S - 2014 K1300S - 2015 S1000RR all came with the normal recommended oil.

I have asked about this for more than 10 years and again here in the States no break in oil.

And just a little more info I was the sales manager at a large Honda dealer back in the late 70's early 80's and Honda did not do that then.  In fact they shipped the bikes usually a little low on oil and depending on how long it had been from manufacture date to sale date - you might have had to drain the oil and we put in regular oil - and if oil drain was not required we topped off with the correct oil.

HD several years back also shipped new bikes about a quart low - regular oil was added during the PDI service.

It will be very interesting to find out they use different procedures for different countries.  Anything is possible these days.

You could well be right but I'm sure that a BMW mechanic told me that the bikes were delivered with straight mineral oil to assist in running in.

BMW are always faffing with their oils, for instance my bike originally came with a final drive without drain plug and filled for life. I think that they have changed the specification for engine oil for my bike a couple of times. I still use the Castrol oil that they originally recommended.

[chriscanning]

Gone from 10/40 to 5/40 problem being the latest cam chain isn't as effective.