Oil Change thougths

[TomMcD]

With my up coming trip a few weeks off here I'm faced with a question. When to change my oil?

The recommended interval from BMW is 6000 miles / 10000 km. Which, with modern synthetics I'm comfortable with. As it happens, I expect to have about 2000 miles until the interval is due when I leave, and my planed routing is ~5500 miles. Routing is roughly as follows. Denver, Deals Gap, Jacksonville, San Diego, L.A., Denver

With BMW or equivalent oil and filter in the neighborhood of $80 to $100 it's not a deal breaker, but it's not offset by skipping Starbucks for a week either. My current thinking is to bring oil and filter (already carry the tools) and take advantage of my 'down' day in Jacksonville to do the oil change there before the 50CC attempt. Am I missing something in my thought process?

 

[kerrizor]

With my up coming trip a few weeks off here I'm faced with a question. When to change my oil?

The recommended interval from BMW is 6000 miles / 10000 km. Which, with modern synthetics I'm comfortable with. As it happens, I expect to have about 2000 miles until the interval is due when I leave, and my planed routing is ~5500 miles. Routing is roughly as follows. Denver, Deals Gap, Jacksonville, San Diego, L.A., Denver

With BMW or equivalent oil and filter in the neighborhood of $80 to $100 it's not a deal breaker, but it's not offset by skipping Starbucks for a week either. My current thinking is to bring oil and filter (already carry the tools) and take advantage of my 'down' day in Jacksonville to do the oil change there before the 50CC attempt. Am I missing something in my thought process?

Makes sense, if that fits in your comfort zone!

If you don't want to take it with you, CycleGear can often hold supplies for you under your name, or if you have an Amazon account, their Amazon Lockers are at many places across the country; I've used them to order supplies of all sorts when I know I'm going to be in a place at a certain time.

 

[craydds]

Am I missing something in my thought process?

An oil change should be a fairly easy job while on the road. But, there are a few considerations like, what do you use for a drain pan, and how to properly dispose of the old oil. Is there a shop in Jacksonville that could assist you? Do you have a buddy with a garage?

 

[Stephen!]

One data point: Many (most?) Iron Butt Rally riders ride the entire 11 days (as well as their 'commute' to/from the rally) on a single load of oil. Theory is that all-day highway mileage is way easier on the oil than the much more typical daily commute.

Were it my bike/ride, I would do the trip and change it when I returned.

 

[kerrizor]

An oil change should be a fairly easy job while on the road. But, there are a few considerations like, what do you use for a drain pan, and how to properly dispose of the old oil. Is there a shop in Jacksonville that could assist you? Do you have a buddy with a garage?

I did one in Provo last year with a basting pan and a Perrier bottle with the bottom cut off for a funnel. Old oil got poured back into the now empty container the new oil came in, then returned to an auto parts store for recycling. Old oil filter got "bagged" inside the rubber/latex glove(s).

 

[TomMcD]

Good points. I did confirm that Florida has the same rules as states I've lived in that Auto Parts stores are required to take oil. I'll have an empty water bottles or 2 by that point and a knife to make a funnel if I even need it. (those handy cylinders sticking out to the side) Worse case I can use a trash bag as a drain pain and pour back in to the source bottles as @kerrizor did.

An oil change should be a fairly easy job while on the road. But, there are a few considerations like, what do you use for a drain pan, and how to properly dispose of the old oil. Is there a shop in Jacksonville that could assist you? Do you have a buddy with a garage?

 

[TomMcD]

I did consider that, just top it off before I leave. With the fancy full synth, natural gas based oil from BMW I expect it would be fine for an extra 3k miles. Buuuuut, I don't know if I can quite bring myself to do it with summer in the South West temps likely on the last leg of the trip.

In my head I know 10k miles is really okay with modern oils and modern vehicles but I learned about engines in the 3000 miles or your engine will explode, largely air cooled motorcycle days of the 80's. Probably reading to many oil advertisements in the magazines.

Also, your signature quote is fantastic.

One data point: Many (most?) Iron Butt Rally riders ride the entire 11 days (as well as their 'commute' to/from the rally) on a single load of oil. Theory is that all-day highway mileage is way easier on the oil than the much more typical daily commute.

Were it my bike/ride, I would do the trip and change it when I returned.

 

[Delusional Mechanic]

Even when we go on holidays on the bike, I service it just before we go regardless of where it is in its schedule. I am now good for 12800Km according to the Goldwing maintenance schedule.
It doesn't hurt anything to service it early you just don't get the benefit of the full service life of the oil.
I change my oil at home so it only costs me a jug of oil and a filter. My question becomes what is the cost of 5% of a jug of oil and a filter.(Or where ever you are in the service schedule)

 

[Shawn K]

If you're going from Deals Gap to Jacksonville, you're most likely coming down I-26 in South Carolina. In which case, you're free to stop by here and do your oil change if you'd like. I have room in the garage, and it won't take long to knock out.

The BMW dealer in my area is D2 Powersports in Greer, SC, about 30 minutes from my house.

I live near the junction of I-26 and I-85 in SC. Let me know if you'd like to stop by. There's also an Amazon locker not far from me if you want to send things ahead of you, or I can give you my address and you can ship things directly here if you'd like.

 

[TomMcD]

Seems like it would be rude to refuse such a fine offer. I was indeed planning of heading east and down through Savannah to get to JAX vs going through ATL. My current schedule that would have me come through Spartanburg on the 2nd, with a small possibility of it being pushed one week to the 9th. If that poses no inconvenience for you, we can work out the details in DM's.

I greatly appreciate the offer regardless.

If you're going from Deals Gap to Jacksonville, you're most likely coming down I-26 in South Carolina. In which case, you're free to stop by here and do your oil change if you'd like. I have room in the garage, and it won't take long to knock out.

The BMW dealer in my area is D2 Powersports in Greer, SC, about 30 minutes from my house.

I live near the junction of I-26 and I-85 in SC. Let me know if you'd like to stop by. There's also an Amazon locker not far from me if you want to send things ahead of you, or I can give you my address and you can ship things directly here if you'd like.

 

[Gerry Arel]

I think if its on your mind ... then just change it before you leave and then when you get home. You'll be under the 6k in both cases.
Why add the hassle of on-the-trip change if you don't need to? One less thing to worry about.

 

[craydds]

I think if its on your mind ... then just change it before you leave and then when you get home. You'll be under the 6k in both cases.
Why add the hassle of on-the-trip change if you don't need to? One less thing to worry about.

Kind of like needing new tires, but thinking you can squeeze a few hundred more miles out of the old set. Just put new tires on, and you will enjoy your ride with no worries.

 

[TomMcD]

A few hundred miles, I agree completely. Even at a thousand miles, I would likely do it before I left with a plan for another shortly after I get home. But, as I expect to have more than 1/3 of an oil interval when I leave (depending on work and real life demands, maybe more) I feel it's an unnecessary waste of resources.

Consider, I'm not doing a single 10 day ride here but effectively several 2 day trips with a down day in between. The itenerary works out as follows. 2 days to get to the TN/NC border area. A day of riding locally, then a day to transit to JVB. A full day with only laundry and relaxing, with no plans other than checking my starting gas station in JVB. Even without Shawn K's generous offer, I've built my schedule with slack. It is after all a vacation, not a Death March.

Now, well see how I feel about that at 1am Sunday morning when I'm an hour from Van Horn, and trying for the BBG.

Kind of like needing new tires, but thinking you can squeeze a few hundred more miles out of the old set. Just put new tires on, and you will enjoy your ride with no worries.

 

[igneouss]

The oil change frequency obsessive types should get ready to flame me:

With modern synthetic oils and engines if you go 10k or even 15k once or twice on an engine it's no big deal. Assumptions: the engine is broken in and not super high miles, and you keep the oil level correct. Nothing bad will happen. Lube franchises have conditioned people to be paranoid about oil change intervals. There are modern, high end cars out there with OEM 15k intervals.

Another point re doing oil changes on the fly. Just dump the oil and re-fill. don't worry about the filter. Unless you have an old and dirty engine, it will be fine. Get a litter pan and funnel at Walmart, dump, refill, pour old oil back into jugs, drop at any jiffy lube or auto parts store.

 

[kerrizor]

20 minutes. $6. Easy.

(..just do a better job pouring the oil back in!)

 

[keithu]

There are modern, high end cars out there with OEM 15k intervals.

I don't think a Hyundai counts as a "high end" car, but I was surprised to see that the recommended oil change interval on my wife's 2018 Hyundai Elantra GT with the normally aspirated 2.0L is 3750 miles. I can't remember the last time I saw such a short recommendation on a modern vehicle. I'm kind of glad we didn't get the 1.6L turbo because according to the owners manual it requires periodic valve adjustments. Valve adjustments! On a modern car!!

OTOH, Ducati recommends oil changes every 9300 miles on my Multistrada V4. That's probably more miles than many Ducati owners will ever put on their bike.

The roasting pan shown by kerrizor is a good drain pan. You can usually pick those up at any $1 store.

 

[TomMcD]

Now, if only our oil were $6 ...

20 minutes. $6. Easy.

(..just do a better job pouring the oil back in!)


View attachment 8423 View attachment 8424

 

[kerrizor]

Now, if only our oil were $6 ...

The roasting pan shown by kerrizor is a good drain pan. You can usually pick those up at any $1 store.

Yeah, I think the pan was $3.. we paid the for the fancy Perrier, because we thought it'd be funnier.

 

[Greg Rice]

Just some more information regarding oil changes. I just changed my oil after my ride to the Panama Canal and another 800 miles to my house in North Carolina. So, all together 10,600 miles. In all of my IBR's ( 5 ) I did not change the oil until I got back home and the shortest IBR ride was 11,800 miles and the longest was 15,000 miles. I rode to Alaska and back from Key West, 14,000 miles and I have done many 8,000+ mile rides and not changed my oil until I get back home. I send my oil to Blackstone labs and the last time they said my oil looks good and I could go at least 12,000 miles if not more.

I have done this on my Gold Wings, FJR, RT and GSA's.

 

[TomMcD]

Thank you for chiming in here Greg. At the risk of this devolving in to an "Oil Thread", can I ask what you used for oil and filters on the RT and GSA? I've requested 2 kits from Blackstone, and was thinking about sending in a sample here as a baseline before stretching the intervals. For that matter I would be curious to see your report from Blackstone if you wouldn't mind sharing it.

--Tom

Just some more information regarding oil changes. I just changed my oil after my ride to the Panama Canal and another 800 miles to my house in North Carolina. So, all together 10,600 miles. In all of my IBR's ( 5 ) I did not change the oil until I got back home and the shortest IBR ride was 11,800 miles and the longest was 15,000 miles. I rode to Alaska and back from Key West, 14,000 miles and I have done many 8,000+ mile rides and not changed my oil until I get back home. I send my oil to Blackstone labs and the last time they said my oil looks good and I could go at least 12,000 miles if not more.

I have done this on my Gold Wings, FJR, RT and GSA's.