Change Oil Too Often? Harley Oil & Lubrication Discuss Change Oil Too Often? in the Harley Tech & Harley How-to forums; Earlier this year I had the 1000 mile service performed on my '07 Wide Glide. At that time I had the dealership replace the oil with the Syn+3. At 2500 ...

[chipster]

Earlier this year I had the 1000 mile service performed on my '07 Wide Glide. At that time I had the dealership replace the oil with the Syn+3.

At 2500 miles I personally changed the oil, using the Syn+3, even though it only had 1500 miles on it. My bike is quickly approaching 5000 miles and I purchased another oil filter and more Syn+3.

The chump (in my opinion) behind the parts counter told me that I was being too diligent in changing my oil, that I may end up doing harm to the engine if I continue this practice. I informed this chump that I am a service and parts manager at a Chrysler dealership and I thought that I was somewhat knowledgeable about principles of lubrication. I also informed this fine young gentleman that I have been changing oil in my cars (with Mobil 1) every 2500 miles and have achieved outstanding mileage on my engines. He again insisted that I may do harm to my engine changing it that frequently. I informed him to mind his own business, sell me the fricking oil and filter and be happy about it.

Any opinions?

Unless I'm horribly uninformed (a distinct possibility, I'll admit!), fresh oil requires no break-in period. Its viscosity, etc are at the peak right out of the jug.

It seems to me that how often you change your oil is a personal decision. (I typically change mine between 2,500 and 3,000 miles.)

The only way you can damage your engine with frequent oil changes is if you ding something with your wrench!

Next trip to the parts counter, you might suggest your chum(p) get comfortable with the phrase, "Would youlike fries with that?"

(I wonder how often he'll recommend changing the peanut oil in the fyer?)

[BluesFan]

2500 in a car? with Mobil 1!!!!!

Wow, just wow.

I mean, you're not hurting anything if you change it every day.

But why?

What property of the lubricant are you depleting?

Also, what filter do you use?

[chipster]

I realize that I'm probably not depleting any lubrication properties, but I'd almost rather be safe than sorry. As far as which filter I use, on my bike it is the Superpremium5. I know that it's more than likely overkill.

And yes, 2500 miles with Mobil 1 in my cars. One car (1985 Chevy Celebrity with 2.8 litre engine) I had 373,200 miles on it, with no oil related failures, when I sold it a couple years back. I see the car and the driver fairly often and he's over 425,000 miles now. My 2004 Dodge Stratus (2.4 litre) has about 55,000 and my 2003 Dodge Grand Caravan (3.3 litre) has about 48,000 miles and my 1993 Mercury Tracer (1.9 litre) turned 211,000 miles today, with no failures yet, not even valve cover gaskets.

Maybe I'm just lucky.



Maybe I'm just anal about it.

Thanks for your imput though! I appreciate it.

[milindh]

According to my calcs you changed the oil on your Celebrity 149 times. At 5 quarts per change, $6/qt (at Walmart) and $5/filter you have spent $5015 changing the oil on that old Chevy if you did it yourself. Now that's dedication! Seems like it paid off for you although unless you did a blind test with a similar car that it would be hard to tell what you would have gotten had you changed the oil at the recommended 5000 miles for Mobil 1. Hey man, if it makes you feel good and it doesn't hurt anyone else, why not. It's yo' thang!

Down the road when you sell that WG some guy is going to get a helluva deal.

[Wrightturn]

I think it is from habit. We have all been Jiffylubed into 3k. My habit developed on old air cooled VW engines. Never used synthetic. Castrol 20/50 in the summerand 10/40 in the winter. They only held 2.5 qts and did not have an oil filter other than a screen in the drain plate. When my daughter went to college she inherited the VW. Not wanting her to have problems with a car with 278k on it built a new engine for the car. After her freshman year she convinced my wife the old beetle wasn`t cool and my wife bought her a new car and sold the bug. I still have the original engine. Might be time for a trike ????

[HarleyCruiser]

Some time back, there was a study, don’t remember who it was by, or who sponsored it.
Anyway it was about syn oil and stated that the oil got better after a thousand miles or so, that changing oil to often was not as effective as running it longer.
I had a friend send the study to me, and I tried to read it but it was over my head.
Don’t know what happened to it, used to have it stored on my hard drive.
I change mine every five k, this is what the manual recommends unless you are running in extreme conditions, or less than five k a year.
The dealers are the ones pushing the 2500 mile oil changes.
The manual stated inspect your oil at 2500.
Inspect is different than checking your oil, you need to see how dirty, smell it to see if it is burn, squeeze it between your finger to see if it still has viscosity, check the color to see if it has moisture in it.
An old mechanic that I worked with used to taste it to see if it taste like metal, but I draw the line there.
And change your oil according to how it is holding up.
Under extreme heat, or dusty, wet conditions you need to change it more often.
Let your oil tell you when it needs to be changed more often than 5,000 miles
I run Mobil1, change it every 5k miles. I just turned over 85k miles bike runs great, plan on riding it for 200k miles.

[HarleyCruiser]

Originally Posted by Wrightturn

I still have the original engine. Might be time for a trike ????

Hey Wright, I have an old dune buggy that I have had since the seventies. Love that car, my kids grew up in it.
It is in pieces in my shop, started to rebuild the frame but got sidelined when I started working on my bike.
Need to sandblast the frame and paint it and the body.
Sure do need to get that back on the road for my grandkids.

[Spade5]

I don't claim to know anything but thought this might be of interest to some.

This is an interesting article. Whether you choose to follow it is your own choice. In the oil change frequency section page 24 it states that engine wear decreases as oil ages. This doesn't mean that you can run it forever or if you overheat/flood the engine that the oil should not be changed.

http://www.sportster.org/tech/Oiland...Motorcycle.pdf

I guess we all want an edge but Syn3 works for me at least in the crankcase. I am sure there are "better" oils depending on your criteria. I don't see why HD would sell something that doesn't meet the requirements for their engine. Now if you have a modified engine, then maybe something else would work better for you.

[Wrightturn]

Hey Harley,

Wish they still made them. Wife had a 71 Bus went 320k on two motors. My 74 Super was one of the most reliable things in my life. Moved to Fla and no air changed everything.

Got to talk with Gene Berg at a Bug In years ago. Learned some stuff. He changed oil sometimes between races. Race motors used 20wt. Remote oil filter after oil pump mods to cover pressure loss across the filter. Don`t fool with German engineering. Most of the time you will only make things worse.
He had a table of hp vs comp vs temp. Smart guy.

Not surprised when Harley calls on Porsche