PublicNuBoo

ok let the bashing begin but here goes my story....after needing an oil change a good 3 months ago i decided i would do my first ever oil change on anything to the bike at my buddy's garage. i bought the oil and filter from an actual motorcycle shop so i was positive i got the right weight oil and the correct filter. i've watched plenty of changes first hand and i followed the steps to the letter. after completing the job i sit around and bull-shitted with the guys for an hour or so and started the bike so the new oil could cycle thru the engine for bout 5 minutes and then shut it off. about another 30 minutes later i hopped on the bike and headed out for my 45 minute ride thru nothing but country roads home...BIG MISTAKE! i don't have a cell phone and it was now about 230-3am and only about half way home and out in the middle of B.F.E.! all of a sudden my leg feels like i rode thru a 150 degree puddle and it and my bike (including a brand new rear tire)is covered in oil! i turn the bike off go over everything with my dim ass ipod light. nothing from the drain bolt, nothing from the right side, but the whole left side is drenched starting at the oil filter. so with no other resort and not knowing how much oil is left i started the bike up to lslowly limp it to the next gas station about 3 miles down the road. after fighting it in first gear for only a mile or so bike completely shuts off. is this a safety feature the bike has or what? anyways i get the bike to the gas station and early the next morning in the car and get 3 more quarts of oil in it and she starts right up. so i take the rest of my 20 minute ride home on the bike and it seems to hold the oil and runs fine. i get home turn it off to get some stuff for the carwash and head that way to clean off all the oil. not even 6 houses down the block and it sprays another 3 quarts out on my leg! come to find out the seal on the oil filter has completely busted and 9 quarts of oil and 2 oil filters later the bike seems to be running fine. however, i want to know if i caused any damage to the engine running the bike those few miles with low or no oil. how would i go about doing that, or would i be able to tell without running some kind of diagnostic tool? i mean it seems to be back to normal now but i'm by no means any kind of mechanic obviously. anyone have any HELPFUL suggestions?

HeightsLife

Damn !! Sorry to hear about a faulty filter. I don't enjoy kicking a guy when he's already down and I know it was dark and really late and things were probably pretty bleak and hindsight is 20/20 but I would have let the bike sit for a few minutes and checked the small oil window gauge to see how much I had left. I only say this because if there was some oil showing in the window you could put your mind at ease because there is a big difference between little and no in this case. If the 3 quarts you put in the next morning brought the level up properly then you might have had just enough to get away with it, but don't hold me to it.

Cap Walker

running the bike without oil isnt nessesary going too hurt it, not if its only once, cuz theres oil in your engine siticked to all internal parts anyway, even if your carter is dry, i know for guys who drove like 50 miles with the clutch cover broken (and all oil were all over the ground) after a fall, and bike hasnt problems, i mean, it was just a few miles in your case and its once, i think that you may come down, if its running well just forget about this.

It wasnt heating right?? if not i think forget about it, just be sure what you made wrong

Quarkz

Did you oil light ever come on?

kellen

lol

PublicNuBoo

thanks fellas first of all...secondly, yeah i did do the leak test and nothing was leaking and i did put full synthetic castrol car oil in it and i've rode about 4-500 miles with no new noises that i notice. i am going to put a new filter and some new lucas "motorcycle" oil in it but i'm gettin ready to leave for a month of training tuesday and then i'm getting shipped to hunstville alabama for 10 months so i want to wait til i get down there to swap all that out.

NinjaLoon

If in doubt, flat out!

kawasakifreak77

Hey man shit happens. Hopefully you didn't do any damage & by the sound of it you might be just fine.

Personally, I woulda started pushing. It sucks but I've covered more than a few miles pushing my motorcycle due to various reasons....

raized1199

Yep.

73Red

I used that oil in my last bike. They think that might be the reason I had my internal engine problems. I used it two times, a combined 8,000 miles, then I lost my clutch. There was nothing wrong with the clutch, I know this because I replaced every thing except the boss. I was told that car sythetic is not made to handle the heat generated by sport bike motors. I am not a machanic either, so I do not know. I would probably double check that before using it again. Maybe someone here has a comment about that.

kellen

most car oils have detergents and other stuff that is nasty for clutches. thats why there is specific motorcycle oils. DUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

soc_monki

its not that, its the friction modifiers that cause wet clutches to slip. there are standards (JASO MA i believe) that says what we can and cant use in our bikes. if an oil doesnt have the standard, or says "energy conserving" dont use it.
personally i use Mobil 1 racing 4t. no worries about what goes into my engine. other than that i would probably use the Rotella synthetic.

AZ Ninja

i use repsol 10-w30 4t, and i have 10,000+ miles on my bike and so far no problems. sorry to hear of the trouble, hopefully you don't have anymore more problems with her.

ZoomSplat

Only use a motorcycle oil. The car oils aren't engineered to cater to the wet clutch pack and the friction linings there in. The moto oils are meant for wet clutches.

Use a motorcycle specific oil in a motorcycle with a wet clutch.

pegleg

Hey man we've all been there at one time or another...

There is no real way to tell how much damage was done without pulling the engine down and inspecting the internals.

If the engine is running/sounding fine after a top-up then I would just forget about it. No doubt that running the engine without oil will do some damage, but genereally not too much if things didn't get too hot.

Honestly, you would be surprised how long and how hard an engine will run with the oil drained - I've done several "experiments" and I was really surprised.

Next time you change the oil, check for metallic fragments in the oil, if there is a lot then you might have something to worry about.
Otherwise, don't worry too much about it because these little engines will take a lot more abuse than you think!!

My tip: whenever you change oil and/or filter, run the bike at idle for a few minutes, warm it up and check everything for leaks BEFORE riding it.
YOU DON"T want to find out your oil filter is blowing out oil whilst you're halfway through a fast left-hander...

Shiny side up!