11-10-2018, 06:24 AM
The bike i ride at the moment has no centerstand and i have to check the oil level by sitting beside it and balancing the bike so it is level and reading the sightglass.
here's what i found and keeping in mind that i have no way of telling if it is actually true;
Story: My other-half's car was sounding very tappity, but otherwise ran okay. Wasn't till she was driving the car up a decent grade that the oil pressure light came on. It was 2 litres low, and barely registering on the dipstick at all. A couple days later, she drove the car out of the garage and then checked the oil. It read real low because the motor had just been running. So she put an extra 2L in and drove for 30 minutes. Car was running really badly, blowing blue smoke as the oil was forced around the rings past the pistons and into the combustion chamber. We drained some out and all was well.
This is probably the best way to explain why it's important to maintain a good level, the pistons and cylinders are affected first by an incorrect level, the cooling and lubricating of the pistons relies on the correct amount of oil splashed against the cylinder walls, and there is no warning light when the level is not correct, the only way to know this is to use the sightglass.
Here is a dramatized version of an oil check on a new goldwing; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNfgkLuZyaI
Thinking back some time ago a member had an unusually high carbon deposit on the pistons and some wear on their sides on a low mileage cb1100, i'm now wondering if that could be explained by too low/high oil level, we did not get an update of the end result
Thanks for the question, i have not thought about exactly what happens when you overfill and was told " the seals blow out ", i had a hard time trying to understand that one.
here's what i found and keeping in mind that i have no way of telling if it is actually true;
Story: My other-half's car was sounding very tappity, but otherwise ran okay. Wasn't till she was driving the car up a decent grade that the oil pressure light came on. It was 2 litres low, and barely registering on the dipstick at all. A couple days later, she drove the car out of the garage and then checked the oil. It read real low because the motor had just been running. So she put an extra 2L in and drove for 30 minutes. Car was running really badly, blowing blue smoke as the oil was forced around the rings past the pistons and into the combustion chamber. We drained some out and all was well.
This is probably the best way to explain why it's important to maintain a good level, the pistons and cylinders are affected first by an incorrect level, the cooling and lubricating of the pistons relies on the correct amount of oil splashed against the cylinder walls, and there is no warning light when the level is not correct, the only way to know this is to use the sightglass.
Here is a dramatized version of an oil check on a new goldwing; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNfgkLuZyaI
Thinking back some time ago a member had an unusually high carbon deposit on the pistons and some wear on their sides on a low mileage cb1100, i'm now wondering if that could be explained by too low/high oil level, we did not get an update of the end result
Thanks for the question, i have not thought about exactly what happens when you overfill and was told " the seals blow out ", i had a hard time trying to understand that one.