longhaul747
Moped
Changed the oil in my new to me 2004 Honda Silverwing. The procedure was pretty simple overall but the oil filter was on tighter then tight. I managed to strip 2 oil filter sockets and finely got it off by jamming a long screw driver into it. Luckily the 24mm Aluminum oil plug was not super tight and came off with no drama. Oil came out looking really good. Previous owner changed it earlier this year and it only had about 200 miles on it but I wanted to change it for the warm and fuzzy feeling and start fresh with my own maintenance logs.
As smooth as it went I had some issues on start up that concern me. Possibly mostly because I am one of those paranoid types. I used Rotella T-6 5W-40 synthetic and filled it to the top of the fill marks on the dip stick. I added an extra gulp of oil for the filter witch I did not pre-fill. I never do that on any bike and never really had a problem and it tends to be messy. I started the motor as normal and what happened next is making me freak out a bit. The oil pressure light stayed on for about 2 seconds then blinked once for another second then went out completely. When the oil pressure light was lit up I started to hear a pretty bad knock from the motor. However it went away completely once the oil pressure light was out. I revved the motor a bit and let it idle for about 30 seconds. All seemed well and then I shut it off and let it sit for a few minutes. I checked the oil on the dip stick and other then one little drop on the bottom of the dip stick it was dry. Dang that took a lot of oil to fill the filter. It must have some oil passage ways as well that needed to be primed as well. So I reinserted the funnel and it took another 4 or 5 gulps (witch is really not much actually..maybe a 1/4 quart or slightly more) to bring it back to the full line. I went for a short test ride and all seems well. Except the motor seemed slightly more noisy but I think its just in my head. Now I am all freaked out that the knocking sound I heard was from the lack of oil at start up and something ain't right. Again I am a paranoid person and everything is likely fine but for a second or two things sounded bad.
Next time I change the oil I plan to add an extra few gulps more then before to cover the filter and passage ways. On most of my other bikes if you fill to the full line then start and run it will drop to half on the sight glass or dipstick and just a few extra gulps of oil bring it back up to the top. However the Silverwing will show extremely low. Hopefully I did not damage the motor in anyway. I really don't think the sound I heard was from any sort of oil starvation issue as these parts have a coating of oil on them to protect at start up. If the oil light stayed on the whole time then I might have a problem but 2 or 3 seconds after an oil change is normal for most bikes. Its also not uncommon to have to add oil after the 1st start up as passage ways fill up. If I pre-filled the motor to the top of the dip stick before start that should be enough oil to safely run the motor in the short time it takes to prime the filter and passage ways.
Still...that paranoia runs deep
As smooth as it went I had some issues on start up that concern me. Possibly mostly because I am one of those paranoid types. I used Rotella T-6 5W-40 synthetic and filled it to the top of the fill marks on the dip stick. I added an extra gulp of oil for the filter witch I did not pre-fill. I never do that on any bike and never really had a problem and it tends to be messy. I started the motor as normal and what happened next is making me freak out a bit. The oil pressure light stayed on for about 2 seconds then blinked once for another second then went out completely. When the oil pressure light was lit up I started to hear a pretty bad knock from the motor. However it went away completely once the oil pressure light was out. I revved the motor a bit and let it idle for about 30 seconds. All seemed well and then I shut it off and let it sit for a few minutes. I checked the oil on the dip stick and other then one little drop on the bottom of the dip stick it was dry. Dang that took a lot of oil to fill the filter. It must have some oil passage ways as well that needed to be primed as well. So I reinserted the funnel and it took another 4 or 5 gulps (witch is really not much actually..maybe a 1/4 quart or slightly more) to bring it back to the full line. I went for a short test ride and all seems well. Except the motor seemed slightly more noisy but I think its just in my head. Now I am all freaked out that the knocking sound I heard was from the lack of oil at start up and something ain't right. Again I am a paranoid person and everything is likely fine but for a second or two things sounded bad.
Next time I change the oil I plan to add an extra few gulps more then before to cover the filter and passage ways. On most of my other bikes if you fill to the full line then start and run it will drop to half on the sight glass or dipstick and just a few extra gulps of oil bring it back up to the top. However the Silverwing will show extremely low. Hopefully I did not damage the motor in anyway. I really don't think the sound I heard was from any sort of oil starvation issue as these parts have a coating of oil on them to protect at start up. If the oil light stayed on the whole time then I might have a problem but 2 or 3 seconds after an oil change is normal for most bikes. Its also not uncommon to have to add oil after the 1st start up as passage ways fill up. If I pre-filled the motor to the top of the dip stick before start that should be enough oil to safely run the motor in the short time it takes to prime the filter and passage ways.
Still...that paranoia runs deep
