New Owners change your oil

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Gee Dan23, you can count your posts on one hand and are already insulting people who have owned their FJR's almost 4 years now stateside. There is no breakin oil in the FJR. Drop it early and drop it often. Oil and filter is cheap compared to an engine rebuild. If you don't know whay it is important by now my guess is you won't listen anyway. Have a nice ride.

 
Gee Dan23, you can count your posts on one hand and are already insulting people who have owned their FJR's almost 4 years now stateside. There is no breakin oil in the FJR. Drop it early and drop it often. Oil and filter is cheap compared to an engine rebuild. If you don't know whay it is important by now my guess is you won't listen anyway. Have a nice ride.
Totally agreed, changed mine at 100, then 600. Did the final drive oil at 600 as well. Lastly, the spline lubrication from the factory was crap on the '05, so I'd suggest pulling the pumpkin off and checking. I would hope that Yamaha listened to their customers and got this right at the factory for the '06. Go to https://www.fjrtech.com for the details.

 
Gee Dan23, you can count your posts on one hand and are already insulting people who have owned their FJR's almost 4 years now stateside. There is no breakin oil in the FJR. Drop it early and drop it often. Oil and filter is cheap compared to an engine rebuild. If you don't know whay it is important by now my guess is you won't listen anyway. Have a nice ride.
Since he's new here his opinion is worth less than others? I'll try to keep in that elitists attitude mind...

 
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Ah, nothing like a good pissing match about oil changes!

I changed my oil the first time at 600 miles. It looked like new oil. There were no splooges. No metal filings. No gray stuff. Just clean oil. Same thing in the final drive.

My penny is the engineers who designed the motor know a potload more than anyone else about when to change the oil. I follow their instructions, more or less.

What I REALLY think is silly is the "3000 mile" "rule" for car oil changes. That's a brilliant bit of marketing hooey by the quick lube places. I change it according to the owners manual, around 5000-6000 miles. Last three vehicles I had I put 185k, 165k, and now have 97k on the current car, I haven't burned a drip of oil yet. The 185k one got totaled, but I actually know the 165k one is still on the road, six years after I sold it.

So far, at least, this little oil change contretemps is nothing compared to the passions one sees on the Goldwing forums on occasion. I'd hoped for a little more from the Yamahans. :p

 
Well Mark, contact Yamaha, they will definitely want that motor, since your experience differs from that of every other FJR owner I know. I'd heard of one-of-a-kind engines before, but now I finally can correspond with someone who actually owns one.

 
Ok, I read all the posts on this tread and have a question. The mechs at D&H said to ensure that we leave the oil that is in the bike for the full 600 miles. They said some owners ride 20 miles then come back and change the oil, but they recommend against it. That was what I was told by D&H mechs. So, that is what I did. I did the same with my BMW when I had it new. No problems ever noted with it. Just wondering why all the crap back and forth. So what if some want to change their oil every few hundred miles. We are in America, right? But for those of us that leave it in, so what? Again, it is America right? Get over it and ride.........(until your oil goes thick) :D

 
Ah, nothing like a good pissing match about oil changes!<snip>

So far, at least, this little oil change contretemps is nothing compared to the passions one sees on the Goldwing forums on occasion. I'd hoped for a little more from the Yamahans. :p
Totally agree. There are so many people that know tons about oil changes and when to do them, etc. etc. etc. ... and I'm sure they all designed engines for a living for Yamaha or some other big six motorcycle manufacturer ... not. Changing at 600 is fine ... hell, changing even later is fine. These engines aren't made out of chocolate ... Mmmmmm, chocolate. According to someone in another FJR group, chocolate is supposed to make you smarter. How's that for a non-sequitur?

LOL

Nick

We are in America, right? :D
Whoa! Leave the politics out of this, please!

Leave the oil in ... take it out ... use used oil ... who cares? Well, maybe stay away from used oil.

Hmmm, Americade's happening in a few. I'm sure I can find some oil experts there.

 
We are in America, right? :D
Whoa! Leave the politics out of this, please!

Leave the oil in ... take it out ... use used oil ... who cares? Well, maybe stay away from used oil.

Hmmm, Americade's happening in a few. I'm sure I can find some oil experts there.

My bad! I forgot, Politics, Religion and Her are always off limits conversations.......

 
Totally agree. There are so many people that know tons about oil changes and when to do them, etc. etc. etc. ... and I'm sure they all designed engines for a living for Yamaha or some other big six motorcycle manufacturer ... not. Changing at 600 is fine ... hell, changing even later is fine. LOL

Nick
Well, there are at least several reasons to reccomend changing it out soon after purchase. One, of course, is to get the initial load of metals, adhesives, gaskets bits etc. that are left over from the assembly process. Aside from Marks Team Yamaha one off special, most engines have a pretty generous load of this stuff free of charge. You wanna leave it in there, well then good for you. Two, the oil drain plug has a reputation for, um, generous torque on it from the factory. IMHO, it's better to get it out before it's gone through a bunch of heat cycles which may, or may not, contribute to it's permanent residence in the oil pan. Many owners have removed it, and the pan threads as a bonus, on this incredibly perfect Yamaha design, more than any other machine I've ever experienced. Were they the ones who waited for a while, or did they do it early? I don't honestly know, it would be interesting to know at what mileage they did the first change, but it is a little spooky how often this has occurred. Three, the final drive on most FJR's carries quite a bit of metal from intial break in-with no filter to remove any of it. Very unfriendly to the bearings and seals back there. Is there documented evidence of early failure attributed to delaying the fluid change? Not that I'm aware of, the final has proven to be one of the tougher components on this machine. But, why delay it? To prove a point? Have at it, lemme know how how not changing it (a 15 minute job) gave you so much more riding time again. I don't hear it enough. One of the pleasures in my life is not only riding, but the care and feeding of the mount I own. Spacing out the maintainance schedule has not been proven beyond a doubt to be detrimental to the performance and life of the bike, unless it is taken to extremes. But then, few own the bike long enough to see well down the road the results of this lack of effort. I like heading out on a road trip knowing that the best possile care has gone into my Frank---I enjoy doing it, and I have yet to have any car or bike that did not respond by providing the best possible performance as a result, consistantly and for a very long time. I cannot remember the last time any machine I own left me, or my wife, or my kids sitting on the side of the road, if ever. Not for decades ar least. I've replaced alternators that still charged, water pumps that didn't yet leak, coolant that was still green, oil that some would take from me and use in their own stuff as drained, plugs that still sparked. But I could, and can, climb into anything I own, or have owned, and set off on a cross country trip without a moments hesitation, and thats important to me. You see, I'm a Motorhead. Do as you will, I'm the guy that pulls over when you're stranded, and gets you going again if it's humanly possible, or gives ya a ride into town, chuckling to myself as I think how much money and time you've saved only to end up in my ride. It's what I do for a living, you see...... ;)

 
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Are you drunk, rad? I am. I usually think the same way. Unless, someone has peed me off. I have a pic of my harley pulling a bmw. Makes me smile every time I see that pic.

 
First of all manufactures do not have a vested interest in your vehicle lasting forever. Many maintenance schedules, especially in cars, are marketing driven and not based on sound engineering. They like to advertise that no scheduled maintenance is required for some extended period of time. If anyone doubts this do some research and let me know what you come up with. Anyone that thinks they can leave spark plugs in a car for 100,000 miles and be 100% sure they will come out is living in fantasy land. I have heard from plenty of experts strongly advising against this.

As far as the early changes go, who can be the first person here that has recommending not changing the oil before 600 miles find me a statement from a recognized expert that leaving oil in an engine that is full of metal shavings is a good idea.

I will be waiting patiently by my computer.

 
That was a long reply for him, I"ve got a shot of me holding the carb of my shovel after it fell off when i got in a hurry and used a regular hose clamp to install it after a top end. Towed home by a Guzzi! shit, I'll never live it down. Gett'n drunk just looking at the FJR on the back deck sitting there gorgeous and new.

 
Gee Dan23, you can count your posts on one hand and are already insulting people who have owned their FJR's almost 4 years now stateside. There is no breakin oil in the FJR. Drop it early and drop it often. Oil and filter is cheap compared to an engine rebuild. If you don't know whay it is important by now my guess is you won't listen anyway. Have a nice ride.
Since he's new here his opinion is worth less than others? I'll try to keep in that elitists attitude mind...

Where in the hell did you read that because he is new his opinion is worth less than others. Nowhere in this post did you read this. Maybe it what you want to read into this. It is customary on any site that there are courtesies extended to those who have live and breathed their particular bikes. Believe it or not there are some mighty Guru's that have done wonders for the FJR and this site, and on their own nickel Everyone has an opinion but to slash others for what? Some of us have now been through post like his for four years now. It doesn't make us right just knowledgeable to what has been discussed in the past. So to come on this site and dis people is just wrong no matter how much you know.

D&H has given this advice about oil and changes since the first year but it don't make it right.

 
.......and if you don't have a wind chime...you are going to crash.

 
I'm kinduva maintenance freak too, but maybe not as much as Rad. Suffice to say that I get in there and change fluids and whatnot in shorter intervals than specified in the manual. Just my preference.

When I got my '05, I read the lowdown here and changed oil at about 100 miles. Did the gear oil in the pumpkin too. Funny thing is, I was another guy who found no evidence of metal dust, shavings, gray powder, not a damn thing. Same deal at 600 miles during second oil change. No debris at all in the engine oil. The gear oil in the pumpkin had a dark color the first time I changed it, but no metallic debris and nothing stuck to the magnetic plug.

Makes me wonder if the dealer flushed that crap out (I'm highly skeptical of that, my friends). Otherwise, I have no explanation for this lack of debris, same as reported by one of the FNG's earlier in the thread. Didn't matter, I would have changed the oil at the same intervals even if I knew the debris wasn't there. Just standard operating procedure for me. But it's odd that so many others found such obvious signs of debris, while I found none. But then again, my FJR came with no less than four different keys, one for each freaking lock on the bike. Maybe the dealer assembled it from spare parts....

 
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The short form of what fjrvtx1300 is trying to say.....(for the mentally challenged) I believe.... is live & let live....breathe deep & let it go.....

 
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