How To Change Oil on a Motorcycle in 8 Steps

Changing your motorcycle oil can be a challenging task, but it’s essential for keeping your bike running smoothly. In this post, we’ll answer common questions about how often you should replace your motorcycle engine oil and provide tips on checking the oil level. When it comes to replacing your oil, there are three critical factors that determine the outcome:

The Motorcycle model
How regularly you use your motorbike
Your engine oil preference

Note that there are three types of engine oil to use for your motorcycle:

Full synthetic oil
Half synthetic oil
Mineral oil

Here are the 8 easy steps so you can change your motorcycle oil.

Prepare Your Tools
Position Your Bike on All Stands
Take Off The Filter After Draining The Used Oil
Replace The Drain Plug Crush Washer With A New One
Reinstalling the Bolt
Half-Fill Your Filter With The New Oil
Put the Filter Back In
Check The Oil Level While Putting The New Oil

Various motorcycles require various types of motor oil. When you purchase a used bike, you should immediately change the engine oil, whether or not it’s new.

If you own a brand new or relatively new bike, changing the oil at specified intervals is essential. These intervals are in the service manual of your motorcycle.

The engine oil is like the blood of your engine. Using the right kind of engine oil will not only prolong the life of your engine, but it will make your bike run steadily as well. Using the wrong oil might do more harm than good.

Importance of Motorcycle Engine Oil

Engine oil is not just a moving engine element lubricant. It cleanses vital internal components to prevent the engine from intensified wearing down. The engine oil can clean, lubricate, and safeguard your engine from cold starting and extreme temperatures each time you start your motorcycle.

Many don’t know that engine oil keeps the engine cold, similar to coolant fuel. The oil absorbs high combustion chamber temperatures that help lower the engine’s internal temperature.

Recall that the ultimate level of high-performance engines is extreme heat. A cooler engine is more fuel-efficient, calmer, and cleaner. The right engine oil not only prolongs the engine’s lifespan but also saves you the expenses on maintenance.

If, however, you’re unable to find the service manual for your bike on when to change the oil, we’ll tell you how often you change the oil and how you can check the oil level.

How Often Should The Engine Oil of a Motorcycle be Changed?

It depends on the type of oil used in the last oil change. The engine oil should be changed at least every 2,000 miles when the engine uses mineral engine oil (the most affordable and natural type of motor oil present in the market). You should at least change the oil twice a year if you do not use your motorcycle frequently.

It is a good idea to switch oil after up to 6,000 miles if your motorcycle engine is using half-synthetic engine oil.

The general principle is to change the oil after 7,000 to 10,000 kilometers for those using full synthetic engine oil. Synthetic engine oil is costlier than mineral oils. On the other hand, half-synthetic and full-synthetic engine oil usually lasts longer, so you don’t replace them as much as you want.

If you are using your motorbike every day or ride a long journey every day, the oil must change more regularly regardless of whether you use mineral oil or any of half and full synthetic oil.

You can change the oil irrespective of the distance if you are worried that your oil is polluted or if you find that your engine is not running correctly.

Which Engine Oil is Preferable For My Motorcycle

The use of mineral oil is better for older bikes. Older models have designs to operate with mineral oil. If you use synthetic oil on your old motorcycle, it may result in oil leakage. The leakage is due to the low viscosity of the new synthetic motor oils. Mineral oils are more viscous than synthetic oils and thus bring about the leakage issue.

You can use half-synthetic or full-synthetic engine oils for modern, street, or race motorcycles. In case of doubt, it is always best to check your service manual for the correct type of engine oil for your bike.

Change Your Motorcycle Oil With These Basic Eight Steps

1. Prepare Your Tools

This is one of the significant steps. You don’t want to run for devices, barrels, and rags while oil spills from your bike and your hands are too smooth to turn a door handle. To get started, you need to get all the necessary tools required for an efficient process.

2. Position Your Bike on All Stands

Just underneath the bolt, position your drainage plate. Consider where the oil would go while you watch it flow. The location of the drainage plate will most certainly have to be changed as the oil slows down.

To loosen the bolt, use the right tool. This will ensure you don’t get to shred the bolt in the process. If the bolt falls on the drainage plate during the process, try to pick it up quickly, and be careful so that you don’t burn yourself in cases where the bolt is hot.

3. Take Off The Filter After Draining The Used Oil

Unscrew the filter gently with a filter wrench or tie it in the strip, like a dog choker, in a cloth band. Be vigilant that the filter is not dented or broken because some pollutants in the filter will unintentionally return to the engine.

There may be some oil left inside, but make sure that you have something to collect any remaining one that comes out. If it’s tight, you should use a hammer to hit it gently while using a screwdriver to loosen it up by the side.

4. Replace The Drain Plug Crush Washer With A New One

It can cost as much as a buck, but it’s cheap. Make sure the old waster gets a replacement. The New Washer will conserve threads in your oil plate because it takes less time to tear down the oil drain plug.

Even when the drain plug is a copper washer, washers must be hard so that they are made soft by high heat temperature and made stronger after cooling in water. All copper washers must be coated and hardened before reinstalling to make them compressible. It also has to do with new ones since copper hardens over time.

5. Reinstalling The Bolt

Once you put it back, ensure it’s free of dirt. Remember, it’s usually aluminum cast, so don’t tighten it too firmly. For torque specifications for your wheel, check your manual or convenience store. Recall that the Nm is not the same as Ft-Lbs when using a torque wrench. If the bolt doesn’t torque to spec, tighten it a bit, but don’t tighten it too much.

6. Half-Fill Your Filter With The New Oil

Shake it around to get the ingredients inside soaked up with the new oil. So clean the rubber seal with an oil dab on your palm. It comes in handy. Just get the whole cover wet. It makes it easier for the engine to contact well and easy to come off the next time an oil change takes place.

7. Put The Filter Back In

Screw the new filter completely. Don’t force it in; it has to go in very smoothly. Once little or no energy is needed to turn it, it requires only a few turns to fit in properly.

You don’t want an oil filter too tightened, to fix it. You don’t need more than a clean pair of hands to do so. Do not use a device unless a torque clamp is installed and tightened to the production standard.

8. Check The Oil Level While Putting The New Oil

Check for the oil gauge in your manual and apply roughly half a quarter when you fill the hole with the funnel. When putting in the oil, keep checking the level as you do so. If required, add or drain oil between Add and Full.

Do not put oil in excess. It applies excessive pressure to your engine seals and can reduce their lifespan. Please check the amount directly up and down on your motorbike, not on the side stands.

Conclusion

Various factors can depend on how often the oil replacement of a motorcycle can take place. You will replace the oil after covering a distance of up to 3,000 miles if you are a regular biker that utilizes mineral oil.

Synthetic engine oil takes considerable time before replacement is needed. Oil replacement is due when your motorcycle has covered up to 6000 miles. For the regular biker, synthetic engine oil is best for commercial purposes and long-distance coverage.

If you are not a regular biker, maybe a biker that uses his motorcycle during the weekends, then replacing the oil twice a year is advisable. It is convenient that way when you don’t use your bike often.

Lastly, it should be a compulsory habit for you to check your oil level as often as possible. Changing your oil and having fresh oil on your motorcycle is important, but checking the oil level is also as important. The right quantity of oil in the crankcase must be maintained and shouldn’t drop below the required gauge.