Motorcycle Forum banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

Car motor oil for motorcycles??

2K views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  rexmitchell 
#1 ·
i'm curious... yes, did a search here but didn't find much. so? yay or nay?
 
#2 ·
Your going to hear both.

The NAY crowd.....they make motorcycle specific oils for a reason....there are different additives that are better for motorcycles that car oil just doesnt have.

The YAY crowd.....any quality oil will do the job. The oil is subjected to the same types of heat and pressures etc - whats the difference.

Me....Im in the YAY crowd. I run either Rotella T 15w40 or Mobil DelVac 15w40 in ALL my bikes. From my 2008 Victory Vision to my old 1978 Suzuki dirt bike........even in my ATVs.

Most of my bikes call for 10w40.....one for 20w40 and one for 20w50....however in my heat range 15w40 is fine and it works great. I pay $9 or less for a gallon of oil....vs $9 a quart. Last year they had buy one get one free....so I gave about $5 a gallon for oil.....I bought 3 cases. Rotella is good oil and I dont worry a bit.

My motorcycle mechanic said for year he ran Castrol car oil in all the bikes he serviced and never had a problem.....only recently going to Castrol EvoTec motorcycle specific oil because he got a good buy on it.

Its a personal thing....there is no clear cut yes or no....in the end it works for me so I do it.
 
#3 ·
reminds me of guns. I'm a big guns fan. Some will say motor oils = bad for guns. I say, it's good and have been using it to lube my guns for ages and works a lot better than those 'gun oils/lubes'..

Thanks. I just wanted to hear from some people here on this forum. i googled it and got a mix of yay's and nay's..hahah
 
#4 ·
Well, these kinda topics always bring out some arguments. Anyways, the reason that many car oils won't work well in a motorcycle is that they have friction modifiers and thus don't work well in a wet clutch system. If it doesn't have those additives, than it should work, but people will argue that they make motorcycle specific oil for a reason.

I am currently using Rotella T full synthetic 5w-40, which is actually a diesel oil, although is has the JASO-MA rating, which is a motorcycle oil rating, meaning it works with wet clutches. I haven't had any problems yet!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top