Dealers recommending oils for servicing

[nikybomb]

Just took the r6 in for a service at a yam dealer and I bought in my own oil which I haven't used before, silkolene pro 4.
He basically said the pro 4 is not any better then yamalube mineral oil and If I used it I would have to use full synthetic all the time. I have no problem in using full synthetic in future but why would he talk me out of using it.

[filbert]

Yamalube is pretty good oil and a known quantity to Yamaha, if they sell and recommend it then they know that broken bikes are caused by something else, if it was cheaper than what you brought in he probably thought he was doing you a favour.

We have to run recommended oils in our trucks for the warranty period and it works in our favour, when a $75k gearbox goes crunch they pull it out and repair or replace at their expense instead of trying to BS us about oil and intervals.

[Halo_2]

Because they cant charge you a markup for your oil if they don't have a 'supplying own parts policy'

[BERT]

I have worked in the motorcycle industry, the profit in a few litres of oil is very little

If everybody keeps trying to prevent motorcycle shops in Perth from making a profit on parts and consumables guess what the hourly rate will do !

There is (or at least was) a shop in Perth that has a higher hourly rate for those that supplied their own parts, oil etc

[nikybomb]

Well what do you guys think of silkolene pro 4?

[thro]

Just took the r6 in for a service at a yam dealer and I bought in my own oil which I haven't used before, silkolene pro 4.
He basically said the pro 4 is not any better then yamalube mineral oil and If I used it I would have to use full synthetic all the time. I have no problem in using full synthetic in future but why would he talk me out of using it.

Synthetic is compatible with whatever other oil you have in there.

[Stoneville]

we use yamalube in all our bikes, we get it in 20 ltr drums as we need lots! seems ok to me

[KiwiBiker]

We use United Oils fully synthetic race oil in our race bikes and road bikes, the stuff is great and we can get it for $10 a litre. Let me know if you want some. Will never get a fully synthetic race oil for under 35 an oil change.

[robwas]

Well what do you guys think of silkolene pro 4?

I run Pro 4 Race in the ZX10 and CBR and have not had any issues with it. They both live close to the red line too.

[BusaSteve]

I run Fuchs silkoline pro 4 in my Busa atm...same thing I believe. I have never had any probs with the oil in any of my bikes. I have changed to synthetic and back to dino again with no issues. It seems there is a massive difference of opinion about oils. Some swear by diesel engine oil.

[Mojojojo974]

I took my bike for first service this morning and was concerned about the oil they use. They used Motul mineral 1000. I asked why they use a mineral based oil, they said that's what you need to use until the 6000kms service. Is that correct? Is the mineral based oil as good as the others semi/full synthetic or it just does the job?

[thro]

Just took the r6 in for a service at a yam dealer and I bought in my own oil which I haven't used before, silkolene pro 4.
He basically said the pro 4 is not any better then yamalube mineral oil and If I used it I would have to use full synthetic all the time. I have no problem in using full synthetic in future but why would he talk me out of using it.

He probably has a 44 gallon drum of something else.

I took my bike for first service this morning and was concerned about the oil they use. They used Motul mineral 1000. I asked why they use a mineral based oil, they said that's what you need to use until the 6000kms service. Is that correct? Is the mineral based oil as good as the others semi/full synthetic or it just does the job?

Lots of theories... Honda recommended I used GN4 (Honda's mineral based stuff, HP4 is their synth) in my 600 until 12,000.

Supposedly (so the theory goes) the synthetics can be TOO slippery during break in (which, whilst it is officially over at first service, is maybe ongoing - albeit to a lesser degree) for the motor to bed in properly. Whilst on the subject of break in - Honda do not have a break in procedure. So all this shit varies from brand to brand... and I suspect a lot of it is pretty un-scientific.

Mineral oil will not kill your bike, if that's what you're worried about.

[filbert]

6000kms with mineral oil to bed in sounds perfectly reasonable...

What is the actual problem/question?

Do you feel ripped off that he's using a cheaper oil of sufficient quality to protect your engine from wear whilst allowing the required friction for mating surfaces to conform to each other for optimum engine performance and longevity?

[Aufitt]

I took my bike for first service this morning and was concerned about the oil they use. They used Motul mineral 1000. I asked why they use a mineral based oil, they said that's what you need to use until the 6000kms service. Is that correct? Is the mineral based oil as good as the others semi/full synthetic or it just does the job?

Honda warrant their engines on mineral oil for 12,000km
if it meets the specs for the engine in the owners manual, it does the job perfectly, their engines depend on it..

[Bill-2014]

I took my bike for first service this morning and was concerned about the oil they use. They used Motul mineral 1000. I asked why they use a mineral based oil, they said that's what you need to use until the 6000kms service. Is that correct? Is the mineral based oil as good as the others semi/full synthetic or it just does the job?

Mineral oil will not hurt your engine, as the others have said it is to help with the break in process, If you use synthetic oil before the motor is properly broken in it can glaze up your bores that can result in premature oil burning and lack of compression,