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When to change oils?

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Streetglider08

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So my dealer tells me I should change my engine oil every 2,500 miles. Then every other oil change I should also change the oil in my primary and tranny. Now my buddy was just over and he changes all his oils every 2500. Just wondering what everyone else does?
 
It Is always best to at least follow MOCO recommendations. If able and willing to change more often then have at it. You can never change the oils to often. If changing oils and filter yourself, I would change all 3 at the same time.
I ride a good bit so I change all 3 at 5,000 miles.
Doing what dealer recommends would be a good interval.
 
If you are doing short rides and winter riding you can change oil sooner as it will have more un burned gas and moisture residue, other than that you can use the owners manual, JMO
 
Thanks for the advice. I'm leaving for Daytona in one week. 1,000 miles so I'm just gonna do all 3. Can't hurt anything... Except my wallet. ;)
 
I concur with Smitty and Ice...if you run your bike under "normal" conditions...follow the regular regimen...synthetic motorcycle oils, filters and such can get expensive if you double the number of changes and really do not need to, modern lubricants, better metals and materials have made the 2,500 to 3,000 mile oil changes with older bikes and technology necessary...really a carryover from days gone by.

Beyond that, follow the more aggressive "rough service schedule if you do excessive short trips, high humidity/cold or parking for long periods outside (sludge buildup due to oil, water and combustion by products which settles to the bottom causing corrosion. And the flip side, running in hot weather, excessive stop and go overheating the oil, or dusty, dirty conditions...! IMHO :s

I do the latter because I do short commutes, 4-5 miles during business week, and mixture of in city and some highway driving on weekends...and the $$$'s are not THAT big a deal to lavish the bike with the best "food" possible...(the performance, comfort, convenience and bling mods are all done already...LOL). :)
 
Streetglider08 said:
So my dealer tells me I should change my engine oil every 2,500 miles. Then every other oil change I should also change the oil in my primary and tranny. Now my buddy was just over and he changes all his oils every 2500. Just wondering what everyone else does?
Click to expand...

Got to ask. Are you running synthetic oil in your 08? If not you should be.
If so you are changing way to much.
Synthetic primary oil change every 10,000 miles, synthetic ATF transmission oil change every 10,000 miles and filter and synthetic oil change every 5,000 miles.
And don't let anyone tell you that you can put MOCO synthetic oil in all three.
 
So I just read the service manual. It says to change the engine oil ever 5,000 mi. Then change primary at 10,000 and tranny at 20,000. I am putting in hd syn3 this time because I already bought it. I'm only at 2,500 miles on the bike. But I would like to change everything because before I bought the bike it sat alot. The guy put 900 miles on it in 2 years. If u have any recommendations on primary or tranny oil I would like to know what your using. It would save me the hour drive to get 2 more quarts of syn3. After I get the lubes that I know I put in and I am comfortable with I will follow the service manual for future maintenance.
 
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