Synthetic motor oil - R1200GSA 2011

bikerfish1100 said:

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Thanks for posting the pic ... it's a little hard to read. What source is that? What does the chart say for 10w-40?

The wisdom of a range of lower temps for starting a cold engine is very obvious because sitting overnight the oil temp is very close to ambient temp. Engine starts usually represent the greatest amount of wear on an engine.

But I am not understanding a limitation on upper temps (if, in fact, that is what the chart is trying to represent). My oil temp gauge on my RT while cruising doesn't read appreciably different whether I'm riding in 40* F or 95* F (at least that my old eyes can tell).

Also, I have a sports car with an external oil cooler without any thermostat and the difference between 40* F and 95* F is only a very few degrees of oil temp, nothing worth switching to a higher viscosity for. The difference in the two vehicles I've mentioned is probably that my car doesn't have a thermostat on the oil cooler (and shows a bit of increased oil temp) whereas the RT has a oil thermostat and therefore nicely compensates for outside air temps.

Thanks.

Norm

Owner's manual for my 2012 GSA says dino oil only for the first 12k miles. Synthetic oil is "too slippery" for proper break-in, so no synthetic oil for the first 12k miles.

My 2009 manual says no synthetic for the first 10K km or 6k miles. I still use dino as it's cheaper, but the next change will be synthetic as I live in hell now, which is hotter than Iowa.

OfficerImpersonator said:

Owner's manual for my 2012 GSA says dino oil only for the first 12k miles. Synthetic oil is "too slippery" for proper break-in, so no synthetic oil for the first 12k miles.

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it's amazing to me how "all over the map" these owners manuals appear to be on the SAME engine... I imagine the 2012 GSA has the same motor as the 2012 R, which is to say the Camhead.

We have some that say their manual says nothing about synthetic change over, such as mine and others.... we have others that say their manual says wait to 6000 miles... and now we have someone with a manual that says to wait for 12000 miles...

I'm just going to go with logic, my own experience and my dealers advise and stick with synthetic until (something) do myself and this bike part.

R1200RClassic said:

it's amazing to me how "all over the map" these owners manuals appear to be on the SAME engine...

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+1

Wow, I'm really surprised.

OfficerImpersonator said:

Owner's manual for my 2012 GSA says dino oil only for the first 12k miles. Synthetic oil is "too slippery" for proper break-in, so no synthetic oil for the first 12k miles.

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ok, so I went to the BMW Motorrad website here: http://www.bmw-motorrad.com/com/en/index.html and downloaded the latest GSA manual, dated Aug 2011... the only mention of the word synthetic is on page 128 regarding wax... the oil page is identical to my R1200R manual, which is to say, there is no mention of synthetic, or break-in.. and the list of approved oils includes pure synthetic spec's and no mention of milages, only temps.

Maybe some of you guys need to make sure the dealer gave you the proper manual with your bike and didn't just reach into a big drawer and grab the first book they had laying around...

R1200RClassic said:

ok, so I went to the BMW Motorrad website here: http://www.bmw-motorrad.com/com/en/index.html and downloaded the latest GSA manual, dated Aug 2011... the only mention of the word synthetic is on page 128 regarding wax... the oil page is identical to my R1200R manual, which is to say, there is no mention of synthetic, or break-in.. and the list of approved oils includes pure synthetic spec's and no mention of milages, only temps.

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Thanks for doing that ... my faith is now restored in BMW owner's manuals.

It appears that maybe BMW's recommendations on holding off on synthetics for a few thousand miles changed when they came out with the camheads.

Norms 427 said:

Thanks for doing that ... my faith is now restored in BMW owner's manuals.

It appears that maybe BMW's recommendations on holding off on synthetics for a few thousand miles changed when they came out with the camheads.

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yeah which was echoed by the guys I spoke to in Germany who seem to be much more "in the know" than the vast majority of dealers here (sadly).

Most importantly logic.... I can't imagine anything being made today that would need a 6000 mile break in, much less a 12000 mile break in!!! really?

R1200RClassic said:

yeah which was echoed by the guys I spoke to in Germany who seem to be much more "in the know" than the vast majority of dealers here (sadly).

Most importantly logic.... I can't imagine anything being made today that would need a 6000 mile break in, much less a 12000 mile break in!!! really?

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+1

I went to the BMW website you listed and read the oil recommendations for various years and it appears that:

1) BMW deleted any reference to synthetic oils and deleted any recommendation against using synthetics in the first few thousand miles beginning with the 2011 model year RTs. Finally!

2) BMW used to list suggested ranges of ambient temperatures from low to high for oil viscosity in their earlier manuals but they eliminated any reference to the upper temp range beginning with the 2010 model RTs. So beginning with 2010 models the only temperature reference for selection of viscosity is to the low, or cold starting temperature. Finally!

I think BMW has been a little slow in adopting modern oil technology on these 2 items, but they finally did it.

.

Norms 427 said:

I think BMW has been a little slow in adopting modern oil technology on these 2 items, but they finally did it..

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Much as I hate to say it because about most things BMW I don't, I think in this case it's mainly marketing.

Been several years now that BMW permits nothing but synthetics in its cars and that's the case for most significant cars, i.e. Porsche, Mercedes, BMW, etc. These folks publish oil specifications for their engines with numbers like 229.51, LL-01, A40, etc. They for sure NEVER specify anything to do with "quaint" things like SG.

All (maybe most) of the mentioned cars come with synthetic oil in the system from the factory, too, i.e. no 6K mile wait to start using it. I'd sure like a detailed engineering reason for that (not forum speculation) in the case of bikes, as in many cases modern machining technology has eliminated any need for traditional break-in at all (see "plateau" finish).

Guess maybe the typical BMW bike owner is lots older than the car owners and perhaps BMW caters to this with old-fashioned sorts of things like this.