2011 R1200 RT Motor Oil

Thanks

So....Mobil 1 synthetic and what would be the filter alternative?

Thanks

P.S. We all drink the kool aid if you ride a Beemer......

BigSkyRider said:

So....Mobil 1 synthetic and what would be the filter alternative?

Thanks

P.S. We all drink the kool aide if you ride a Beemer......

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For a Hexhead? Seems most drink the Kool-aid there. BMW first, may be Mann? I've asked about Bosch...Seems everyone is afraid of invalidating their warranty. I've never seen this when I owned Kawasaki. As long as a filter and oil met the requirements and the service was done within the proper interval, all should be good. That said, I would never use a filter from Team Orange. If this is what to expect in owning a BMW, then no wonder they lost WWII.

I used to buy my parts and filters online from Chicago BMW because they offered a 20% discount. I don't know if that's still true, as I've heard that the place has changed hands recently...

Mahl Filters?

Interesting Marty, Where might you obtain said filters sir?

Over the net I hope (I live in the sticks)!

Retarded Jarhead said:

Interesting Marty, Where might you obtain said filters sir?

Over the net I hope (I live in the sticks)!

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ya know, the net is an amazing thing. you can DIY stuff, really easily.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=mahle+bmw+motorcycle+filters

I finally got a definitive answer from BMW about how long to use dino oil.

I couldn't find anyone from BMW to give me a straight answer, and I couldn't find anyone to contact on a tech issue from the factory, but I did find who to contact to schedule a factory tour in Berlin. So I emailed them and asked them to forward my email, figuring I'd get a corporate form letter and never hear anything. That was three or four days ago.

Today, some guy with a German accent called me from BMW USA. He said the info was removed from the 2011 owners manual and he couldn't fnd out why. He said that it's correct to use dino oil for the first 6k. If you don't abuse the bike, it's also ok to run an oil that's part dino, part synthetic. After 6k, it's ok to run all synthetic.

BMW has impressed me.

tiny bubbles

Wanted to learn a little about the final drive and inner workings of my RT, so I used the dealer to do my 600 mile run in check. Asked my tech about using synth oil vs. dino oil. Without batting an eye he said don't even consider it unitl I hit 12k miles. Even after that, he made an interesting statement. He told me that dino oil and synth oil both accumulate that same amount of "stuff" from the engine as it is running. The filter catches most, but why would you want to leave the other "stuff" in the oil for the longer duration between synth oil changes. Also of note: he mentioned that the condensation that occures inside our engines on short runs gets boiled out of dino oil. Synth oil does not tend to release the condensation until it gets all the way up to running temp, so unless you always do runs long enough to get the oil all the way up to temp, synth oil holds on to humidty inside the engine.

Interesting...

kthflieger said:

...Also of note: he mentioned that the condensation that occures inside our engines on short runs gets boiled out of dino oil. Synth oil does not tend to release the condensation until it gets all the way up to running temp, so unless you always do runs long enough to get the oil all the way up to temp, synth oil holds on to humidty inside the engine.

Interesting...

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Entertaining is more like it. When water (suspended or otherwise) hits 212F, unless it's under pressure, it's going to leave whatever fluid it's in. When I used to live 5 minutes from work, the oil in my VW looked like "frapachino" most of the time because the engine never warmed up fully. Then we moved to a place 35 minutes from work. Guess what...the oil stayed nice and clean from then on. When I switched to Mobil1 0W-40 the only difference I noticed was that the engine got a lot quieter at idle. A short run won't "boil" anything out of any oil if the oil doesn't approach the boiling point of water...

forgive me, but from those few statements by your mechanic about divo vs. synth- your mechanic is, if not a full blown idiot, at least someone who knows little about oil. however, on a more positive note, he is willing to freely share what he doesn't know or understand.

dino vy synth has little if anything to do with suspension/removal of particular substances. the advantage of synth is that it maintains viscosity for a longer period of time, and its additive package holds it levels higher for longer duration as well. that's why it does not need as frequent a change- it's still closer to being the oil you put in, with little degradation.

Sorry; I know this is an old thread, but here's what Mobil has to say about Mobil 1 15W-50:

http://www.mobiloil.com/USA-English/MotorOil/Oils/Mobil_1_15W-50.aspx

And about Mobil 1 V-Twin:

http://www.mobiloil.com/USA-English/MotorOil/Oils/Mobil_1_V-Twin_20W-50.aspx

And here are some FAQs about Mobil 1 motorcycle oils. Notice about 2/3 of the way down, there's a specific question regarding the difference between Mobil 1 V-Twin and Mobil 1 automotive oils:

http://www.mobiloil.com/USA-English/MotorOil/Oils/Motorcycle_Oil_FAQs.aspx#FAQs5

If you dig around on Mobil's site, somewhere in a table comparing the additive packages in the various versions of Mobil 1, it states that Mobil 1 15W-50 has the highest level (1200ppm) of phosphorus (ZDDP) of any of their synthetics. FYI: while this is optimal for wear protection in oil shearing situations, if your bike is still using oil, ZDDP can be hard on your catalytic converter. I hope all this will be helpful to someone...

oil

everyone keeps talking about 15-50 and 20-50 oil I though camheads call for 10-40,my manual on 2011 rt says 10-40,

tonk said:

He said the info was removed from the 2011 owners manual and he couldn't fnd out why. He said that it's correct to use dino oil for the first 6k. If you don't abuse the bike, it's also ok to run an oil that's part dino, part synthetic. After 6k, it's ok to run all synthetic.

BMW has impressed me.

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From page 149 of the 2011 Canadian market Rider's Manual:
"BMW Motorrad recommends not using synthetic oils for the first 10000 km." (6000 miles) My dealer was clear about that in the delivery instructions, as well.

bikerfish1100 said:

forgive me, but from those few statements by your mechanic about divo vs. synth- your mechanic is, if not a full blown idiot, at least someone who knows little about oil. however, on a more positive note, he is willing to freely share what he doesn't know or understand.

dino vy synth has little if anything to do with suspension/removal of particular substances. the advantage of synth is that it maintains viscosity for a longer period of time, and its additive package holds it levels higher for longer duration as well. that's why it does not need as frequent a change- it's still closer to being the oil you put in, with little degradation.

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I thought there was a bit of truth to that statement, but not exactly for the reason stated. It's not so much the synthetic aspect of the oil as it is the relatively higher concentration of detergents found in current grade syn oil vs. dyno. That's not saying that a really good dyno oil with a great additive package couldn't suspend more carbon in solution, but rather, on average most syn's have more detergents than dino...thus, they hold the tiny particles of carbon, which the filter can not get, in suspension better.

That's the whole point of oil detergents. Of course, everything is a trade-off and you're effectively diluting the wear additives the more detergents you add, etc.

gunderwood said:

That's the whole point of oil detergents.

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Actually, in the 21st century the point of detergents in synthetics is to do their job early and then disappear so the oil becomes a better lubricant.

http://papers.sae.org/2007-01-4133/

Make sure you use oil designed specifically for motorcycles.


My dealer says that Harley oil is good stuff.

galaxie said:

everyone keeps talking about 15-50 and 20-50 oil I though camheads call for 10-40,my manual on 2011 rt says 10-40,

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Page 145 in the U.S. manual for my '07 RT says 20W-50, period; then on the next page there's a table recommending viscosities ranging from 5W-30 through 10W-50...depending on the ambient temperature in the area of operation. So, armed with this conflicting information, I'm on my own to make an educated selection. And strictly in terms of viscosity, if I stay away from the thicker "straight weight" oils at low ambient temperatures, I'm probably not going to harm my engine.

ozonewanderer said:

Make sure you use oil designed specifically for motorcycles.

From October, 2011 MCN:
"The requirements for car oil are much different for motorcycle oil... Can some bikes get away with using car oil? Yes. Will some bikes have trouble when car oil is used? Yes. Will any motorcycle have trouble when a brand-name motorcycle-specific oil is used? No."​

My dealer says that Harley oil is good stuff.

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Most "motorcycle" oils have exotic additive packages to make them compatible with not only engine requirements, but wet clutches, transmission gears, etc. If my bike's engine is just that...an engine...without any of that other nonsense, then I'd prefer to put an oil in it that is specifically designed for an engine, rather than an oil that is trying to perform so many different (possibly even conflicting) tasks simultaneously. A good grade of automotive synthetic in a proper viscosity for the ambient conditions will do very nicely in an RT engine. The fact that "motorcycle" oil will also work (in spite of all the unnecessary additives) just proves that the current boxer is not as sensitive to oil variations as some here fear it to be.

FYI: as far as Harley oil being "good stuff", several years back one of the major bike magazines ran lab tests on most of the then-available motorcycle oils. They pretty much all passed the tests with room to spare...with one notable exception: Harley's dino oil came up short in a few areas. Oddly, the two most prominent areas of failure were thermal stability and wear protection! Now, these tests were conducted not long after Harley's synthetic came on the market, so it has been awhile. Maybe they've corrected the problem by now, I don't know...but that dino oil had been the only oil sold by Harley up until then, and it wasn't very good oil. Today, Harley's oil is also rated for use in the Big Twin's primary drive, which means it has extra additives for use with that wet clutch. Again, additives that are unnecessary for the current boxer. Just food for thought...

Diff head, diff prime oil weight recommendation

The '10, '11 and '12 models of our R1200RTs have an Owner's Manual recommendation of 10W40, then they list other possibilities. So what changed besides valve arrangement and method of activation? Apparently that is all. Interesting that this "head" configuration came from the HP2 and it had the very same oil weight recommendations. There's gotta be a reason, the head alone must be it.

Motodan said:

The '10, '11 and '12 models of our R1200RTs have an Owner's Manual recommendation of 10W40, then they list other possibilities. So what changed besides valve arrangement and method of activation? Apparently that is all. Interesting that this "head" configuration came from the HP2 and it had the very same oil weight recommendations. There's gotta be a reason, the head alone must be it.

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Probably machined clearances were tightened up. Big clearances = thick oil. Smaller clearances = thinner oil.

Look at the workshop specs for crankshaft main and rod bearing minimum and maximum clearances, and for cylindere bore to piston clearances and you will probably find slight differences between the pre-'10 models and the later models.

Or BMW changed their minds after 40 years.

Oil

In the for what it's worth department: BMW police bikes come with synthetic oil from the factory and stay with it for the duration. I know of no differences in police engines and the engines we civilians get.

RT Rider

PGlaves said:

Probably machined clearances were tightened up. Big clearances = thick oil. Smaller clearances = thinner oil.

Look at the workshop specs for crankshaft main and rod bearing minimum and maximum clearances, and for cylindere bore to piston clearances and you will probably find slight differences between the pre-'10 models and the later models.

Or BMW changed their minds after 40 years.

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Paul, would those bearing clearances be available online - somewhere?