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Is my oil level perilously low????!!!

mhines

mhines

Member
Appreciate any feedback here as I'm completely flummoxed.

I went out to do some service on my 2001 R1100s this morning ahead of some rides this weekend [my first decent rides of the year]. Have been rding the bike minimally [once to the office this week] a couple of short 30sh mile loops over the last couple months as the weather changes and weekends allows.

So, I went to look at my oil sight glass and I can see almost no oil. I did the 15 minute warmup, sidestand, centerstand routine and below is what I now see in the glass.

Am I crazy in concluding that my bike is massively down on oil? It isn't leaking or noticeably burning either.

I'm going to do an oil change now just to be sure, but... any help is greatly appreciated!

oil.level.r1100s.jpg
 
Last edited:
Good God the drama... perilously, massively??? Only if the oil pressure light comes on. As it is no one can say what the oil level is because it's not visible in the sight glass.

Manuals are great for this kind of info... try one.

Screenshot 2021-04-30 133425.png
 
Put on side stand and look again to see what that looks like. If the oil is fresh and the engine is clean and sight glass is old it could be its overfilled :)
 
oil change

Since you are going to do a change anyway, what you get in the drain pan will give you an idea. If you check the sight glass right away after turning it off you might not see much. No warning light probably no worries.
 
GIARCG said:
Good God the drama... perilously, massively??? Only if the oil pressure light comes on. As it is no one can say what the oil level is because it's not visible in the sight glass.

Manuals are great for this kind of info... try one.

View attachment 83415
Click to expand...

I have a manual and this site and youtube but none of that is conclusive, thanks for the pic
 
mntngrown said:
Since you are going to do a change anyway, what you get in the drain pan will give you an idea. If you check the sight glass right away after turning it off you might not see much. No warning light probably no worries.
Click to expand...

Right - obviously the ultimate arbiter is what comes out.

I figured no light means a lot but, just not used to the lack of clarity as my Ducs always show a good amount in the sight and I'm relatively new to this bike and BMWs in general.

Perhaps if I said that off the top the forum police wouldn't have been so harsh in their retort?

:whistle
 
drain warm

Since there is an oil cooler up front, I read here that it is important to get the oil warm on a short ride before draining.
 
Later on I will remove the “help” from the title so as it doesn’t look like an emergency and will be better for the search feature(s) later on.
OM
 
GIARCG said:
And the drama continues... LOL.

You asked for any feedback and you got it. Once again, get a manual...who knows, you may need to put air in a tire someday (grin).

Wait... I see you have a manual. Is what I posted not clear?
Click to expand...

The pic is the most helpful thing thus far, so, thank you.

That said still can't see much in there... it's just counterintuitive.
 
If the procedure you've told us you've gone through is accurate, you're low on oil. Add half a liter and see what happens. If it comes up to fill half the sight glass, you're good. If no, keep adding until you see oil. Then you'll know how low you were. Don't forget to let the oil drain into the crankcase while refilling. Wait 5 minutes between additions. If you want to change it after that, feel free.
 
BC1100S said:
If the procedure you've told us you've gone through is accurate, you're low on oil. Add half a liter and see what happens. If it comes up to fill half the sight glass, you're good. If no, keep adding until you see oil. Then you'll know how low you were. Don't forget to let the oil drain into the crankcase while refilling. Wait 5 minutes between additions. If you want to change it after that, feel free.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this, very helpful.
 
Relax. From the bottom of the window to the correct mid-point is about a cup of oil. Lean the bike to the right, with a helper, and see if oil appears in the window. Stand it up, add oil slooowwly until you are near the correct level, then go do something else for 10-15 minutes then check again.

I wouldn’t go doing an oil change unless the bike is due. And even then, I’d still prefer to do as I’ve outlined above just so I’d know the status. These bikes never read the same way twice in a row on oil levels, and a lot of “BMW oil consumption” is actually just people chasing erratic level readings and eventually over-filling, which is worse than being a tad low as far as I’m concerned.

Best,
DeVern
 
According to a BMW master mechanic who once filled my K short by 13 ounces of oil, this will not harm your bike's engine (and the bike now has over an additional 100,000 km since then).

If I were in your situation, I would clean my sight glass and then take the bike for a good run for thirty minutes or so. Upon returning home, I'd check the oil by my usual method, on the side stand for about 14 minutes and then have it jump onto the centre stand and then do a sight glass/oil level inspection. If your usual method of checking the oil level is to immediately pop the bike onto the centre stand, do that and check the oil level. Just inspect the oil by your usual method after a decent ride.

As was mentioned, the oil level in Oilheads seems to vary by the day. Really clean oil that is overfilled can give the sight glass the impression no oil is present. If you filled the bike with the correct amount of oil, the Oilhead oil dance is possibly playing with you.

Let us know what you discover about your oil level, whether by riding and checking or by dumping oil and measuring the amount that you had in the bike, including what was in the oil filter.

Good Luck!
 
This post reminds me of my one riding buddy. He checks the oil on his Harley every gas stop, even though it uses very little. He pulls the dip stick and adds a couple ounces of oil. I guess it makes him happy. One trip he asked me if I was going to check the oil on my Harley, Nope, I am sure it is ok. Next thing I know he is pulling the dip stick on my bike and about has a conniption because it is at the add line. He told me I needed to add oil. I told him no, I was going to change it that evening when we got home. Next thing I know he grabs the partial quart of oil out of his top case and dumps it in my Harley. I just had to stand there and laugh about the whole thing. I told him, "You know it isn't going to suddenly blow up because the oil is on the add mark!" I went on to tell him the engine would run fine on a quart or two, as long as it has oil pressure. More oil is for cooling and longer life between changes.

So to the OP, assuming the oil is at the bottom of the sight glass you are fine. I would bet it could be much lower and not cause a problem.
 
Thanks

Thanks to all who offered insight, after examining everything that came out, it looks like I was close to a quart off - not good.

I think I've found the source of slow leak, which is a bummer as it'll need to go into the shop soon.

Anyhow, apologies again if I freaked out - it was just truly mortifying to me to think that I'd been riding it around without noticing such a significant drop in the oil level and perhaps such that major damage had been done - seeing nothing at all in the sight glass felt awful to this end.

Much appreciate the help. :wave

Happy riding.
 
GTRider said:
Relax. From the bottom of the window to the correct mid-point is about a cup of oil. Lean the bike to the right, with a helper, and see if oil appears in the window. Stand it up, add oil slooowwly until you are near the correct level, then go do something else for 10-15 minutes then check again.

I wouldn’t go doing an oil change unless the bike is due. And even then, I’d still prefer to do as I’ve outlined above just so I’d know the status. These bikes never read the same way twice in a row on oil levels, and a lot of “BMW oil consumption” is actually just people chasing erratic level readings and eventually over-filling, which is worse than being a tad low as far as I’m concerned.

Best,
DeVern
Click to expand...

Thanks. I went ahead and did the change as it was coming up on due anyhow [from what I can tell, I only bought the bike late last year and didn't ride it much given Covid].

Anyhow, as I noted it looks like I was about a quart down. With the recommended amount now onboard I'm showing oil at about halfway up the sight; so, methinks that's it... and I've found the culprit [slow leak at the rear base of the cases. :(
 
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