JRM makes an absolutely excellent point here, and one that I never thought of before! What does your oil have to offer in terms of protect if you roll your quad or lay down your dirt bike, and have no oil pressure???????

Here again, I am very glad that I am running Maxima Extra, an ester synthetic! Maxima has absolutely the best add pack (high pressure additives like zinc, etc.) in the industry, and ester synthetic molecules are charged (like a magnet!) and they naturally stick to metal parts leaving behind a protective film. A nice feature to have on a cold start, and when you have no oil pressure.

 

"""JRM makes an absolutely excellent point here, and one that I never thought of before! What does your oil have to offer in terms of protect if you roll your quad or lay down your dirt bike, and have no oil pressure???????

Here again, I am very glad that I am running Maxima Extra, an ester synthetic! Maxima has absolutely the best add pack (high pressure additives like zinc, etc.) in the industry, and ester synthetic molecules are charged (like a magnet!) and they naturally stick to metal parts leaving behind a protective film. A nice feature to have on a cold start, and when you have no oil pressure.""

Yup, and some auto oil manafactures have repalced the zink with teflon, and teflon will make your wet clutch slip, zink wont [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] Again, auto oil isnt going to blow up your quad, but if you ride hard and want all the protection you can get, then spend the $4 a quart... Back in highschool I stuck my mothers meat thermometer in my crankcace oil on my XR250R after a hard ride in tight woods and it read 380 degrees F !

 

Here's a true story for you all.

I know a guy that ran nothing but valone in his rubicon, 10w40 he would always complain about it smoking some blue out the exhaust when it got hot. He mostly ran in the mud.

He sold it to another guy I know he works as a car mech. He went and changed the oil to Honda regular 10w40 and he also drives it the same way in the mud, and guess what NO MORE BLUE SMOKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can Honda or anyother deny you warrenty on a motor that blew up cause you thought that CAR oil was the same.
I work at a multi line dealer. Suzki did just that to a person that his large rod bearing went out.
Yes they can do this.

For all those who want to run CAR oil in your fourwheeler go ahead, but remeber this Honda and all the other put there labels on the OIL THAT THEY TEST AND APROVE. That's where the deference is at.

(PS) Do not repliy to me on the fact that manufactures can deny warrent on what oil you put in your motor, I know what your owners manual says. The legal departments write them NOT the tech or the enginers, if you did sue they would just spend your money jerking you in court. Think of the cost there when you want to go buy CHEAP OIL!

 

Honda's biggest concern is their bottom line, they will use the cheapest oil that they can get (within spec) and mark it up as high as they can. If Honda knew that you could buy brand X for 1/3 the price of Honda's oil and it was twice as good, Honda would still recommend it's own oil.

Plenty of people swear by Amsoil but how many will reap the benefits of $10 a quart oil?

I knew a guy that changed the oil in his street bike and quad once a year and he rode both of them a lot, last time I checked the street bike had 30K+ miles his quad is 8 years old and no problems and he uses cheap oil.

My sister went 60K miles on her Sentra before her 1st oil change, at 100k miles she sold the car and it was running fine.

I don't use car oil I use diesel oil so if I burn up one of my bikes I'll be the first one to admit that I was wrong. I just don't buy in to all the hype.


Tom

 

I agree with CLUBY 100%. Should be end of story.

 

Most in the forum are smart enough to at least change the oil and thats what will save you, when auto oil degrades most of us change it in time... and budmantom makes a good point, 15W40 diesel grade oil DOES have long life attitives as diesels do not have the DEQ requrements.
IF you use cheap oil, just change it more often... Im working my life away, so one oil change a year is all i have time for (sad huh) so I use Amsoil as I always have with no issues yet.
I have worn 10+ tires bald on my 1991 XR250R that I got for my 8th grade grad gift and im 31 years old now and have not even pulled the clutch cover!
Joe

 

Now this brings up a great topic, which is better: 1 oil change per year using the best oil or 2 oil changes per year using good oil? (I'm not talking about car oil)

 

I would say about the same, im pretty anel as seen in my rant's above... One should also note, that ULT atv's have pretty bullet proof engines too.. putting 350+ K miles on a old Hyundai sold me, and that was with 10,000 mile change intervels... when my Toyota V6 blew a head gasket they also stated they have never seen an engine so clean at 180,000 miles with hone markes still visable.
Joe

 

I thought we were talking quads not cars. Car driving conditions are not even close to what a quad is. Stick to the topic.

 

One oil change a year with best - against 2 a year with good oil?

There is no contest - 2 oil changes is best for the simple reason that it is always best to get any crud out of the way of moving parts, and oil degrades.
For most low mileage or utility users once a year is fine - twice is better.
But if you want to put up really high mileages and keep the works tight, then change it.

I started this thread on high mileage atv's --
Text