Oil Be Taking you For a Ride??

Strolling aimlessly through Halfords yesterday I came across Halfords own
brand semi-synthetic 10w40 motocycle engine oil at £21 for 5 litres. Then I
spotted Halfords' semi-synthetic 10w40 car engine oil at £14 for 5 litres.
Are these the same products in different packaging? I can't imagine the
motorcycle oil containing an extra £7 worth of processing additives. Is
there any reason why I should use the car engine oil in my CB500?

Cheers

-=V=-

 

I expect the additive package will be different but some of the cost will be
in lower production volume of the packaging. I use the car stuff too.

 

Well spotted Champ.

£7 quid for a different coloured plastic container and labels?

Anyway, thanks for putting my mind at rest. Niche marketing of lubricants
is a clever way of increasing revenue.

-=V=->

 

I've always been told that car oil is no good for bikes?

 

With what reason given? It's only in relatively recent years that
specific bike-oil has existed anyway; before that you just went on the
gradings.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3 (slightly broken, currently missing)
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

Friction modifiers in *some* synthetic car oils don't like wet clutches
in bikes. Or rather, wet cluitches don't like them, and slip.

 

message

This is basically what I've been told. Any idea what car oils don't have the
modifiers?

 

Molly says...

Ones with JASO MA written on the side of the container.

--
Lozzo
Triumph Daytona 955i SE (Black with added black bits)
Suzuki Bandit 600S (Green with added shit bits)
Yamaha SR250 Delusion (It's "Special")
I ride way too fast to worry about cholestorol.

 

What is this "Wet Clutch" you speak of ;o)

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Hog

SORRY. CAN YOU SPEAK UP? I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE RATTLING NOISE!

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Podium Placed Ducati Race Engineer as featured in
Performance Bikes and Fast Bikes

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
SBS#39 OMF#6 Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (Falling apart) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Yamaha Vmax Honda ST1100 wiv trailer

 

Due to the high loading of the camshaft lobes in my ZG1000 (two valve
springs per lobe, plus working against the mechanical disadvantage
of the forked rocker arms) I have made a deliberate choice of Shell
Rotella T Synthetic 5W-40. It's great oil, has no friction modifiers
and has plenty of ZDDP which is phased out of the new spec car oils.

http://www.shellusserver.com/qa/answerresult.php?rowid=169

"Can heavy-duty diesel oil be used in motorcycles?

Motorcycle gasoline engines may not seem in the same league as the big
displacement diesel engine under your hood, but they share some of
the same lubrication requirements. So yes, in many cases, a premium
heavy-duty universal oil capable of serving both diesel and gasoline
engines is the best choice for your bike.

The high power-to-displacement ratio of a motorcycle engine means
rod and main bearings are subjected to loads that are not normally
found in passenger car engines. The valve train is also highly loaded,
and requires extreme pressure boundary lubrication. The same can be
said about gears in the transmission, which are normally lubricated
by engine oil. Oil additives containing phosphorus protect these
highly loaded extreme pressure areas (in both gasoline and diesel
engines). Because diesel engines have higher loading of components,
more of the phosphorus-containing additive is present than in typical
passenger car oils. And with advanced catalyst systems for gasoline
engines, the phosphorus content has been declining in passenger car oils."

 

<snip>

Good choice. I've been using a common diesel semi-synth engine oil for
my vehicles for years now and nothing's broken yet. Actually, it's an
agri-diesel oil (various makes), largely because it's the most
convenient, but I've always taken the view that hard-working engines in
combines, earthmovers, tractors, etc have a requirement for a better oil
than most tin boxes and are probably closer to bikes that way.

 

what do you mean "most"?

 

is that why you didn't reply to me!

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Hog

Reply?

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Podium Placed Ducati Race Engineer as featured in
Performance Bikes and Fast Bikes

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
SBS#39 OMF#6 Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (Falling apart) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Yamaha Vmax Honda ST1100 wiv trailer

 

Does your number still end 335. It was only a query regarding joining
Christo and I for the ride over to Snett. You were probably flying Sharon or
something fixed wing.

On a different tack, I could *really* do with mounting a couple of (single)
bolt bar risers on the ST top yoke to take Jota bars before any continental
touring..... )

It might require some very lite milling as well as simple drilling.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Hog

Ah. Odd. It does.

Okey-doke. Let me know when.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Podium Placed Ducati Race Engineer as featured in
Performance Bikes and Fast Bikes

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
SBS#39 OMF#6 Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (Falling apart) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Yamaha Vmax Honda ST1100 wiv trailer

 

Some car oils are not good for some bikes with wet clutches as the additives
can cause the clutch to slip.

 

I've been using Halfords 10w40 semi synth car oil in a Divvy 600 and a
Bandit 12 for a year with no problems. My father has never used bike
oil in 50 years of biking. Halfords Car Semi-Synth is identical spec
to the bike oil IIRC. (API SL, ACEA A3 IIRC).

I stopped believing all this shit ages ago. I can't really understand
why people would think the number of road wheels affects the required
oil anyway. Many cars have wet clutches and/or very high performances
engines, many bikes have low performance engines and dry clutches. So
if there was a difference why not have wet clutch standards and dry
clutch standards rather than identical standards and then just leave
the oil retailer to indicate a "difference" in oils using their
packaging based on the number of road wheels?

(Of course the JASO MA standard *is* specifically aimed at wet
clutches if that's important to you.)