I just finished my first oil change on my 2005 Road Star Silverado. Actually the second on the bike. The first was at the dealer. I used a K&N Chrome oil filter and Castrol Syntec 20/40. My first trip into town I got into a traffic mess. Lots of idling. The engine started sounding noisy. Not loud but different. At take-off it sounded like I'm in the wrong gear, very sluggish. I'm noticing the same sound in all gears till the rpm's get up. It is less noticeable when on the freeway for awhile. Now today the throttle started hanging for a few seconds before returning to idle. Again I got stuck in traffic at first.

Is it my oil? Maybe the bike is getting hot? Oil level is right where it should be on the dipstick......

Thanks,

I really don't know what's going on with your bike but I believe Castrol Syntec is an automobile oil & may be causing a problem with your clutch. If your willing to go to the time and expense of changing the oil again, you could try using a motorcycle specific oil. Remove & drain the filter & reuse it. You could also save the oil for future use in case it turns out the problem was not caused by the oil.

If the problem goes away you will know it was the oil. If not, it's back to the drawing board.

There are good reasons specific types of oils are recommended for use in a particular engine. Experimenting is OK but sometimes ends up costing more.

I have followed the "Great Oil Debate" with ammusement.

Gary

I'm headed to the MC shop today and get oil specific to V-Twin motorcycles. That's where I'll start, and hope from there......


Thanks,

Thumper

Post edited by: thumper_price, at: 2005/10/14 12:24<br><br>Post edited by: thumper_price, at: 2005/10/14 12:28

The best way to know if the oil will be compatible for your bike is to check the API label. That's the dounut label that has the viscosity rating in the center (SAE 20W-40), above will be the performance rating (API Service S?) and below should say nothing. If it says &quot;Energy Conserving&quot; then you should not use this oil in your bike.

Doc

Type in &quot;Motorcycle Oil&quot; on a Google search. The wealth of specific MC info is incredible. For 35 years I have used Valvoline in every bike I have owned with no problems. However, the general concensus seems to be synth is best, then the &quot;Heavy Duty&quot; oils, then the basic oils. I think I am going to try the heavy duty, most of these articles highly recommend them.

I asked about Mobil 1 Extended Performance Full Synthetic 15/50.

It has the circle and says API Service SL/CF-says nothing about energy saving.

It does have some other letters to the side they are:
ACEA,A3,B3/B4 API SL/CF

I have not done the oil yet, but if the weather is nice tomorrow I may do it on both Road Stars His &amp; Hers with frilly seat stuff.

Wildrat

Well.... I went ahead and spent the money for the Mobil 1 V-Twin 20/50 Synthetic formula at my local shop. All is well now!Life is good!

I was going to bring the Mobil 15-50 ext. perf. full synthetic oil back to Wally world, but after reading some of the articles when I did the google search on motorcycle oil, I decided to keep the oil and use it in my two Road Clunkers, and I went ahead and got some Mobil 75-90 Synth. gear oil to put in them. and I got some ngk plugs two steps hotter for the rear cylinders. Of course someone at advanced discount auto parts cannot read, when they delivered the four plugs three were wrong and only one was the correct plug. I guess they do not know what those numbers on the box are for.

Did you know the manual says to ck your gear oil before each ride?

Wildrat

Yesterday I went to another Yamaha dealer and he said he never dealt with the sticky valve thing but they did have a bike that had to much oil in it and it acted the same way. He showed me a bulletin the Yamaha had out on this problem especially with 2004 &amp; 05’s. It seems that the 2004 &amp; 5’s need less oil .
Now back to why I wrote about the bike going to the shop for the pipes, they also did the oil change at this time and they have done every oil change since. Stupid me right.
The problem is that the manual says 5qts. of oil and that’s seems to be about a quart to much. I know there’s a discussion here about how to change oil and they seem right. It goes run the bike til hot, about a couple of miles then let the bike cool down for about 15 min. then check level (my was about a little more than a quart heavy).Seems the oil is getting pumped into the back cylinder because of the vent hose off of the oil tank. This happens more when cold because oil is thicker and doesn’t flow as good, thus backing up in the rear head and flooding the valves, fouling the plugs, running uneven, backfiring, causing it to act like valves are sticking and carbon on plugs. It does all of this when cold because the thicker oil doesn’t flow back through the head. On a hot day it doesn’t seem to act up thus the thinner oil flows through head better.
Hope this helps some of you. I know that I have fought this for a year now and haven’t ridden much because of it but now maybe there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

Good Luck,
Tisley

5 quarts is for a total disassembly. You would never put in more than 4.3 quarts for an oil and filter change.

Doc