oil usage

[ou365]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to air this question,if not bear with me. Bought my '99 nomad in Feb. of 08, with approx. 28k on it, when i got it home i changed the oil right away. Since then i have put on about 5k miles and to keep the oil at least midway of site glass i have had to add near 2 qts. of additional oil. I know my bike has quite a few miles but this seems a bit excessive oil use...has no leaks. Changing oil tonight, will see how it does the next 5k. Any thoughts?

I had an 03 Meanstreak with the 1500 motor.Sold it three weeks ago with 52,000 miles on the odometer.It would use about half quart every 3500 miles. My 05 Nomad (1600) has 45,000 miles and uses not a drop.I use synthetic oil, run it for 10,000 miles with a new filter at 5,000 miles. I have had no clutch problems either. Probably 90% of my miles are highway, not much start and stop traffic.

I mostly ride in town and the bike uses virtually no oil then. But when I ride at sustained high speeds it'll use a pint every 2000 miles or so. My bike is about 32,500 miles now. Part of this might be the design of the crankcase breather. I'm not too happy with the setup.

[macmac]

There seems to be a rash of newer bikes using 1 qt in 1,000 miles. What is odd is the riders see no signs of loss in leaks or smoke.

No one can explain it, and i sure can't. To me there is two ways to loose oil, and you can see, and smell them both. Leaks and gray blue smoke..

Neither of my Nomads ever used a drop of oil according to the window.. My 01 did loose 1 drop after resting over night from the oil/water pump seal area.. but it would take a very long time to loose a whole ounce that way.

My 06 looses none in 3,000 miles and then it gets a oil and filter anyway.

Ou, one thing to consider is the viscosity of the oil and the temps you ride in. If you live where it's hot and you're using 10w-30 oil, then you're going to burn some oil IMO. If you switch to 15w-50 or 20w-50 you'll use much less.

But once the temps drop below about 42^oF those oils are too thick for me, you if you ride in the winter you'll need to change oil when it gets cold, or add something to thin it a little like a cup of Marvel Mystery Oil.

[Scoot]

A friend of mine has a 05 1600 and he changed the oil himself, he put 3.3 qts. in and said it was full to top of sight glass. Well he rode it to work a few days a then checked the level. It was at the bottom of the glass. He couldn't understand why it was low. So he changed oil again and doubled checked how much he put in. After a couple days he looks again and it's at the bottom of sight glass again. He asked me what I thought and I had no idea what was happening and told me he got to thinking and he checked all the holes under the bike. Got a small piece of wire and found one the was plugged. As soon as he unplugged it oil level came back up to top of sight glass. So I guess that was the crankcase vent line. Any of you had that happen?

I'm stumped! I gotta tell you, that makes no sense to me, Scoot.

The crankcase vent on a 1500 is a hose about 1/2" diameter.

It goes from the top of the crankcase in front of the base of the front jug, over the front valve cover, down between the "v" and into the bottom of the right air cleaner backup plate.

I think the 1600 is similar.

[Scoot]

I asked him again today which line it was that was plugged? If he traced it back and he said no, only thing he told me was that out of group of holes that come out under the bike it was the one that stuck down the farthest. When I get some time off I'll try to get with him a see where that one went.

Oh, you mean the udders!

On mine a couple are for the fuel system, but I can't recall what the others do.