I did my 5,000 mile service and switched all the fluids to Redline synthetic oils.

Engine idles smoother, Primary is quite, neutral easy to find and the clutch is smooth as butter on engagement now.

The dealer did the 1,000 mile service and I found the following issues.

Engine oil drain plug way over torqued, transmission drain plug way over torqued, oil filter installed by a gorilla and for the biggie I paid for SYN3 for all three holes and found different fluids in each hole. They put in standard fluids while getting paid for the SYN3 synthetics. Not cool dealer. Not cool at all. You can bet the dealer will not be getting any more service work from me. The engine oil drain plug and transmission drain plug had a liquid thread sealant on them and the primary drain plug had Teflon sealant tape on it.

I replaced the factory drain plugs with three drain plugs from Dimple as they have much better magnets and you don't have to worry about their magnets backing out over time and ending up in the engine oil, transmission or the primary. I don't like using sealants unless you have to and installed all three dimple drain plugs to 15 foot pounds of torque without any sealants and have no leaks as the rubber O-rings are sealing properly.

The primary was making all kinds of noise at an idle and the Redline primary oil has stopped all the racket and is nice and quiet now.

The engine heat feels less as well when stopped in traffic, outside temp was 91 degrees and I could feel there was not as much heat coming off the engine as before in the same stop and go traffic conditions.

The oil filter is a pain in the butt to change. I bought a flexible drain funnel (green pig funnel) but just could not get it all the way back so some oil from the filter drained straight down. The bikes with lower fairings make it a complete pain to remove the filter. I used a K&N filter so next time the filter won't be so hard to remove as I do not install oil filters like a damn gorilla.

If you want a job done right you just have to do it yourself, sad how America has become this way. To many service techs who just don't care and to many dealers who look for any way to make an extra dollar even to the point of installing lessor products while charging you for the good stuff.

When you do the work yourself you know what went into all three holes, you know the proper torque specs where used and you know the person working on it cares because it is your own bike that you are servicing so you get the full satisfaction of a job well done.

 

I did my 1000 mile. in my 15 Street Glide. Mobil 1 Vtwin in the engine, Mobil1 10-40 in the primary/transmission. Same as I did with my 08 Fatboy. But plan on going with Syn3 in the primary/ trans at the 3K oil change. Been advised that the 10-40 is a little light for the 6 speed and primary.

Unless it is something I cannot do, I do my own.

Tim

 

I agree....do the 3 main fluids yourself. My 15 SG goes in for the 5k tomorrow. When I get it home, I'm putting all Redlne products in it as well. Hoping the trans will be quieter with shockproof in it. Next week, the last of the upgrades will be done with the Progressive cartridge/spring set up. Trying to improve the highway handling at 75+ mph.

 

I put in Mobil1 20-50 V Twin in engine, formula + in the primary and Redline Shockproof or Amsoil 75-110 or 75-140 in the tranny and your good to go. Running the redline in the tranny right now and it's smooth so may stick with that !

 

I agree do it yourself. To me it's a good time to check out the bike since your down a close to it anyway. After the service is a great time for a good wash and then a nice ride. Always a enjoyable day for me.

 

Bill what did these plugs cost from dimple, 34.95 for 3 or was that each ? I went to there web site but wasn't clear on how they were priced.

 

I used Formula+ in the primary when I did the 5K. After reading all the positive "miracle" posts about the Red Line I dropped the F+ at around 7500 miles and put in the R/L. Made a difference for about 1K miles, quieter and smoother running then got just as noisy as before. At 9800 miles (right before my 10K) I changed back to Formula+, I think it plays better with my primary. One thing I did was change the trans oil from F+ to Bel-Ray (sold at the dealer), after about 1K miles I notice quite a difference, trans "clunk" is quieter, sometimes non-existent and trans shifts very smooth. Regarding the filter, I changed to the K&N (also sold at the dealer) with the nut on the bottom, made installation a breeze and hopefully a breeze coming off at 15K.

 

Please explain how you determined that SYN3 wasn't used, or for that matter how you determined that these fluids were "standard vs. synthetic?

 

They are 34.95 each so it comes out to 110 dollars and change with shipping.

To me it is just cheap insurance as they are far better than the factory drain plugs.

 

Gear oil is very distinctive smell wise, that one is easy to determine. When I drained each hole they where all supposed to be SYN3 so they should have been very consistent in appearance and viscosity with the engine oil being darker in color. The engine oil was clearly an engine oil. When I dumped the transmission it was a completely different type of oil, that gear oil smell the coloration was much different a grey color and the consistency was different, then when I drained the primary it was a golden color and again the consistency of the oil was different than the other two.

It was clearly three different oils. When I first bought the bike I asked if I could pay the difference to upgrade to SYN3 in all the holes and was told I could but they don't like to. He said they use different oil in each hole. I did not pursue it any further at that point. I had bought the 10,000 mile oil change package with the bike because this is my first Harley and really did not have much knowledge about their oils so I figured it would be safe. Well reading the contract you get upgraded to SYN3 oil as long as you perform the service at the dealer you bought the bike and contract from. If you go to a different dealer then you get the non SYN3 oil unless you pay the difference.

When I took in the bike I made sure they were to put in SYN3 in all three holes. Upon draining the fluids it is clear they did not use SYN3 in all three holes as the contract states but did their normal oil change using oils other than SYN3. Again the transmission is easy to detect as gear oil has that smell you can't miss. The primary was a golden color did not look dirty at all but was thicker than the motor oil I drained. Both the transmission and primary where a thicker fluid but different from each other.