My Custom is using 1 qt. of oil every 1500 miles/normal?
 

Hi folks,

I see nothing about this in the owner's manual, but I have noticed about 1 qt. of oil used every 1500 miles or so. No leaks anywhere, no smoke of any kind coming out of the pipes, even on start up.

I never see oil anywhere, including in or around the air filter. bike runs flawlessly, and pulls hard-no issues at all.

Dealer does all my service/inspections. They tell me this is normal for a 103ci upgraded engine.

Just looking for some real world experience on this. This is my firsst bike in many years. Of all the cars I've owned, not one has ever used any noticable amount of oil. So I'm not used to adding oil to a vehicle. Just wanting to make sure.

thanks!

If you take off your A/C you will see some oil blowing back into the intake via the rubber breather tubes, if in fact you still have the SE. But, whether the amount of "blow by" would warrant 1 qt every 1,500 mile on a 103ci...I can't answer. My winter upgrade is going to be the StageII.

I have a 2005 SE Fat Boy with the 103" engine. Oil stays at full mark..
I would guess that you are overfilling it a bit. Do you only check the oil level, a few minutes after shutting the bike off and when it is on the jiffy stand?
If you check the oil level after the bike has set more then a few minutes, some oil can drain out of the tank. Then if you top it off, the extra oil will feed through your air filter.
If you repeat this process several times, you could easily put in an extra quart of oil.
Tom

Valve stem seals probably leaking - what do the spark plugs look like? Any oilly or crusty deposits on either? If so, seals need replaced. Might want to consider some head porting done at the same time.

Not normal even if the dealer says so!!! Check plugs for black/oily deposits. A leak down test will address rings. You should not be having this problem.

I would look at the plugs and remove the A/C for oil leak check.

Had similar oil consumption problem on Reaper. Turned out to be the valve seals. I had them changed when I got the head work done by Head Quarters, and she doesn't use a drop now. Oh, and I was told "it's normal" too, and the dealer wasn't lying - Harley says that it's normal to use that much oil. :rolleyes:

Cheers!

All the advise above is very good. Don't believe anyone that says an engine SHOULD consume oil. The only Harley's that were "designed" to lose oil were the shovelheads and older that had a chain oiler. That was a small oil line that ran from the oil pump to the final drive chain to drip oil on it as the bike ran. The speed of the drips could be adjusted with a screw on the oil pump. If ya don't have a chain oiler... ya shouldn't be losing oil.

I'm like everyone else. A quart of oil used every 1500 miles is NOT normal. That is definitely excessive use.

thanks folks,

I will definitely have this checked and corrected by the other dealer I work with locally.