After running the bike and putting some miles on it, next oil change take the oil filter and cut it in half to have a look, tell you a lot about what's going on in your motor!

 

Good thought - still have the drained filter from this change in the bag of rags in the trash. Seems like a good thing to do on the first snowy day of the year here.

 

If you have it bro, open it up with a hacksaw and take a look. Filters are another issue, and flawed or damaged elements, revealed only after someone opens one, aren't as rare as we'd like to believe. Given the infrequency of people checking discarded filters and the number of flaws posted on YouTube, one has to believe that shiny looking but functionally gutless filters aren't the rarity we perceive.

Two words; "Chinese outsourcing" !

 

Looks like its a little heavy on all of them to me, but if you haven't been doing it yourself that means nothing. You don't know if the guy at the dealership wiped them off at the last change, and I'm not kidding. Now that you're doing it yourself you'll be able to get a good feel for what's going on.

 

The primary will always have more debris on the plug then the others.They all look normal to me.You can always get an UOA done.

 

I can only comment how my own plugs come out. The engine and trans come out with nothing on them, the primary always has a fuzz that turns to a paste when run through my fingers. Thats what I call normal.

 

Cut the filter open - looked basically pristine to me on both sides of the filter media. No chunks of anything. Media itself looked fine too, other than the spot where I punched a hole to crank it off with a screwdriver (yep, forgot to stop at my buddy's to get his filter wrench...doh!)

That's a very good point - hadn't even considered they might not have been cleaned off when the dealer did the change.

Any recommendations for places to send it for oil analysis? Never done that before. What will an oil analysis tell me?

sounds like what I got out of my primary...





Guess at this point, seems like mixed opinions on whether they are normal or maybe a somewhat heavy on collected material.

On the plus side, checked for leaks/drips today, and saw none except right under the oil filter, where I know I made a heck of a mess getting the old one off. No indication that the new filter is leaking, and no drips from the plugs!

Thanks all for your input, the amount of information that's freely shared here is really cool!

Dan

 

but the term heavy is the result of not being changed every season.....Lot of people do it religiously....but there are those who don't.....How hard was the primary bolts to loosen? That's a good indicator if the primary was ever even done.

 

I don't have any reason to believe the dealer didn't do the primary change before selling me the bike. They are generally pretty well regarded - my assumption is that the primary was changed prior to me buying the bike, 4000 miles and 6 months ago.

I've had the derby cover off several times, between a couple attempts at getting the clutch adjusted right, and now this oil change. No issues getting derby cover screws out, and drain plug came out easy as well.

 

All the drain plugs look normal for an HD @ 4k miles on all 3 holes oil.

BTW,HD recs 10k miles for primary oil change and the prim plug & oil always looks like crap full or contamination (clutch plate fiber & metal contam from comp etc) & oil looking dark & dirty at only 4k-5k miles that i change prim case oil in my bike too vs HD's rec 10k miles for prim case oil change.

Dirty contaminated oil results in more wear which is why i rec 5k miles max for prim oil vs HD's 10kmile rec and why i also rec 10k miles max on trans oil vs HD's rec of 20k miles for trans oil change.

Both the prim & trans oil changes are easy to do and not expensive either so doing the above ensuring there is always cleaner oil with less contamination in it will help ensure longer srv'c life of all components in prim case & trans.

Even though the oil itself may in fact not be past it's ability to properly lube @ the reduced oil change rec i made on for ex the prim case,the problem is it's full of contamination (clutch fiber/metal contam from compensator etc) @ only 4k-5k miles that can cause premature wear which is why i dont rec going HD's rec 10k miles on pri m case oil no matter what mfg's oil your running.

I have changed hd prim case oil in some bikes that had 10k miles and its extremely dirty,can see more contamination in it and even smells burnt too vs when changed @ 5k miles max with no burnt smell,less contamination seen in it and not looking as dirty/dark in color either.

For those that dont agree with my rec to change prim case oil @ 5k miles vs hd rec of 10k miles change your bikes prim case oil @ 10k miles and save it in a clean container/glass jar.

Then change prim case oil @ 5k miles 1x as a clean out / flush and then change ot again @ 5k miles @ keep in drain pan.

Then get the oil prim oil you saved with 10k miles on it and shake it up in the container to get all the contam that settled from sitting off the bottom of the container and then pour it out into a 2nd drain pain to compare how 10k mile prim case oil looks vs 5k mile prim case oil.

Could also pour the 5k prim case oil you just drained into a glass jar too & then compare it.

If diff in what your seeing between 5k & 10k mile prim case oil doesn't get the point across nothing will.

As for motor oil,i rec changing std dino @ 3k miles,semi-blend @ 4k miles & quality full syn @ 5k miles (6k max if on the road) even when the mfg recs going 8k+ miles i wont do it with my air cooled HD that can be hard on the motor oil @ times.

Now a Car app is a diff story because motor & oil are kept at more consistent temp not being as hard on the oil.

Thats why i have used m1 extended perf oil in the wife's car since it was new that a 1yr or 15k miles deal whichever comes 1st that works out to approx 9500-10k miles on avg which is approx the max i'd go on the oil anyway.

Oil is pitch black& very dirty looking when i drain it @ approx 10k miles, but i have never sent it out for testing to see just how good or bad it is at that point.

The Car just turned 100k miles this wk and the motor still runs like new with good power being nice quiet along with still being nice & clean inside when you look in valve cover too,oil use is approx same as when it was new & just broken in too.

Scott