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Oil changes... how often?

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Old Jul 8, 2009 | 10:04 AM
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Default Oil changes... how often?
Ok, sorry to ask a seeminly simple question, but how often do you guys normally change your fluilds? I have an '01 Road King currently with about 12K miles on it. I bought it with 11K, so I've put 1K on it so far in the past 2 months.

I realize that I should already have a service manual but I still haven't bought one. Does it have a service schedule in it?

Thanks in advance,
Joe
 
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Old Jul 8, 2009 | 10:24 AM
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Owners manual says every 5000 mi for engine oil and filter. Some riders cut that in half. I used too, but since changeing to syn3 oil, I do the 5000!
 
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Old Jul 8, 2009 | 10:27 AM
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Originally Posted by will2002
Owners manual says every 5000 mi for engine oil and filter. Some riders cut that in half. I used too, but since changeing to syn3 oil, I do the 5000!
+1 on 5000 engine, but I do 10000 for trans & prim with syn3
 
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Old Jul 8, 2009 | 10:29 AM
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Originally Posted by joewg3
Ok, sorry to ask a seeminly simple question, but how often do you guys normally change your fluilds? I have an '01 Road King currently with about 12K miles on it. I bought it with 11K, so I've put 1K on it so far in the past 2 months.
Do you have some sort of documentation on when it was last changed? If you don't, I'd recommend an immediate change and going with the intervals in the owners manual moving forward. There's a lot more to the 5k service interval than an oil change. Get that service manual, it will answer all your questions.
 
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Old Jul 8, 2009 | 10:49 AM
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I do it once a year, unless the 5000 miles comes before that.
 
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Old Jul 8, 2009 | 10:51 AM
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I change my oil in the engine every 3000 miles. I would rather err on the side of caution than have any sort of problems.
 
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Old Jul 8, 2009 | 10:54 AM
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I think if you are running synthetic, the 5000 recommended would be fine. If I were running with dino, I'd be closer to 2500 or 3.
 
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Old Jul 8, 2009 | 01:50 PM
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Originally Posted by krussell
Do you have some sort of documentation on when it was last changed? If you don't, I'd recommend an immediate change and going with the intervals in the owners manual moving forward. There's a lot more to the 5k service interval than an oil change. Get that service manual, it will answer all your questions.
When I bought it they made me wait a week until I could pick it up so they could make sure that all the fluids were changed and all service completed. I've have the paperwork on all of that, so I'm pretty sure that I'm caught up until when I bought the bike.

Thanks for all the good info guys. I wasn't sure if everyone changes all the fluids or just the oil. The best thing I guess I can do is get my grubby hands on that manual!
 
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Old Jul 8, 2009 | 02:46 PM
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I run Syn 3 in engine, primary, and trans. Change the engine and primary every 5,000 miles and the trans at 10,000 miles.
 
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Old Jul 8, 2009 | 02:55 PM
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I changed my oil at 6200 miles and sent it to Blackstone Labs to analyize.They said go another 1000 miles, oil was in perfect condition. I run Royal Purple 20-50 Auto oil and run an oil cooler.
 
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