2007Fizzer
Senior rider
Changed my oil Saturday. Last fill was with Yamaha Semi-Synthetic Yamalube 20w-50 (exactly as suggested by my usually reliable, nearby dealer), and was put in the bike less than a year ago (about 3M miles ago).
I use a piece of metal flashing to make a "runway" for the oil to transit from the drain hole to the catch basin. I always pull out the oil drain bolt and the oil filter, open up the fill plug, and take out the dipstick. Then I let the oil drain out while I change the coolant. I even had supper while the oil drained out, to give it more time to drip. So perhaps an hour and a half later, I checked the setup to see if it had stopped draining yet.
Much to my surprise I noticed two "drip lines" going down the piece of metal flashing into the catch basin. One "line" was fairly thick oil, and the large drops were moving fairly slowly straight down the center of the piece of metal flashing, as you'd expect. The other "drip line" seemed very unusual. Those relatively tiny "drips" would form rapidly at the drain hole, and shoot down the side of the metal flashing into the catch basin at great speed. The tiny drops were moving so fast they actually formed their own path down the metal flashing, and totally stayed out of the path of the slower, thicker oil droplets.
I "caught" several of the smaller, faster droplets on a paper towel and noticed they made lighter marks than you'd expect for, say 30 weight oil. They didn't have as much oily substance or oily content as you'd expect for motor oil, but they certainly didn't appear to be water or gas either (I did smell them). There was also no visible separation of the spent oil in the catch basin, so the portion of the "tiny drops" must have been fairly small. (I really should have caught some of both types of droplets in a clear plastic pill bottle, and then waited to see if they visibly separated after being stored for a day or two.)
Does this sound like a breakdown or separation of the semi-synthetic Yamalube oil into its component parts - dino oil and synthetic oil? Is this something common? Any other possible problem you see? Certainly has me scratching my head.
FWIW, I filled up with full synthetic Shell Rotella T6 in the blue bottle. Based on a number of comments about Yamalube, in various forums, I'm done being extorted by Yamaha for what looks like lesser quality oil.
I use a piece of metal flashing to make a "runway" for the oil to transit from the drain hole to the catch basin. I always pull out the oil drain bolt and the oil filter, open up the fill plug, and take out the dipstick. Then I let the oil drain out while I change the coolant. I even had supper while the oil drained out, to give it more time to drip. So perhaps an hour and a half later, I checked the setup to see if it had stopped draining yet.
Much to my surprise I noticed two "drip lines" going down the piece of metal flashing into the catch basin. One "line" was fairly thick oil, and the large drops were moving fairly slowly straight down the center of the piece of metal flashing, as you'd expect. The other "drip line" seemed very unusual. Those relatively tiny "drips" would form rapidly at the drain hole, and shoot down the side of the metal flashing into the catch basin at great speed. The tiny drops were moving so fast they actually formed their own path down the metal flashing, and totally stayed out of the path of the slower, thicker oil droplets.
I "caught" several of the smaller, faster droplets on a paper towel and noticed they made lighter marks than you'd expect for, say 30 weight oil. They didn't have as much oily substance or oily content as you'd expect for motor oil, but they certainly didn't appear to be water or gas either (I did smell them). There was also no visible separation of the spent oil in the catch basin, so the portion of the "tiny drops" must have been fairly small. (I really should have caught some of both types of droplets in a clear plastic pill bottle, and then waited to see if they visibly separated after being stored for a day or two.)
Does this sound like a breakdown or separation of the semi-synthetic Yamalube oil into its component parts - dino oil and synthetic oil? Is this something common? Any other possible problem you see? Certainly has me scratching my head.
FWIW, I filled up with full synthetic Shell Rotella T6 in the blue bottle. Based on a number of comments about Yamalube, in various forums, I'm done being extorted by Yamaha for what looks like lesser quality oil.
