Oil change problem (kind of long winded)

[ChaosCrayons]

Well my bike hit 5000 miles today and I could not find anyone in town willing to do an oil change for under 65 dollars or before april 11th so I decided I would try to do it myself. Keep in mind I have never fixed anything mechanical in my life, never changed oil in anything so this is actually quite a task for me. I can solder OC bridges on video cards without batting an eye but ask me what hole the coolant goes in in a vehicle and I wouldn't tell you with a gun to my head. So I went out and asked some people about differences between (insert brand here) full synthetic oil for cars vs (Same brand) full synthetic for motorcycles and various other questions about additives and how well they hold up at high RPMs. I settled on Mobile 1 T4 full synthetic racing oil for motorcycles. the particular brand did not really matter to me as I trust your favorite brand employs similar level of R&D petroleum chemists as anyone else's favorite brand. The reason I went with Mobile 1? they offered me 4 quarts (I do know I only need 3) plus 2 FRAM oil filters for my bike for 32 dollars. Now onto where my troubles begin, I took off with my new oil and filters and found myself a nice flat piece of parking lot to work out how this oil change thing works. I downloaded the service manual to my phone and after about 5 minutes figured out how to check the oil, it covering all the hash marks I figured that was good. Now on to changing it, I opened the oil filler cap place, and realized I didn't know where the drain plug was. Searching through the service manual and using a basic knowledge of liquid physics (figuring the drain plug would be located somewhere near the bottom) I finally managed to track it done. Low and behold not one wrench that came with my bike fits on that nut. Maybe I am a total noob for assuming the bike would come with every tool I needed to do basic maintenance but either way I am stuck. Also found out that I have no way of getting the oil filter off. is there some kind of special gadget that does this or do I just grab it with something and twist to holy hell until it comes off? Also I am going to try searching for videos to help me figure this out. any input would help as well

 

[Norbert]

use a strap wrench to get the old filter off.
use a k&n oil filter. it has a welded nut that makes it easy to take off.
dont use a fram filter. it really is the worst brand. garbage.

as far as the drain plug, well i forget, but i'm sure it's in the manual.

 

[ChevyFazer]

Search is your friend!!!

http://www.600riders.com/forum/how-tos/18531-how-change-your-oil.html

 

[Davey]

First off, congratulations for taking the brave step to do some work on your bike! An oil change is a good first job to get your teeth into - not too hard but you'll get e little dirty and feel great for doing it yourself and saving some cash.

Secondly, you've come to the right forum - tons and tons of info here about how to change your oil, brands of filter etc. The search button is you friend. In the time it took you to write your post you could have had all the info at your finger tips!

Here's the best write up:

http://www.600riders.com/forum/how-tos/18531-how-change-your-oil.html

Now get to work! Take it slow and have some beer as you go

 

[Davey]

You beat me to it Chevy!

 

[DavisFZ6]

That oil filter can be a pain to get off. I had to poke a hole with a screw driver and hammer it around in a circle to get it off. Never had a problem on cars. I may get the K&N filter next time just to have the nut on the back to make it easy.

Other than that the oil change is pretty straight forward. Good luck!

 

[McLovin]

First, invest into a toolkit. $50 bucks will change your life. Filter is the trickiest part of all of this. Ive been using the k&n with the nut but i managed to strip that nut last time. So i had to use the old screwdriver and hammer trick. You can actually do this relatively clean. You need a long screwdriver with a philips head. You need to pierce from 12 oclock direction and go out again from 3 oclock direction. Walls of the filter are very easy to pierce through. You poke two holes and push the screwdriver all the way thru. Remember you must have a long screwdriver if you want this to be easy. After this you can easily twist off the filter using the handle. You need to let the filter drain thru the second hole before you proceed though. all of this is the last resort obviously

 

[teeter]

I always remove the filter with channel locks. It's cleaner and quicker (for me at least) than some other methods and it works every time.

 

[ebster1085]

Agreed with everything above, and glad to see you decided to try this yourself.

Definitely get yourself a basic tool kit. It will contain almost every tool you need for most fix it and maintainence jobs.

Fram filters are garbage and have poor quality internals that can fall apart with time. I recommend PureOne or Purolator, or if you want to spend a little more and have the convenience of the nut, K&N. Do a search and you can find a variety of different filters that work for our application.

Off hand, I think the oil drain plug is a 17mm bolt...

If you cant get the oil filter off by hand, try a filter wrench. If you dont have one or that still doenst break it lose, do what was said above. Slam a screwdriver straught through it and use it as leverage to turn. Very easy, and I have done this countless times myself.

Lastly, if I can recommend any product, it would be Amsoil motorcycle synthetic. Great stuff, and not overly expensive.

 

[dean owens]

the link provided is GREAT. only thing to add has to do with putting the oil filter back on. based on the amount of tools you have i'm going to assume you don't have a torque wrench to be able to tighten the filter to the correct torque specs. that's fine, neither do i (or many other people who do their own changes).

when putting on your new filter dip your finger in oil and put a coating on the rubber o-ring gasket that'll sit between your filter and the engine. doesn't take much. then hand tighten the filter. once it has made contact and doesn't turn freely just give it a 1/4 turn and call it done. you don't want to over tighten the filter. it just makes it harder to get off the next time around.

other than that, i think you should be good to go. report back and let us know how it goes.

 

[sloring]

I would invest in the right tool for the job. The oil filter wrench is exactly the same one used on a honda (car) oil filter. Not sure if the same oil filter can be used also.

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So if you happened to have a honda too and want to change your own oil, I recommend buying it.

 

[2006_FZ6]

I always remove the filter with channel locks. It's cleaner and quicker (for me at least) than some other methods and it works every time.

Same here, I don't care what the removed filter is going to look like.

 

[sloring]

Same here, I don't care what the removed filter is going to look like.

good point, but if you're going to install the new filter the right way, with the correct torque using a torque wrench, you best get the correct oil filter wrench. The honda one fits like it's made for it (it probably is)

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[jcombs]

Oil filter wrench less than $7 shipped. Made the oil change a breeze for me.
It's the 65mm one... works great!
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