Worn clutch or old oil?

From a lubrication engineer with 35 years experience:



RE: Synthetic Oil and Clutches - Must use oil made for motorcycles without friction modifiers and NO aftermarket additives

 

Never mind that I have ran non-moto oil for thousands of miles with no problems, never mind that thousands of people have run countless millions of miles on non-moto oil with no problems, never mind that I have heard testimony from a RC45 owner that he runs Mobil 0w-30 energy saving auto oil (loaded with friction modifiers) for 45k miles with no problems, but you post that which is clearly biased and sounds spoonfed from oil companies.

What is truly important is regular oil changes.

The ONLY thing I can think that moto oils have rather than auto oils is that they have less thickener agents, causing it to shear less through the transmission, making it "thin" less as it ages.

But that even is debatable.

 

Only problem is cars don't run manual clutches in oil, but if synthetic works in these then who am I to rock the boat, I'm just curious as to what works

 

I respect everyones opinions on this site, and I know there is anecdotal evidence of oils with friction modifiers working in motorcycles, but I follow the recommendation of someone who can provide the tests and technical information gathered as a professional lubrication engineer for 35 years, not exactly "biased or spoonfed by the oils companies", but don't take my word for it, download and read his 120 page document on all aspects of all types of motor oils.

http://orangeroads.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/motor-oil-engineers.pdf

 

This paper states that there is no difference between synthetic oil & mineral oil for a motorcycle west clutch application, just avoid oils with friction modifiers. That is the advice I was looking for. It makes perfect sense.

So do any motorcycle specific synthetic oils have friction modifiers? Or are all brands of motorcycle synthetic oil safe for all wet clutches?

At a quick read I did not see anything about switching from mineral to synthetic. As someone posted, there are chemical reactions that go on between seals and oils. Can switching cause a problem in motorcycles?

 

There is a section on synthetic oils and seals, on page 43:



On the question of is Dave Mann biased? Probably so, as he has been in on the ground floor with Amsoil for years and is their largest private reseller. This comes from respect and knowledge of their products and years of personal use.

 

Motorcycle specific oils work in motorcycles? You bet!

Automotive oils with no modifiers work in motorcycles? Yes, as demonstrated on any forum you can find. And bobistheoilguy.com

There will be those who will say moto oil is better in your moto, and maybe that's true. Just don't go around proselyting that you should only use moto oil, cause that's bs.

I for one use Rotella T6, as it is Jaso-MA certed, it's cheap and plentiful, and I change my oil twice a year to combat oil shearing with an oil that has this thickening range (5w-40).

 

I think we both saying the same thing, no friction modifiers, no aftermarket additives, as long as the buyer knows what he is getting. Safer for many just to buy moto specific oil, and not worry about it.

The case for purely synthetic oils is the lack of viscosity adjusting polymers added to dinosaur oil that break down as soon as you start using it.

Enough said, to each his own.

 

Well said! Thanks!