Explain this

reilig

I have a honda trx500 quad. its a 06 with about 900 hours and about 15000 km. The dealer that i bought it from told me about the service schedule every 100 hours and recommended Castrol 4 stroke oil for it - it wa swhat he had serviced it with.

Put about 100 hours on it in the first 10 months and noticed close to the service time that it had used about 250ml of oil. Topped it up and all was grand. Bought oil filter and castrol from another quad and motorbike repair shop close to where I work and he raved about how good the castrol oil was and well worth paying the extra money for.

Anyway, fast forward a few months, I had 70 hours on the quad and it was low on oil. Topped it up with 250ml but with 90 hours, it needed another top up. Thought to myself, this thing is f&c%ed and is going to need new rings.

That was at the start of this year. I tried a different oil after that - elf 4 stroke full synthetic. It was a good bit cheaper than the castrol. Vowed to keep an eye on it and get it through the summer and bring it to a repair shop for diagnosis when its needed less during winter.

Anyway, to my amazement, after checking the dipstick nearly every day for 4 months, the quad only used a very tiny bit of oil - not enough to warrant topping up. (I presume this would be normal for a quad anyway). Now I have over 70 hours done on it with its second change of elf oil and it hasn't used any oil either.

So, did it fix itself or was it the oil ???

Both oils are up to and above the spec that Honda recommend for the quad. The quad never smoked on the castrol oil and doesn't smoke on the elf either, but it sounds smoother on the elf.

doctorchopper

I would say stick with the oil you are using now, with over 15000 km's its probably no harm in checking the valve clearances and a compression check or cylinder leak down check.

CJhaughey

Sounds like the Elf is a higher quality oil than the Castrol, were they both the same viscosity?
What was the Castrol that you used ?
Was it full or semi-synthetic?
Sometimes heavier weight oils work better than lighter ones even though they are specced the same.
I think that Castrol is overrated TBH, lots of advertising but nothing really much in the way of performance over other Oils.

Pkiernan

Be careful when using synthetic oils in Honda quads.

In Hondas, the oil that lubes the engine also circulates through the automatic transmission. Some synthetics use anti friction additives which will cause your transmission friction plates to slip. Your quad will then at first feel to lose power and then stop moving all together.

When you say that the specs of the oil are above what Honda recommend, does it specifically say that they are suitable for use in your Quad?

reilig

Pkiernan wrote: »

Be careful when using synthetic oils in Honda quads.

In Hondas, the oil that lubes the engine also circulates through the automatic transmission. Some synthetics use anti friction additives which will cause your transmission friction plates to slip. Your quad will then at first feel to lose power and then stop moving all together.

When you say that the specs of the oil are above what Honda recommend, does it specifically say that they are suitable for use in your Quad?

Th quad manual says that I should be JASO-MA/MA-2 10w30 which must be specific for 4 stroke engines to prevent transmission and clutch slip. Both the elf and the Castrol that I was using meet this requirement.

The castrol oil that I was using was Castrol Power1.

CJhaughey

That Castrol Power 1 is semi-synthetic.
Sounds like the ELF is the better oil and suits the engine better.
Horses for courses, I find that engines run better on some oils than others, as long as its a good quality oil then I would have no fear of running it.
Motorcycle specific oils will be fine as most bikes have wet clutches the manufacturers have the correct additives to stop clutch slip.

reilig

CJhaughey wrote: »

That Castrol Power 1 is semi-synthetic.
Sounds like the ELF is the better oil and suits the engine better.
Horses for courses, I find that engines run better on some oils than others, as long as its a good quality oil then I would have no fear of running it.
Motorcycle specific oils will be fine as most bikes have wet clutches the manufacturers have the correct additives to stop clutch slip.

Yes, I read over the 2 bottles again last night. the Castrol is Semi-Synthetic and the Elf is fully synthetic. Both have the same JASO - MA2 markings and detail that they have the additives to prevent clutch slip.

Checked oil last night again, as I have been away from it for a week and it has done a lot of hours. It still hasn't dropped a bit.

Engine seems to be running fine on teh Elf so I'm going to stick with it!!

This is great!!