I recently purchased a 09 GSA and have done one oil change. I purchased the filter and oil from BMW. Looking for an alternate source for purchasing the oil, seems that this weight of oil is hard to find. Any suggestions?
Do buy motorcycle specific oil. I've stuck with the BMW conventional oil. The price is not a deal breaker. I mix the 40 with the 50 weight - - 50/50. Adjust as wanted. Spec. calls for 10w-40. No dead of winter riding for me. Spins fine at 40F degrees. Oil can be easy. ( Make sure that old rubber gasket comes off w/the old filter.) Good luck out there.
Many of us boxer owners use Mobil1 15w-50 oil year 'round. Here in Dixieland, I use it and change it every year. The filter? I use a Purolator. You do not need motorcycle specific oil in the boxer engine. The water cooled boxer with its wet clutch is different inasmuch as just about everything that spins on that motorcycle is lubricated with the engine oil. The wet clutch in the water boxer is said to be fussy about friction modifiers so the motorcycle oils are void of them. So, use an auto oil blend like Mobil1 15w-50 from Wal-Mart and you get a little extra friction modifier in the deal. Oh, if you need an endorsement, Hank has 500,000 + miles on his boxer engine and the rotating assembly is OE...he uses Mobil1. Accept no substitutes.
Why? No wet clutch, which is what motorcycle specific is for... I've ran 15W-40 diesel oil in mine for in excess of 90K miles..hope I didn't do it wrong...
I've been running Johnson & Johnson's Baby Oil in mine for abut 30,000 miles. Runs great, and smells just-out-of-the-shower fresh!
Has anyone used any bad oil these days that has caused a failure? I read all this crap about what oil to use (and not) but I'm not seeing any photos of grenaded mills from using XXXX brand oil.
The guy that drives this uses only XXXX+X..... will never use anything else....:loll He's even got their sticker on the case where you put the oil....
That would be a nice one to see blown apart, and not sure that I would take the guy that rides that one's advice on much of anything, other than how to look real silly in public.
You nailed it jet. All modern oils will do well in your motor. I have used rotella and castrol. Why? I use Rotella in my ford 6.0 and castrol in my Porsche. That way I don't have to buy lots of different oils and keep them stocked. I just stock two. Easy peasy. As others have said in the dry clutch boxer you can't use any oil but in the wet clutch model you will need to use a motorcycle specific oil or one like Rotella. Learning to read the oil bottle labels will tell you what's in them and how good of an oil it is. That way you don't need to rely on any one to tell you what's good. Good luck
The only thing that I have seen that may be suspect is a guy went to a different brand of oil in his Camhead and when starting the bike his valves knocked - hard- for a little while and then went quiet. He wanted me to see it and asked if my bike did that - which it doesn't. I haven't seen him lately to ask him what he found out... Sent from my Samsung Note 3
When I first bought my 09 GSA was told to use 10W50. Brought bike in for a recall and was told to use 20W50. Now told to use 15W50 for the oil distributor could not provide the specifications in the 20W50 blend :huh This is the BMW branded oil..
Not sure, I thought the newer GS's 2011 and up were told to use 10-40 ? or am I mixing up my bikes again?
