Oil change question

Nitro6two

Active Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2014
Hello-

I bought a new 2014 TRX450R. I purchased a maintenance plan for 12 months. The plan is suppose to cover engine oil, filter and trans oil changes twice per month and major service twice per year. I have now broke in the engine and have 12 hours of ride time. The dealer told me that I can either bring the bike in for the oil change or they will give me the oils and filter and crush washers to go and I can do it myself. I like a project so I choose to do this work myself. When I went to the dealer to get the supplies they gave me two quarts of engine oil, a filter and a quart of transmission oil and two crush seals. I get home and open the owners manual to the oil change page and I see that the engine should take 0.73 quarts of oil. Why does the dealer give two quarts? Am I missing something? I drained oil and changed filter as the manual says, put the 0.73 qts in and the oil level window says its full after running the engine and then letting it sit the oil level is right at the H mark. I think I have done things correctly and I should be good to go but I am concerned with less than a quart of oil being enough oil for this size engine.

One other item of interest, during my oil filter change I decided to inspect the old oil filter. It had one fold that had a good pile of gritty metallic particles with some bright blue ones, like blue locktite. Only saw a couple flecks of gold material. I assume that this is the left over filings from the machining process that did not get properly flushed from the engine block prior to assembly?

Thank you for reading.
 
also if you don't want to remove the small bolt, you can remove the big one right on the top right of it. and youll see the gears. once the oil hits the bottom of the tooth of the gear that you have in front of you, your done..

if you pay close attention to it you can see the bolt were the oil would come out and its exzactly next the the tooths so this way you don't make a spill and still see the ACTUAL level of the oil..

btw many here will recommend Rotella T or T6 for synthetic. I run the T6 and love it, fyi once you run out of Honda oil..
 
also if you don't want to remove the small bolt, you can remove the big one right on the top right of it. and youll see the gears. once the oil hits the bottom of the tooth of the gear that you have in front of you, your done..

if you pay close attention to it you can see the bolt were the oil would come out and its exzactly next the the tooths so this way you don't make a spill and still see the ACTUAL level of the oil..

btw many here will recommend Rotella T or T6 for synthetic. I run the T6 and love it, fyi once you run out of Honda oil..

Thanks for the help. I will switch to the T6 after I get a few more hours on the engine.
 
The metal on the filter is a little concerning, keep an eye on that. You are safe at about 3/4 of a quart per side. To make things easy I just pour 24 oz. into the transmission, that way I don't strip the check bolt or overfill.
 
Sounds like the dealer is lazy and just giving you extra oil because they don't know... Score for you! Keep the extra in the shelf for after your service plan runs out... You'll have enough oil for an extra year.

Check the filter again after the next change. If there's more then you might have an issue. I'm not surprised you found some in the first oil change.
 
Sounds like the dealer is lazy and just giving you extra oil because they don't know... Score for you! Keep the extra in the shelf for after your service plan runs out... You'll have enough oil for an extra year.

Check the filter again after the next change. If there's more then you might have an issue. I'm not surprised you found some in the first oil change.

Yep this dealership is pretty notorious for laziness. So get this, I was looking over my paperwork from when I purchased the bike, I was wrong. It is not two oil changes per month for a year. It is UNLIMITED oil changes for THREE years! Plus the two free major services per year. I have been saving the extra quart of oil, so after three years I should have a small building full of oil to last me a long long time! I will probably change oil and filter this evening and I will update this thread with my findings in this filter change. Thanks!
 
That is a great extended warranty! Good for you. A very little amount of metallic material will be normal. That's why there is an oil filter. What you don't want, is the filter filling up with foreign debris.
Keep an eye on it. Change the oil constantly. That way if something begins to show, you can limit the damage.
 
That is a great extended warranty! Good for you. A very little amount of metallic material will be normal. That's why there is an oil filter. What you don't want, is the filter filling up with foreign debris.
Keep an eye on it. Change the oil constantly. That way if something begins to show, you can limit the damage.

I plan to change the oil after every ride, heck with the maintenance plan I have there is no reason not to.
 
Update. I changed the oil and filter last night and I am happy to report that I could not find any metal filings at all. There may have been some ultra fine flecks in the oil but they are so small I can't tell. I think I have a good bottom end that is now broke in and ready to go. Thanks to everyone for the comments and the help you all are top notch!
 
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