Hi... I'm new here and I've been riding for six months now. Bought boots, pants, jacket, gloves, and of course helmet. Took the MSF course and am taking the advanced rider course this November. I have an '02 CBR 600F4i and I'm doing all the maintenance myself and while in the process of changing my oil I was told by a friend that my choice of motor oil (Valvoline 20W50 FullSyn) was not a wise one. He said that the full synthetic oil would cause a bike with a wet clutch to slip due to lack of friction. I checked out the Valvoline website and it says that it doesn't recomend using the full synthetic with a wet-clutch set up. Now here's where I'm a little confused (and embarrased)... Does the F4i use a wet-clutch set up? And if so, will the oil that I chose cause harm to the machine? Any tips for a newbie will help.

 

Use 4 stroke motorcycle oil 10-40w where do you live ? 20-50w is thicker not good for cooler states. Syn. is good for your bike ( shifts much better ) I use Mobile 1 for motorcycles Walmart has the best $ But what you put in wont hurt it.

 

Thanks! I live in the upper area of Florida. The tempature is awful in summer... Seeing 95 for a week is no biggie. oh... Is it important to use oil that's JASO approved?

 

IF YOU DON'T HAVE A OWNERS MANUEL DOWN LOAD ONE OR BUY ONE ITS A GOOD INVESTMENT IT TELLS YOU EVERYTHING. BE SAFE, RIDE SMART. V

 

f4i does have a wet clutch.
as long as the oil doesnt have and "friction modifiers" or "energy saving" additives youll be ok.
to be safe use a motorcycle oil and read the package to be sure that its ok for use with wet clutches. if it doesnt say but it is a motorcycle oil youll be ok but car oils dont use engine oil to lubricate the transmission or clutch so your kinda taking a chance.

nbd if your clutch starts slipping, change the oil asap.

 

you'll be fine with car oils, just make sure it's not energy conserving and you swap it out like at 2800 max...this is for dino oil, but for synthetic like mobile 1 you can go longer.

 

The manual says 8k for motor oil. What's up w. that? What's a true oil drain interval? I've got about 3k and it's dark as hell.

 

does the manual say 8K for oil change? no way mang...that's way too much...sure it's not KM?

change every 4K and you should be ok...but if you use regular car oil...no more than 2800.

well...oil could be dark from breaking down or removing lots of grime, dirt, etc. from your motor...you'll need to send it away to know exactly what it was doing...but sounds to me like you used a car oil and it's broken down quite a bit...correct?

 

OK, I'll check on the 8k thing, but I know I saw 8,000.

I used Castrol Synthetic MC 10w-40.

 

it turns dark from contamination not from breaking down.

Oil Can LOOK perfectly clean, but still be no good.
It can look dirty as hell, but will still lubricate.

Its jobs are more then just lubrication, Get a good filter, that will do more for your oil then you think.

Any oil is ok, as long as its not energy conserving like mentioned before, and its doesnt have too many modifiers.

You can always "feel" your oil, if its doesnt feel like oil, but more like water...its gone.