Oil check confusion

[Peter Aawen]

Old thread, I know, but what’s the point of idling 30 seconds when the motor is still hot from riding? Why not just shut down after a nice ride, wait a couple minutes for the oil to settle, and then check it?

That 'idle for 30 seconds before shut-down' thing is just to let the Scavenge pumps finish doing their thing properly; if you DON'T do that then you might get an odd level reading because they haven't yet been able to ensure that all the necessary oil has been returned to the Reservoir, especially if you were riding 'spiritedly' before the shut-down.... . You hafta remember that the oil in these things is pumped up to be held in a Reservoir that's higher than the bottom of the crankcase, and that there's NO Sump for the oil to 'settle' into!! . So all this is really just another 'BRP's Dry Sump' thing, you'll eventually learn to live with it.

As for waiting a couple of minutes beyond shutting down after a nice ride, that's not such a great idea either, cos you'll never know how much oil has drained OUT of the Reservoir, and if it's reading low because some has, then that could mean you overfill it with oil!! So, particularly on the V-Twins like your 2010, Dani; then as mentioned earlier in this thread, you should idle for 30 seconds or so before shutting the engine down after a ride of at least 30 mins or so at Highway speeds to ensure all the necessary oil has been pumped up and is IN the Reservoir, and THEN CHECK THE OIL LEVEL WITHIN ABOUT 30 Seconds or you risk over-filling because the oil may have already begun to drain OUT of the Reservoir!!


It's really not rocket science, and it's not really all that hard either; it's just a matter of making it all a habit!

Particularly because you've got a V-Twin Dani, and because of their high revving high performance nature, they DO use some oil, so you need to check your oil fairly regularly; you need to check it AFTER a ride and AFTER letting your engine idle down for about 30 seconds before shut-down; and once you have shut it down, you need to check the oil WITHIN about 30 seconds of said shut-down!

All this really means to me is that when I come back from a ride, or at least when I stop AFTER a good ride, I don't shut the engine down immediately. I stop; put it in Neutral & engage the Park Brake; take my helmet & gloves off, jacket too sometimes, if I want to/feel the need; and THEN I shut it down! As soon as I've shut it down, I grab my 'check the oil rag' and remove the tupperware cover plate over the Oil Reservoir; and I check the oil level, making sure that it's at least about mid-way between the ADD mark and the FULL mark, topping it up to be a bit closer to but never OVER the FULL mark if necessary. I might even do the check & maybe top up thing a couple of times, preferring to add too little oil & repeating if necessary, rather than slopping in too much all at once.... but the whole point of all this is that I've given it enough of a run to get the OIL up to operating temp; I've idled the engine down for about 30 seconds or so to let the scavenge pumps do their thing before shutting it down; I've checked the oil level within about 30 seconds of that shut-down and then topped the oil up only if & as necessary to keep the level between about 1/2 way between the ADD mark & the FULL mark but never OVER the FULL mark - and I can assure you that it's a whole lot harder typing all this out again than it is to actually do it!!

Over to you!