OH NO! Castrol GTX High Mileage - clutch slipping

Oh no, suddenly my clutch is slipping after 200 miles on Castrol GTX High Mileage oil. So there must be some additives (friction reducers) or what?

I will switch the oil to Castrol 4T GPS 15W50 or?

Then the clutch will go back to normal I hope.

 

I'm no expert, but I would imagine oil for high mileage car engines would have friction reducers.

Does you bike have over 100k miles on it?

You might need to flush the oil, that is, fill it up with the new motorcycle oil, run it through a minute, drain it, dispose of it, and fill the bike up with fresh oil.

 

That's why I quit running Castrol car oil. I've run GTX in the Norton for its whole life, but recently switched to Castrol 4T 20W50 motorcycle oil.

I've been running Spectro 20W40 conventional "motorcycle" oil in the XJs and Castrol 4T 20W50 in the hot part of the summer. But the Spectro is EXPENSIVE and availability is becoming limited.

I'm going to try Castol ACT>EVO 4T semi-synth 20W40 motorcycle oil in my XJ and see how it works.

 

Don't use standard car oil in your case unless you don't like it when your clutch works. haha.
Get motorcycle oil. If it is for use with a wet clutch it will say it right on the front.
I use 20w-50 Valvoline 4 stroke oil. Right under the name it says for use with wet clutches or something like that. So far it has been the least problematic for me. Don't use the standard stuff in your bike. Flush that out as day7 suggested and redo it.

 

I sympathise with Pirok as Europe seems less well served with regards to motorcycle oil. There are a few brands but Castrol motorcycle oil is generally the cheapest!! (You can guess what that means about the others)

 

I had car oil in mine and the clutch slipped,I switched to 15w40 and it was ok........

 

Bike oil that is....

 

OK I will do this: change the oil with standard mineral oil, go with it for a 100 miles and change to a real motorcycle oil. Thanks for the advice and comments.

 

When you guys are having the slipping problem is it in all the gears or only certain ones? I just changed the oil in mine and it has been slipping in 4th and 5th gears. I was planning on changin the friction plates in the clutch.

 

Could be the oil - in a manual transmission car the best way to test the clutch is to load the engine in 4th gear - by driving slowly up an incline.

This follows that the clutch might only slip in the high gears of a bike.

Taks a look at your oil can. If it says anything about "Friction reducers" or the like it is likely to be the culprit.

 

just my 2 cents use thinner oil when flushing it out it will clean it out better and possibly save your clutch if it hasnt burnt or glazed thinner means more friction after you flush it go back to your normal oil. also from what ive seen over the years your clutch is probbibly pretty worn and the additives and springs getting weaker and friction plates glazing accellerated it. you also might want to loosin it up when your flushing it. keep them plates tight. if your oil turned black or smells burnt its probbibly to late . best of luck

 

ok, I will check the bottle, but how do I load engine?

 

ok, I will check the bottle, but how do I load engine?

 

CAR oil wont make your clutch slip- theres no such thing.
conventional oil is just fine and dandy- after all thats what was put in it at the factory- JUST conventional works, its when you get to the additives- friction reducers, neuro neutron spacial con-modulation amplifiers and such to prevent wear is what makes the clutches slip because our clutches work via friction

synthetics have been successfully used in these bikes as well- if valvoline is willing to back your car up to 300K miles with their syntetic stuff, im going to presume its good stuff - I dont know if it has any additives and such, but i plan on checking it out soon

i run shell rotella 15w 40 in my bike now without a hitch as have many other people..

 

i aggree with schooter but im not sure what additive they put in high mileage oil it might have something to fill the scratches in the bores im not sure. i stay away from special oils like that i figure why mess with a good thing that works

 

I checked the bottle and it is 10w40 Store brand oil. Bottle says nothing about friction anything just sludge protection. So how do I load the engine?

 

Like go up a hill in a high gear but at low revs - say 3000.

If the engine is spinning fast the clutch is less likely to slip.

You have already said your clutch slips in the high gears and it was fine before you changed the oil. It MAY BE the clutch but it is quite a coincidence.

 

WHAT is the reason for this Clutch to be slipping.

1) Adjustment.

The XJ Clutch Throwout arrangement REQUIRES Periodic Adjustment.
Use the Handy Clutch Perch Adjuster ... Make sure that the Clutch IS getting fully released and that the Adjustment is correct.
As the Clutches wear-down ... the Cable needs to be Adjusted.

2) Oil Contamination?

Possibly. But, the symptoms don't start Immediately. All the Clutches have to absorb the Friction Reducers and that takes awhile. IF the Clutches are contaminated by a Friction Reducing polymer ... flushing the Bike with thinner Oil blessed by the Pope isn't going to resolve the situation. A contaminated Clutch is going to need to be removed and cleaned with stuff you can't pour into the Bike.

3) Oil.

Comes in Plastic Bottles. ALL Information, words, artwork and symbols other than the RATING Symbols are meaningless.
Harley ain't in the Oil Business.
Yamaha ain't in the Oil Business.
Harley and Yamaha are in the expensive Oil-filled Bottle business.

Don't spend more money for DESIGNER Oil Bottles.
The ONLY information you need is Viscosity and Rating.

 

i guess we'll never know about the "high mileage" part if the clutch slips

 

I don't remember it doing it last year. It also was the 1st oil change and long ride of the year. I was planning on changing the oil after a few weeks of riding and using a better name of oil. Maybe even synthetic. I'll do another oil change before I order parts for the clutch.

 

The standard oil used in all of the Yamaha XJ bikes coming out of the factory was Penzoil 20w-50 SF detergent grade. It was just performance motor oil with no additives for friction reduction or clutch protection. They all came with 20-50.
The reason we are told NOT to use car oil is simple. Go find a bottle of standard motor oil... people automatically assume they need the best one for a high rpm motor or a performance motor. So what they do is get not just car oil with additives like almost ALL of the oil will have. But they get oils with tons of additives. Additives that bind to parts, additives to keep it lasting longer, friction reducers, and heat reducers. If you stay away from conventional motor oil made for cars you wont accidently mix "durablend" with what's left of the conventional in your motor. Or you won't accidentally put something in there that will reduce ALL friction including the plates in your clutch and really going through a rough time because it ended up being that the nice sounding "long life" ad on the bottle means that crap creates a film on all of the moving parts then binds with heat.
I watched a big study on synthetics and semi-synthetics and that is exactly what they do.
Use motorcycle oil and the kind that keeps a wet clutch in mind or use an oil with the least amount of additives possible. But schooter is right... car oil SE or SF grade will work but stay away from additives like graphite or molybdenum.

 

Unfortunately, the ratings symbols are meaningless to our motorcycles.

Go to the API website, they are recommending SM. Go to Castrol website and look at Castrols lowest brand. "Meets or exceeds SM".

Go the the Castrol motorcycle oils. They are all SG, which was phased out of API in 1996.

According to my manual, we need at least SE, which is "not suitable for gasoline powered engines built after 1979", according to the API.

The issue is not additives, per se, but WHAT additive. In car oils, it's friction reducing polymers (maybe, it seems like the additive is still kept secret). In motorcycle oils, its zinc dialkyldithiophosphate aka ZDDP, which is an ANTI-WEAR additive. Very good thing. This tells a strong story.

When it counts, I would NEVER use an lubricant that wasn't SPECIFICALLY designed for my application. This includes gas turbine oil, steam turbine oil, diesel oil, auto oil, motorcycle oil, or even vegetable oil. You laugh...think biodiesel.

I work with many different lubricants and fuels, all using different MIL-SPEC numbers, and using a similar but wrong one is grounds for severe punishment. And rightfully so.

 

In over 45 years of owning some kind of quick-moving two-wheeler; I've been Oiling them with Castrol 20/50.

Back when I was Racing; I'd have cases of the stuff stacked in the Garage and ran all the Bikes and a MGB on it.

When I sold the MGB it had 285,000 Miles on it and was going strong on !st OS Pistons. After two trips to the Sun and back the Main Bearings and Rod Bearings were still Standard.

If it tasted better; I'd put it on Pan Cakes!

 

186 million miles?? And I thought 100k was a lot.

 

actually 371,823,228 is two trips but whats a few million miles among friends

 

Solved the problem - new clutch plates, was not that expensive and very easy to change. So I learned that lesson, things are not what they used to be. Castrol GTX was a fine ordinary oil in the old days, but now it's a fine high tech oil to old cars and NOT to motorcycles.