Return to the Motor Page

Changing Oil and Oil Filter

It was such a good saterdaynight, when I returned from freinds in Geldermalsen. It was the first night-ride on the CX, and the rooad was on some places a bit slippery. No so slippery that I was fallen, but neverteless. And on the forum someone told me that one of my postings was not so smart (proberbly true), and that was the last drop. What the he.. out with the Honda! I quit motorcycling! I had a awesome 'dip' Encouriging words, from CX-clubbers and others, pulled me out over it. Right, the motor stays. What's next ? Change the oil, of course, and the filter at the same time. That is one of the tasks that I had planned to do on this motor. Years ago, at the time when I owned a CB550k3 I alway wanted to do it myself, but somehow it always remain in the planning stage. And now I had a motor, and it was unknown when the oil and oil filter were changed. It was more that 2000 Km ago, but could easely be at much as 20.000 km. First I should find the materials. What do I need ?

a	A filter
b	2,5 to 3 liter oil
c	Something to hold the oil.
d	And a few spanners.

First of all I needed a filter. So I toke the telephone and called THV motoren in Veenendaal. Luckely they had a filter in store. So up to Veenendaal, and to join the neccessaty with the pleasant, by motor. The old oil must be a bit on temeperature according to the Honda Workshop Manual. The first hundred meters where a bit strange, again, but the sun was shining, it was dry, and well, all in all it w2as a nice day. In Veenedaal I found, besides the filter, a cup of coffee. Not bad at all. After the coffee I went back to Ede. I parked the CX behind the house, to attent to the next point on my list. And after riding more than 15 Km the oil was a bit to hot, and had to cool down.

Garage Damink, where the car is in service, is five minutes by foot, or ten minutes by car. I bought about 3 liters half-synthetic oil SAE 15W40. I went bach home, to find something to collect the old oil. According to the Manual I have to use a container with a capacitie of at least 3 liters, but where to find such a thing ? Our patato-cooker is big enough, but it will give such a strange taste to the potatoes. The solution was found in a few empty 2 liter plastic milk containers. one of them was cut open, what gave me a container of about 1,5 liter, and two containers of two liters each. I got two spanners, one 12 mm and the other 17 mm, and checked the temperature on the outside of the cilinders. So, the preparations were done. I placed my improvised oil-tray under the engine, and removed slowly the oil-plug. It was a standard oil-plug, not one with a magnet that collects iron scrapings from the oil. The oil itself was hand-warm, and it flowed smoothly into the tray. When that was half-full I placed the plug back, emptied the tray in one of the old milk-cans, placed the tray back, and removed the plug again. I removed the oil-filter house, with the filter, and as expected drained some oil from that aswell.

It was tea-time. While the last drops of the old oil leaked from the CX I had my tea. The removed parts laid onto an old plastic bag, waiting for their turn. The first turn was for the filterhousing, where i removed the old filter. I looked inside for some foreign objects, but could not find any. The oil was now totally drained. Therefore it was time to mount the new filter. First the spring, next the washer, and last the filter were placed over the bolt from the filterhousing. This is stil a standard item, whitout a 17mm nut welded on it, or someting like that. I placed the total of filter and housing with some care on the right place, and also placed the oil-plug.

And at last, very carefully, the new oil was poored into the carter. And maybe you think : "it is only 2.5 liter" but it takes a while to put that through such a small hole. I kept on adding oil until the dipstick pointed out the carter was full, that is, almost until the top-edge on the stick. Dipstich back on again. A few minutes running, and check. The level was dropped slightly, but that was to be expected, since a lot of oil was now sticking on engineparts. All in all I was satified. As a last task the old filter was demolished. Piece by piece I looked if there was a piece of cupper or aluminum to see. That close inspection had a total result of three minuscule parts of aluminium. Nothing to be worried about, at this time.

A test run dimmend the oil-warning light quick enough, and I decided that everything inside was okay. I cleaned everything, wiped the tools clean, stored the remaining new, and the old oil. And in the computer I noted date and km's for the oil and filter changes. Ready.

It's good to own a motorcycle.

Return to the Motor Page