Black Drive Shaft Oil

coneye

.060 Over
Joined
Mar 1, 2010
Messages
156
Location
adelaide
Ride
rt3 , lowrider , xjr1300 650 v stromn
Put myRT3 in for its 16,000 klm service a few weeks ago , I had just done a 65000 klm journey , Anyway gets a call from the dealer , he says , were doing the service mechanic says your drive shaft oil is black , and thats not good , do we have permision to change it ,Have you been on a long journey recently he asked , yeh sure got back last week from one , Oh that explains it he says , long journey's can cause it , Ok change it i said ,

But i was a bit bewildered , black oil is no good , and long journeys can cause it , , ITS A FACKING TOURER , .

Then another call your back brakes are down do you want us to replace them , yeh go ahead no worries , .

Its been raining i've not been out much but was out on the weekend , done around 250 klm , noticed a rumble coming from the back at slow speeds , sometimes a grinding noise sometimes a squeeling noise , so today i takes the panniers off , rode round the corner to warm it up and the back calipers and discs were HOT noticed the discs were bluing , Let it cool down rode round the block again , NEVER touched the back brake , but noticed they were hot again .
Figured well this can go back i've done 500 klm since my major service and had no problems before they done the brakes ,

Anyway thought i would check the drive shaft oil while i was there , guess what plenty in but its black .

I rang the dealer asked him if he replaced the oil when they asked me (they charged for it ) He checked the job sheet said yes they did , so i informed him i'll bring it in tomorow cos the way i see it is your own mechanic said it was bad , and changed it 500 klm ago so either

1 , ,, they charged but did'nt change it
2,,, I have a problem .

The brakes well there was NO problem before it went in , the pads were down not wore out , , now there scorching and grinding .

You thoughts on the black oil .
 
I certainly hope thats what it is, Although it does'nt look good on them because they rang asked permision and CHARGED FOR IT
 
I changed my own 5 times-never black. BTW-next time you have the rear wheel off lube the splines with HONDA moly 60 grease. Another thing-rear gear lube MUST be GL-5-there is NO other rating that applies to the R3 or R3T
 
This is where it gets silly , It is a big dealer , the guys are on wages so its no skin of there nose to do it properly . now when i was lookin at the bike yesterday i made a mental note that the nuts on the casing had spanner scratches on them , i looked at my service book and greasing the splines was not part of thew service , anyhow i dug out the invoice and there it was in the list of what they done
CHECK FINAL DRIVE OIL and GREASE TAILSHAFT
Drained and refilled final drive oil

Point being , if they were thourough enough to grease the tail shaft when it was'nt in the book why , cheat on a cup full of oil , it don't make sence . I am inclined to believe they did change it ,
which leaves me with , what could cause oil to turn black , and this time epecially in 500 klm
 
good point any idea what would cause it to turn black in the first place after all its only done 17,000 klm 10,000 miles and it is a tourer its built to do miles
 
I have seen the sludge build up in several R3s running the stock oil. It tends to break down quickly, and produce black sludge in the bottom of the gearcase.

I normally switch R3s to Alisyn ProGear 21 - type 3 (75w-90) or type 2 (80wt) - and don't seem to have any issues with sludge.
 
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