Forum

[NicoV]

What can be considered a normal oil consumption for a Bullet 500 ?
Mine is from January '99. I never ride fast. I hardly every exceed 75 km/h. My average speed must be something like 65-70, the ideal speed for Norwegian country roads.

Its oil consumption is about 800cc per 1000 km.

[papasmurf]

That seems excessive to me.

[Exile]

65 - 70... what? Kilometers or miles? (I presume Km in Norway..?)

[Exile]

OK, we need an 'edit' button. Sorry.. you mean Km..


That does seem a little high on oil consumption.

[Bullet Whisperer]

A Bullet in pretty good shape shouldn't really use much, if any oil at all.

[Mark M]

Have you any idea where the oil is going? I mean, is there smoke in the exhaust, does the engine leak a lot, do the plugs oil up? The bike is now 18 years old and depending on mileage (sorry, kilometreage!) it may need a rebore or possibly bore glaze busting. You don't travel very fast and it might possibly have glazed up as a result?

REgards, Mark

[Adrian]

With Mark M's comments in mind, your bike could just be blowing excessive oil out of the crankcase breather if the piston rings aren't doing their job properly. A.

[Beezabryan]

maybe our friend is filling the engine oil to the max mark on the dipstick rather than midway between the max & min marks

[Mark M]

Excellent observation Bry, that would do it. It will be interesting to see what Nico says about where it is/isn't appearing!

REgards, Mark

[Chris Tindal]

Backing what Bullet Whisperer said, on a 500 mile round trip from Yorkshire to Wiltshire and back, cruising at mainly 60 mph, my 99 Indian 500 hardly used any oil and wasn't topped up at all.