Low Oil Light

[Bigfish]

Last weekend a buddies Vector went down. As he describes it, he was riding two up with his GF, and wasn't able to see the gauges all that well. Anyway he started to loose power and when he stopped he notices the low oil light is on. Must have been on for a while as now the engine is making alot of noise when started (possible crank or con-rod bearing).

Anyway this weekend another friend (with an Apex) and I (with my RX 1)were running up Pembrooke way, and taking advantage of the long straight railbed we were doing some (ahem) high speed trials. After a couple of prolonged runs (15 -20 mins at 10,000 RPM) my low oil light pops on. I stopped immediately and checked the level. It was down below the "E" but still had oil in the resevoir! Also noticed oil (not a lot) in the air box! Let it cool down and restarted, no oil light! Kept the revs down and rode to Madawaska where I added some oil (almost a litre), and didn't have a problem the rest of the way back to the trailer in Maynooth.

I have been doing some research on this issue and there appears to be a similiar issue with the R1 motorcycle, where prolonged high RPM (in excess of 8000) seems to induce blow-by causing the oil level to drop and setting off the low oil sensor.

Just wondering if anyone else has had this issue.

 

[tedgoesfast]

oil light

my 2005 rx1 has never done that sometimes we run up north 60 and 70 miles an hour for a couple of hours no issue.wha kind of oil are you useing

 

[APEX 06]

How many miles on the sled, most motors will do this with hiip rpms. They brun a little oil at a time. Just see more when its running wop.

 

[Bigfish]

The sled (04 RX-1) has just under 14,000km on it, and I have always used Castrol Syntec 0W40 oil in it.

In hindsight, I didn't check the oil level before the trip as I had only put 300 km on it since changing the oil & filter. I never had an issue with oil consumption before. I will be monitoring the oil usage from now on to determine if this was an anomaly or the indication of other problems.

 

[Jigger]

My 03 burns oil. I also get blow by during high speed runs. I remember reading about putting a small cut in the hose inside the air box this aparently helps. Creates some kind of vacuum Once the oil light comes on it takes at least a liter to bring it back up.

 

[JROCK]

I believe the 04 rx-1s have the slit in the hose that jigger mentions. I would check the oil to make sure it is full and monitor consumption! Check for any leaks to make sure it is burning it. If you find that it is burning that much oil in 300km then i would suspect the rings like you mentioned with the r1 motors.

 

[fixerman519]

My 03 has 12,000 and would burn 1 litre every 300 kms driving hard yamalub syn oil, I changed to pennzoil 5/30 and can run around 790 kms to the litre of oil Mine seemed to burn syn oil like it was gas, but not bad with reg oil.

 

[Bigfish]

My 03 has 12,000 and would burn 1 litre every 300 kms driving hard yamalub syn oil, I changed to pennzoil 5/30 and can run around 790 kms to the litre of oil Mine seemed to burn syn oil like it was gas, but not bad with reg oil.

Interesting!

Thanks for your input guys, I will continue to followup on this.

Just to throw another factor into the mix, at the time the low oil light came on there was indications that the the exhaust doughnuts needed replacement. By the end of the trip (660 km) the sled was getting quite loud.
Just wondering if that had anything to do with the higher than normal consumption?

 

[Sasquatch]

My 03 has 12,000 and would burn 1 litre every 300 kms driving hard yamalub syn oil, I changed to pennzoil 5/30 and can run around 790 kms to the litre of oil Mine seemed to burn syn oil like it was gas, but not bad with reg oil.

Interesting!

Thanks for your input guys, I will continue to followup on this.

Just to throw another factor into the mix, at the time the low oil light came on there was indications that the the exhaust doughnuts needed replacement. By the end of the trip (660 km) the sled was getting quite loud.
Just wondering if that had anything to do with the higher than normal consumption?

No!

 

[Bigfish]

No!

Thanks

 

[low slung]

New donuts on mine a few years back but no dice.Still sucks down dino oil like coca-cola.