Choosing the right motorcycle jacket can feel overwhelming. There are so many options, styles, and features to consider. But don’t worry - I’m here to help you navigate through the noise with clear, honest insights. Together, we’ll explore what makes a great riding jacket, what to look for, and how to pick one that fits your needs perfectly. Why Trust Motorcycle Jacket Reviews? When it comes to motorcycle gear, safety and comfort are non-negotiable. That’s why reading motorcycle jacket reviews is essential before making a purchase. Reviews give you a real-world perspective on how jackets perform on the road, in different weather conditions, and over time. I always recommend looking for reviews that are unbiased and detailed. You want to hear about the pros and cons, not just the shiny features. Honest feedback helps you avoid costly mistakes and find gear that truly supports your riding style. Here’s what you should expect from a trustworthy review: Clear descriptions of materials and build quality Insights on fit and comfort during rides Information on protection features like armor and abrasion resistance Comments on ventilation and weatherproofing Durability over months or years of use By focusing on these points, you’ll get a well-rounded picture of each jacket’s value. What are riding jackets for? Riding jackets do more than just look cool. They serve several important purposes that protect you and enhance your riding experience. Here’s a quick rundown: Protection: The primary role is to shield you from injuries during falls or accidents. Jackets often include armor in key areas like shoulders, elbows, and back. The materials used are abrasion-resistant to prevent road rash. Weather resistance: Jackets keep you comfortable by blocking wind, rain, and cold. Some are waterproof or water-resistant, while others offer breathability for hot days. Visibility: Many jackets feature reflective panels or bright colors to make you more visible to other drivers, especially at night. Storage: Pockets designed for easy access to essentials like your phone, wallet, or keys are a practical bonus. Style: Of course, a jacket reflects your personality and riding style, whether you prefer classic leather or modern textile designs. Understanding these functions helps you prioritize what matters most for your rides. Key Features to Look for in Motorcycle Jackets Not all jackets are created equal. When you’re shopping, keep an eye out for these features to ensure you get the best value: Material: Leather is durable and offers excellent abrasion resistance but can be heavy and less breathable. Textile jackets are lighter, often waterproof, and come with mesh panels for ventilation. Armor: Check if the jacket includes CE-rated armor or if it has pockets to add your own. Quality armor protects your joints and spine without restricting movement. Fit: A good jacket fits snugly but allows freedom of movement. Look for adjustable straps at the waist, cuffs, and collar to customize the fit. Ventilation: Mesh panels, zip vents, or removable liners help regulate temperature. This is crucial if you ride in varying climates. Weatherproofing: Waterproof membranes or coatings keep you dry. Some jackets have removable liners for warmth in colder months. Visibility: Reflective strips or bright colors improve safety during low-light conditions. Pockets and Storage: Multiple pockets with secure closures are handy for carrying essentials. Taking time to evaluate these features will help you find a jacket that suits your riding habits and environment. How to Choose the Right Jacket for Your Riding Style Your riding style and typical conditions should guide your jacket choice. Here’s how to match jackets to different needs: Commuters: Look for lightweight, breathable jackets with good ventilation and weatherproofing. Pockets for gadgets and reflective elements are a plus. Touring riders: Comfort over long distances is key. Jackets with removable liners, excellent ventilation, and ample storage work best. Durability and protection are also important. Sport riders: Aerodynamic fit and high-quality armor are essential. Leather jackets or textile jackets with reinforced panels offer the best protection at high speeds. Adventure riders: Jackets that combine rugged durability, weather resistance, and ventilation are ideal. Look for multi-season versatility and plenty of pockets. Knowing your riding habits helps narrow down your options and ensures you invest in gear that truly supports your journeys. Why I Recommend Checking MotoGearRater Jacket Reviews Finding reliable information can be tricky. That’s why I often turn to motogearrater jacket reviews for trustworthy insights. They provide impartial, in-depth reviews that cover all the essentials without bias. Their goal is to help riders make smart choices by offering clear pros and cons, detailed feature breakdowns, and real user feedback. What I appreciate most is their commitment to community. They don’t just review gear - they foster a space where riders can share experiences and advice. This makes it easier to find jackets that fit your needs and budget. If you want to make an informed decision, checking out their reviews is a smart step. Tips for Maintaining Your Motorcycle Jacket Once you’ve found the perfect jacket, keeping it in good shape is important. Here are some simple tips to extend its life: Clean regularly: Follow the manufacturer’s instructions. Leather jackets usually need special cleaners and conditioners, while textile jackets can often be machine washed on gentle cycles. Dry properly: Avoid direct sunlight or heat sources. Air dry your jacket on a hanger to maintain shape. Store carefully: Keep your jacket in a cool, dry place. Use padded hangers to prevent creases. Inspect armor: Check armor inserts for damage and replace if necessary. Waterproofing: Reapply waterproof treatments as needed to maintain weather resistance. Taking care of your jacket not only keeps it looking good but also ensures it continues to protect you effectively. Your Next Step to Better Riding Gear Choosing the right motorcycle jacket is a personal journey. It’s about balancing protection, comfort, style, and budget. I hope this guide has made the process clearer and less daunting. Remember, the best jacket is one that fits your riding style and keeps you safe on every ride. Don’t rush your decision. Take your time to read reviews, try on different jackets, and consider your specific needs. And when you’re ready, check out trusted sources like MotoGearRater to get honest, detailed feedback. Happy riding, and stay safe out there!

Tim Bob is a motorcycle mechanic with 26 years in the trade and 35 years riding. He works at Tim Bob Motoworks. He reviews MotoGearRater repair guides for technical accuracy. What technical review means here A repair guide on this site carries a reviewer credit only when a working mechanic has read it. Guides that have not been through that check say so in plain words at the foot of the page, rather than staying silent and letting a reader assume otherwise. Review covers the procedure and the reasoning behind it. It does not add model-specific numbers. MotoGearRater publishes no capacities, no torque figures and no service intervals, because those live in the service manual for your machine and nowhere else. Every guide points you back to that manual for them. Guides reviewed by Tim Bob How to Change Motorcycle Oil The Drain Plug Oil Change, Step by Step Changing Oil With a Vacuum Extractor, and When It Is a Bad Idea Dry Sump Oil Changes, and Why the Oil Is Not in the Engine Engine, Primary and Transmission, the Three Fluid Change Spin On or Cartridge, How the Filter Changes the Job Warm or Cold, When to Drain Motorcycle Oil Drain Plugs, Crush Washers and Stripped Threads What to Do With Used Motorcycle Oil JASO MA, MA2 and MB, What the Classes Actually Mean Can You Use Car Oil in a Motorcycle? What 20W-50 Actually Tells You, and What It Does Not How to Check an Oil Actually Meets Your Bike’s Spec Corrections If you find something wrong in a guide Tim has reviewed, tell us and we will fix it and say what changed. Write to us through the contact page. Our full policy is in our editorial standards.

JASO T903 is the standard that sorts motorcycle four-stroke engine oils by how they behave against a clutch that runs in oil. The current revision is JASO T903:2023. It defines four performance classes, MA, MA1, MA2 and MB, and MB is the lowest friction class of the four. The class is printed on the bottle beside an oil code, and that code can be looked up, free, in a public register anybody can open. Everything here comes from what the JASO Engine Oil Standards Implementation Panel publishes free. The standard's own text is sold by JSAE, so where a detail sits behind that paywall we say so rather than guess. Before you touch anything Your manual is the only source for the class your machine wants. JALOS publishes the friction bands and nothing that maps a class to a vehicle type, so no page including this one can tell you. Settle that before you spend money. A printed class is a claim, not a certificate. The Panel does not test the oil. The classification is the submitting company’s own declaration, which is why the register check further down this page is worth doing. Getting it wrong has a named consequence. JALOS ties low friction oils to clutch slippage and transmission gear pitting wear on machines where one body of oil serves the engine, the clutch and the gearbox. That is the failure the standard exists to help you avoid. Two classes on one bottle is a labelling problem. The manual allows one performance classification on a container and no more, so a label showing two is telling you about the label rather than the oil. If you are doing the change today as well as choosing the oil, the hot oil, hot exhaust, fire and used oil hazards belong to that job. They are set out, with the EPA guidance on handling used oil, on our motorcycle oil change guide. What JASO T903 is, and who publishes it Two organisations are involved. The standard is written and issued by the Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan, JSAE. The filing and register system that puts a class on a bottle is run by the JASO Engine Oil Standards Implementation Panel, hosted by the Japan Lubricating Oil Society, JALOS. The Panel's Implementation Manual is free and is the source for this page. JSAE sells the standard itself. The manual's cover is dated May 2023 and the standard carries an issue date of March 2023. Classification under the 2023 edition became allowed on 1 October 2023, and a filing made under the previous 2016 edition is maintained until 30 April 2028, so both markings can sit on a shelf at once. The manual is blunt about why the standard exists. JALOS writes: "There are concerns that such low friction and low viscosity oils, when used in motorcycles, may cause clutch slippage and transmission gear pitting wear." That is the reason a motorcycle oil standard exists separately from a car oil standard. The four classes, and what each one is Each class is set by three friction indices measured in the standard's own clutch test: the Dynamic Friction Characteristic Index, the Static Friction Characteristic Index and the Stop Time Index, shortened to DFI, SFI and STI. The bands sit in Table 2.1 of the free manual, which we link to rather than reprint. Class What the manual establishes about it MA The whole higher friction band. An oil filed as MA sits in the range the standard was created to identify. MA1 A subdivision inside MA, at the lower friction end of the MA range. MA2 A subdivision inside MA, at the higher friction end of the MA range. MB The lowest friction class of the four. JALOS writes: "MB grade oils are classified as the lowest friction oils among motorcycle four-cycle oils." MA1 and MA2 are not separate standards from MA. The note under that table says: "Submitter may on-file an oil which satisfies the MA specifications as a MA1 or MA2 oil depending on the indices specified in Table 2.1." What the manual does not do is assign a class to a vehicle type. The mapping repeated elsewhere, that MB is for scooters or MA2 for sports bikes, is confirmed by neither JALOS nor JSAE, so we do not print it. Your owner's manual is the authority. A bottle carries one class and only one. The manual states: "No permission of labeling of plural performance classifications." An oil advertised as MA and MB at once is not describing a JASO filing. The friction test behind the classes The test is Annex A of JASO T903:2023, titled "Motorcycles - Four-stroke cycle gasoline engine oils - Test procedure for friction property of clutch system". It was once a separate standard, JASO T904, merged into T903 as Annex A at the 2011 revision, which is why older bottles and older forum threads still mention T904. The 2023 revision changed the reference oil, to JAFRE-B23, changed the friction plate, and moved the thresholds to match, so a class boundary under the current edition is not the same physical boundary as the identically named one before it. What the indices correspond to in physical units is not published in the free manual. How the mark on a bottle is built A filed oil is identified by an Oil Code Reference Number, built in four parts, set out in section 4.6 of the manual. A single capital letter identifying the product type. The letter M is assigned to motorcycle four-cycle oils. A three digit country code, taken from the international telephone dialling code of the submitter or the manufacturer. Three capital letters, the lube oil supplier's code, chosen by the submitter. A three digit control number, chosen freely by the submitter, and not reusable across that submitter's products. A complete code reads as a letter, then digits, then letters, then digits, in one unbroken string, and the manual prints a worked example in Appendix 5. The printed mark also carries the performance class, the text JASO T903:2023, and a guarantee line naming the company that stands behind the oil. What the mark does not mean This is the part most buying guides skip. The Panel does not test the oil and does not certify it. JALOS writes: "the JASO Engine Oil Standards Implementation Panel does not guarantee the quality or performance of the oil, and takes no responsibility with regard to such matters." The classification is the submitting company's own declaration, on its own liability, and the manual even forbids a submitter from advertising in a way that implies the Panel approved anything. Read a JASO mark as a filing on the public record, not a seal of approval. The register, and how to check a bottle yourself The Panel publishes the whole list. The Filed Motorcycle Four Cycle Gasoline Engine Oil List is a free PDF at jalos.or.jp, giving brand name, submitter, oil code, performance classification and viscosity grade for every oil holding a current filing. The edition we parsed carries a face date of 1 September 2026 and 2,627 filings on it. Sorted by class, that is 1,771 filed as MA2, 470 as MB and 386 as MA. Open the PDF, search for the code printed on the bottle or for the brand name, and an oil either appears with a class and a grade or it does not. The full procedure is on our page about how to check an oil actually meets your bike's spec. Absence from the register means one thing only, that an oil has no current JASO filing, and reading a low count as a verdict on quality is a misreading of the document. We set that out in full, including what it does and does not say about the brands people ask about, on how to check an oil actually meets your bike’s spec. What the split between the classes tells you Those three numbers are the closest published answer to the question this page cannot answer directly. MA2 accounts for roughly two thirds of every current filing. MB is a clear minority of it. MA on its own, filed as the whole band rather than either subdivision, is smaller again. So a motorcycle oil carrying a JASO mark is, on the evidence of the register, most likely carrying MA2. That is a fact about what oil companies chose to file, not a recommendation, and it still does not tell you what your machine wants. What it tells you is what to expect on a shelf. If your manual asks for MA2, you are asking for the ordinary case and should have little trouble finding it. If it asks for MB, you are in the minority of filings, and it is worth checking stock before you drive anywhere rather than after. The register has one edge worth holding on to. It counts filings, not bottles, and it cannot see an oil whose maker never filed. A shelf holds plenty of the second kind. Specifications you need to look up for your bike Value Why you need it Where to find it The JASO performance class your machine asks for JALOS publishes no class-to-vehicle mapping Owner’s manual Whether the clutch and gearbox share the engine oil Decides whether the friction class matters to your machine at all Owner’s manual and factory service manual The SAE viscosity grade for your machine and climate A JASO class implies nothing about grade Owner’s manual The oil code reference number printed on the bottle in your hand It is the part of the mark you can actually look up, and the only thing that makes a printed class checkable The container label Which edition of the standard the mark cites The 2023 and the earlier edition use a different reference oil and different thresholds The container label The class recorded against that code in the register The class on the label is the submitter’s declaration, the register row is the filing behind it The Filed Motorcycle Four Cycle Gasoline Engine Oil List When the bottle carries no JASO mark at all Plenty of what you can buy carries no JASO mark, and that is not a defect in the oil. Filing is voluntary and it costs the submitter money. What it does mean is that you have no class in front of you to set against the class your manual asked for, so the requirement is unanswered on the available evidence rather than failed on a test. What to do next depends on what your manual asked for. If it names a JASO class, an unmarked bottle does not answer it, and the next move is a different product or the dealer parts counter, not a substitution you reason your way into. If it names a manufacturer’s own oil or approval instead, JASO was never the requirement here, and no register stands behind that kind of specification, a gap we set out on how to check an oil actually meets your bike’s spec. And if your machine keeps its clutch and gearbox out of the engine oil, the friction class has no bearing on the clutch at all, although your maker may still name a grade and a product. One thing here does genuinely belong in a shop. If the clutch is already slipping, that is a mechanical finding, and it wants diagnosis before anybody changes oil and hopes. Related checks Can you use car oil in a motorcycle? What 20W-50 actually tells you, and what it does not How to check an oil actually meets your bike's spec How to change motorcycle oil, and why there is no single procedure Frequently asked questions Is MA2 better than MA? Better is not what the classes mean. MA is the whole band, MA1 its lower friction half and MA2 its higher friction half. Higher friction is not higher quality, it is a different target. What your machine wants is in its owner's manual. We have not tested any oil and we do not rank them. Can I use a JASO MB oil in a bike whose manual asks for MA2? If your manual asks for MA2 then MB is not what it asks for. JALOS states a concern that low friction oils may cause clutch slippage and transmission gear pitting wear, and MB is the lowest friction of the four. JALOS does not publish a guarantee that a given MB oil will slip a given clutch, so treat this as a mismatch against the specification rather than a prediction of failure. My bottle says JASO T903:2016. Is it expired? Not automatically. Filings under the previous edition are maintained until 30 April 2028, so that marking can still be current. Settle it with the oil code rather than the edition year, and look the code up in the free register. Where can I read JASO T903 itself? The Implementation Manual is free from JALOS and is where every rule on this page comes from. The standard's own text is sold by JSAE, and the requirement tables inside it sit behind that paywall. We have not reproduced them, and a page that prints those limits without saying where it got them is worth a second look. Does a JASO class tell me which viscosity to use? No. They are separate systems answering different questions. The JASO class describes friction behaviour against a clutch. The viscosity grade comes from SAE J300 and describes flow. A bottle carries both because neither covers the other, which we go into on what 20W-50 actually tells you. About this guide Published by MotoGearRater. Reviewed by Tim Bob, motorcycle mechanic, 26 years in the trade. Universal procedure only, with no model-specific specifications. Read our editorial standards.

A JASO claim can be verified in about the time it takes to read this paragraph. The bottle carries a performance class and an oil code, the body that runs the filing system publishes every filed oil in a free PDF, and either that code is in there or it is not. What cannot be verified the same way is a manufacturer's own specification, because there is no public register for those. This page is honest about that gap rather than papering over it. Before you touch anything Start with the requirement, not with the bottle. Nothing printed on a label tells you what your machine asks for. Without the manual for your machine this check has no benchmark, and no amount of reading the container will supply one. The register answers one question and only one. Whether a current filing exists. It is not a test result and it is not an endorsement, because the Panel certifies nothing and says so itself. Check the date on the face of the copy you downloaded. Filings are added and dropped over time, so your check is only as current as the file it ran against, and figures somebody quoted from an older edition are not the figures in yours. A manufacturer’s own specification has no register behind it. Where your manual names a product rather than a public class, there is nothing to look up. This page will say so rather than send you to a substitute that looks close. If you are changing the oil once you have verified it, the hot oil, hot exhaust, fire and used oil handling hazards belong to that job. They are set out, with the EPA guidance on used oil, on our motorcycle oil change guide. Step one, get the requirement from the machine Everything starts with the requirement, and the requirement is a per-machine fact. Take these from your owner's manual or your factory service manual, and not from a thread about a similar model. The SAE viscosity grade, and whether the maker publishes a different grade for a different ambient range. The JASO performance class, if the maker names one. Any manufacturer-specific oil name or approval the maker names instead of a public class. Whether the engine oil also lubricates the wet clutch and the gearbox. That last item is why two riders can read the same bottle and reach opposite conclusions. If your machine keeps the clutch in a separate cavity with its own fluid, a friction class has no bearing on the clutch, because the engine oil never reaches the friction plates. Step two, read the bottle properly A JASO mark is a specific printed thing, not a logo. The JASO Engine Oil Standards Implementation Panel specifies what the mark carries: the oil code reference number, the performance class, the text JASO T903:2023, and a guarantee line naming the company that stands behind the oil. All of that is set out in the Panel's free Implementation Manual. The oil code is the part that makes verification possible. It is built in four parts. A single capital letter identifies the product type, and M is assigned to motorcycle four-cycle oils. Then a three digit country code, taken from the international telephone dialling code of the submitter or the manufacturer. Then three capital letters for the lube oil supplier, chosen by the submitter. Then a three digit control number, chosen freely and not reusable across that submitter's products. Read together it is one unbroken string of letters and digits. Two things to hold in mind while you look. The manual states: "No permission of labeling of plural performance classifications." So a bottle carrying two classes at once is not describing a JASO filing. And the mark is a filing rather than a certification, because JALOS writes that the Panel "does not guarantee the quality or performance of the oil, and takes no responsibility with regard to such matters". Note the API service symbol too, if the bottle has one, and the SAE grade in the middle of it. Those answer different questions, which we work through in what 20W-50 actually tells you. Step three, look the code up in the register Open the Panel's free register, the Filed Motorcycle Four Cycle Gasoline Engine Oil List. It is a PDF and it downloads in seconds. Search it for the oil code printed on the bottle. If your reader has no search function, look for the brand name and read across. Read the row. It gives brand name, submitter, oil code, performance classification and viscosity grade. Compare the classification and the grade in the register against what your manual asked for in step one. The edition we parsed is dated 1 September 2026 and holds 2,627 entries, of which MA2 accounts for 1,771, MB for 470 and MA for 386. The file carries its date on its face, so check the date on the copy you download rather than trusting figures somebody quoted from an older one. That is the whole check. It runs against a primary document published by the organisation that operates the filing system, which means you do not have to trust a review, ours included. Step four, what it means when the oil is not there If the oil is not in the register, that means one thing and one thing only: it has no current JASO filing. It is not a failed test. It is not a quality judgement. It is not a reason to call an oil bad, and anybody telling you otherwise is misreading the document. Filing is voluntary and it costs money, and many North American V-twin oils are formulated to a manufacturer's own specification instead of filing under JASO. In the edition we parsed, Harley appears twice and AMSOIL appears twice. Presence is not an endorsement either. JALOS states that the Panel does not guarantee quality or performance, and it forbids submitters from advertising in a way that implies the Panel has approved anything. The register answers one question, whether a filing exists, and it answers that question completely. It does not tell you whether an oil is any good, and neither do we, because nobody here has tested anything. Step five, when the requirement is a manufacturer name Some manuals do not ask for a JASO class at all. They ask for a product by name, or for an approval the maker defines itself. Harley-Davidson is the clearest published case, and it shows exactly where verification runs out. On harley-davidson.com, H-D sells engine oil under product names rather than a published specification number. The names on the site are Harley-Davidson Genuine Motorcycle Oil, H-D 360 and Formula+. The nearest thing to a named specification we could find is the phrase TESTED-CERTIFIED by Harley-Davidson Motor Company, used on the Formula+ page. What we could not find anywhere on the site is a specification document, a specification number, or a list of test limits behind that phrase. So there is no register to check a manufacturer's own specification against. That is not an accusation and it is not a claim that such oils are worse than anything. It is a description of what is publicly verifiable and what is not. We also found no H-D statement that using a non-H-D oil voids a warranty, so nobody should imply one, us included. If a warranty question matters to you, put it to your dealer in writing. One more gap worth naming. We could not confirm whether Harley-Davidson Genuine Motorcycle Oil or H-D 360 carries an API service category or a JASO classification, because neither product page states one. If a bottle in front of you does carry a JASO mark and a code, you can run the register check on it whatever the brand on the label. H-D's own oil basics page says the same thing we do about where authority lives, which is that the owner's manual is the reference for oil type. Specifications you need to look up for your bike Value Why you need it Where to find it The SAE viscosity grade for your machine and climate Half of the requirement you are verifying against Owner’s manual The JASO performance class, or the maker approval named instead The other half of the requirement Owner’s manual Whether the engine oil also lubricates the clutch and gearbox Decides whether a friction class applies to your machine Owner’s manual and factory service manual Which fluid goes in the primary or gearbox, if separate A different product from engine oil on those machines Owner’s manual and factory service manual The oil code reference number printed on the bottle It is the string you search the register for, and the only part of the mark that can be looked up The container label The date on the face of the register file you downloaded Filings are added and dropped, so the check is only as current as the copy you used The Filed Motorcycle Four Cycle Gasoline Engine Oil List The exact wording your maker uses when it names its own product instead of a public class No register stands behind a manufacturer specification, so that wording is all you have to match Owner’s manual When to stop and take it to a shop Stop if your manual names a requirement you cannot match on any bottle you can buy, because the next step is a dealer parts counter and not a substitution you reason your way into. Stop if the clutch is already slipping, since that is a mechanical finding that wants diagnosis rather than a different oil. And stop if you cannot get hold of the manual for your machine, because every step on this page begins with it. Related checks JASO MA, MA2 and MB, what the classes actually mean Can you use car oil in a motorcycle? What 20W-50 actually tells you, and what it does not How to change motorcycle oil, and why there is no single procedure Frequently asked questions The bottle says JASO MA2 but I cannot find a code. What now? The manual specifies that the printed mark carries the oil code reference number alongside the class, so a class printed without a code is not the full mark and there is nothing for you to look up. Treat that as an unverifiable claim rather than a false one. If verification matters to you, choose a bottle carrying a code you can actually check. The register lists my oil under a different brand name. The register gives both the brand name and the submitter, and an oil can be filed by a company whose name is not the one on the front of the bottle. Match on the oil code, which is the unique identifier. The brand name is the convenience field, not the key. My manual asks for a specification with no register behind it. That happens whenever a maker defines its own specification instead of filing under a public standard. There is nothing to look up and no honest way around it. Buy to the requirement as the maker states it, ask the dealer parts counter, and go in knowing that the verification step available for JASO is simply not available here. Does a JASO filing mean the oil is good? No. The Panel does not certify or guarantee any oil and says so in its own manual. A filing tells you that the submitter declared a class and put it on the public record on its own liability. That is genuinely useful information and it is not a quality verdict. How often should I redo this check? Whenever you change brand or product, and whenever a maker reformulates, which can happen without the label changing much. The register carries a date on its face, so download the current file rather than working from a copy or from a figure somebody quoted. About this guide Published by MotoGearRater. Reviewed by Tim Bob, motorcycle mechanic, 26 years in the trade. Universal procedure only, with no model-specific specifications. Read our editorial standards.

Used oil is recyclable, and there is an established system for collecting it. Whether your local collection point will actually take yours comes down to three things: the container you brought it in, whether anything else got mixed into it, and whether you rang ahead to ask. The third one answers most of the questions people have about this. Difficulty Time DIY cost Tools Safety Beginner Minutes to hand over, one phone call beforehand Often free, but it varies locally Sealing leak proof container, funnel, nitrile gloves Skin contact with used oil, spills, fire near a hot exhaust Before you touch anything Skin contact. The US Environmental Protection Agency describes used motor oil this way: "Used motor oil is insoluble, persistent, and can contain toxic chemicals and heavy metals." Source: US EPA, Managing, Reusing, and Recycling Used Oil. Wear eye protection and nitrile gloves. Decanting from a pan into a jug is the step where it flicks upward, and never clean your hands with petrol or solvent. Hot oil and hot exhaust. If you are draining rather than only carrying oil away, let the engine come down to warm first, and keep what spills off hot pipes, where it smokes and can catch. Spills. A film of oil on a garage floor is a fall waiting to happen, and you will be carrying a full container across it. Lay something absorbent down before anything is opened, not after. The bike falling. Level ground, a proper stand or lift, and never a jack on its own. Storage. Filled containers go sealed, upright, out of the sun, away from anything that could ignite them, and out of reach of children and animals until the day you hand them over. Never run an engine in an enclosed space. What used oil is, in the EPA's own terms The EPA is unusually plain about it: "Used oil is exactly what its name implies: any petroleum-based or synthetic oil that has been used." Its fuller test for businesses has three parts, labelled Origin, Use and Contaminants. Origin: "Used oil must have been refined from crude oil or made from synthetic materials." Contaminants: "used oil must become contaminated as a result of being used." Source: US EPA, Managing Used Oil, Answers to Frequent Questions for Businesses. The agency's management standards for used oil are codified at Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations, part 279, which it describes as "a set of 'good housekeeping' requirements for used oil handlers". That part is written for handlers rather than for a rider changing oil at home, but it is why the collection infrastructure you are about to use exists. The same page adds that "Your state regulations governing the management of used oil might be stricter than EPA's. Contact your state or local environmental agency to determine your best course of action." Carry that sentence through the rest of this page. Why it matters, and where we stop The EPA's own descriptions of the problem, quoted rather than paraphrased: "It's slow to degrade." "It sticks to everything from beach sand to bird feathers." "It's a major source of oil contamination of waterways and can result in pollution of drinking water sources." The agency also states that "used oil from one oil change can contaminate one million gallons of fresh water, a years' supply for 50 people". Source: US EPA, Managing, Reusing, and Recycling Used Oil. Now the boundary, because this is a subject where guides reach for something more alarming. The EPA's published language on these pages is about environmental contamination, persistence and water pollution, plus the statement that used oil can contain toxic chemicals and heavy metals. It does not state a specific human health outcome from exposure, and we are not going to supply one it did not write. Wear gloves and wash, and leave the claim there. Containing it The EPA's handling instruction is short: "If you plan to recycle your used oil, take care not to spill any when you collect it and place it in a leak-proof can or container." The empty jugs the fresh oil came out of are usually the best answer available. They seal, they are made for the contents, and they are the right size for what you drained. Mark them clearly as used. Do not use a container that held food or drink, and do not use one that held a chemical whose residue is now part of what you are handing over. A drain pan with a sealing lid and a pouring spout removes the step where most spills happen, which is the transfer. Do not mix anything into it This is what most often turns an acceptable container into one that gets refused at the counter. Used oil is collected as a known material, and a collection point takes it because it can be relied on to be used oil and nothing else. Pour something else in and what you are carrying is no longer used oil. It is a mixed waste with a different handling route, and the site in front of you very likely cannot accept it. So: no coolant or antifreeze, no petrol, no brake fluid, no solvent, no degreaser, no paint, no water. Not a splash. If your machine has separate gearbox or primary fluid to drain, keep those in their own labelled containers rather than adding them to the engine oil, and ask about them separately when you call. If something has already gone in, say so when you ring and again when you hand it over. Declaring a contaminated container is what protects the site and everything else in their tank. Used filters The EPA is explicit that filters go too: "Don't forget to drain and recycle used oil filters as well, usually you can drop off the filters at the same collection centers where you deposit used oil." It also states that used oil filters contain reusable scrap metal and that "If properly drained, they can be safely recycled or disposed." Properly drained is the operative phrase, and an undrained filter is the most common thing a collection point turns away. Stand the filter so its openings face down over the pan and leave it there for the whole drain rather than a moment, then bag it so it travels without marking whatever it sits on. Where collection actually happens The EPA points consumers at two locator tools from its recycling page, the Earth911 recycling search tool and the American Petroleum Institute used motor oil collection and recycling site, and gives this instruction: "Check with local automobile maintenance facilities, waste collectors, and government waste officials to find out when and where you can drop off your used oil for recycling." In practice the candidates are household hazardous waste sites, municipal recycling centres, auto parts retailers, independent garages and quick lube shops, and some dealerships. Here is the honest answer, and it is the useful one. Whether any particular retailer or municipal site will accept used oil from a member of the public varies locally, and so do the quantity limits, the container they will accept it in, whether they take filters at all, and whether there is a charge. A national chain policy does not settle what the branch nearest you will do on a Saturday morning. Ring first. One phone call before you drain is worth more than any list we could print. Worth asking on that call: do you take used oil from the public, do you take filters, is there a quantity limit, what container do you want it in, is there a charge, and what are your hours. And the things that are never an option, whatever the local answer turns out to be: down any drain, onto the ground, into the household bin, into a watercourse, burnt in the open, or spread as a weed killer, dust suppressant or timber preservative. Specifications you need to look up for your bike Value Why you need it Where to find it Oil capacity for a change with a filter, and without The container volume to have ready before anything is opened Owner's manual Whether your filter is a spin on canister or a cartridge element A canister is handed over whole and an element is not, so collection handles the two differently Owner's manual or parts fiche Whether your machine has separate gearbox or primary fluid, and what each holds Separate drains and separate containers, so nothing gets mixed Owner's manual What your state requires of a container used to transport used oil It rides in your vehicle, and the requirement is written down rather than local folklore Your state environmental agency's published used oil rules Whether your state's used oil rules are stricter than the federal standards EPA states plainly that they might be, and that changes what applies to you Your state environmental agency's published rules, and 40 CFR part 279 When to stop and take it to a shop A spill you cannot contain, or oil that has reached a drain or a watercourse. That is a call to your local environmental agency, not a mopping job. Oil mixed with coolant or fuel that no local site will take. Ask your local agency where it goes rather than guessing. No safe place to store sealed containers until a collection day comes round. No way to transport it without containers moving about loose in a vehicle. If this is enough friction that the alternative is putting the oil change off, a shop disposes of the oil and the filter as part of the job. Related checks Warm or cold, when to drain motorcycle oil Drain plugs, crush washers and stripped threads How to change motorcycle oil Frequently asked questions Can I put used oil in the household bin if the container is sealed? No. The EPA directs used oil to recycling collection and describes it as insoluble, persistent, and able to contain toxic chemicals and heavy metals. A sealed container in a bin ends up compacted with everything else, which is the opposite of contained. Do I have to drain the filter, or can I just hand it over? Drain it. The EPA's wording is to drain and recycle used oil filters, and that properly drained filters can be safely recycled or disposed. An undrained filter is the item collection points most often refuse. A little coolant got into my drain pan. What now? Treat it as contaminated and say so. Mixing is what makes a container unacceptable at a collection point, because what you have is no longer used oil. Ring the site, describe exactly what went in, and ask where it should go. Do not top it up with clean used oil hoping to dilute the problem. Does an auto parts store or a garage have to take my oil? We are not going to tell you what a particular business where you live is obliged to do, because that varies and getting it wrong wastes your trip. The EPA's own instruction is to check with local automobile maintenance facilities, waste collectors and government waste officials. That check is a phone call. How should I store used oil until I can drop it off? Sealed, upright, clearly labelled, out of the sun, away from anything that could ignite it, and out of reach of children and animals. Get rid of it at the next opportunity rather than letting containers accumulate, and if you are storing more than a household quantity, ask your local environmental agency, since the EPA says state rules may be stricter than its own. About this guide Published by MotoGearRater. Reviewed by Tim Bob, motorcycle mechanic, 26 years in the trade. Universal procedure only, with no model-specific specifications. Read our editorial standards.

Warm, not hot, and not stone cold. Warm oil is thin enough to leave the engine quickly, and it carries the fine material it picked up out with it. Hot oil scalds, and a hot exhaust burns forearms before the oil gets the chance. The other two things that decide how much old oil actually leaves are whether the bike is upright while it drains, and how long you let it drip. Difficulty Time DIY cost Tools Safety Beginner, with one thing to respect About an hour, most of it waiting $0, this is a timing decision Drain pan, gloves, rags, a way to hold the bike upright Hot oil, hot exhaust, bike stability, used oil on skin The other half of this job is the plug and the washer under it. If you have ever felt a drain plug go soft as you tightened it, read drain plugs, crush washers and stripped threads first, because draining hot feeds straight into that problem. Before you touch anything Hot oil does not brush off. It arrives as a stream and does not stop when you have had enough. On a bare forearm it stays where it lands and keeps giving up heat into your skin, which is the whole reason this page argues for warm rather than hot. Wear gloves that come past the cuff. The exhaust burns you before the oil does. The drain plug usually sits low and central, and your forearm passes close to a header pipe to reach it. Headers hold heat long after the cases have come down to something you would call warm, so the timing that makes the oil safe does not make the pipes safe. Look at the path your arm has to travel before your arm travels it. The bike falling. You are applying force to a fastener underneath a machine that something else is holding up, and this job also has you waiting around beside it. Use a proper stand or lift on level solid ground, never a jack alone, and stay out from under it. Fire. The warmer you drain, the hotter the pipes still are when the first surge comes out. Oil on a hot exhaust smokes and can ignite, so catch that surge with a rag and clean the pipes before the engine is started again. Used oil on your skin. The US Environmental Protection Agency describes used motor oil this way: "Used motor oil is insoluble, persistent, and can contain toxic chemicals and heavy metals." Source: US EPA, Managing, Reusing, and Recycling Used Oil. Wear eye protection and nitrile gloves, and never clean your hands with petrol or solvent. Warm oil leaves faster and splashes further than cold oil does. Never run an engine in an enclosed space. Warming the engine is the first half of this job, so the risk is built into the method. Warm it outdoors, or with the door fully open and the bike beside it. What warming the oil actually changes Oil gets thinner as it gets warmer, and that has two consequences at the drain plug. The first is speed. Cold oil clings to every internal surface and comes down slowly, warm oil runs, so in the same standing time you get more out and leave a thinner film behind. The second is what the oil is carrying. An oil change is not really about removing oil, it is about removing what is in the oil. While the engine runs, the oil holds the fine material it has picked up in suspension. Left standing cold, some of that settles out. Drain warm and it leaves with the oil. Drain cold and a share of it stays behind, to be picked up again by the fresh oil you just paid for. Why not hot, which is the part most guides skip You get burned. Oil at running temperature is far above the point at which liquids scald, and unlike hot water it does not evaporate away or run off cleanly. Warm oil that flows freely will not injure you. Hot oil will, and the difference costs nothing but a wait. Everything around the plug is hot too. Headers, cases, filter housing and filter. Draining hot means working fast around things you cannot touch, which is how a plug ends up in a pan of scalding oil. The plug goes back into metal that is about to change size. On a great many motorcycles the drain plug is steel and the case it threads into is aluminium, and aluminium expands and contracts about twice as much as steel for the same change in temperature. Torque set on a hot engine is not the clamp you have when it cools, because the aluminium case contracts more than the steel plug and the joint relaxes. That is how a plug torqued hot weeps cold, and how the owner ends up nipping it up into a thread that will not survive it. Fit the plug once things have come back down and torque it once, to your model’s figure. What warm means, without a thermometer Run the engine until it has clearly come off cold, then shut it off and walk away for a while. Two useful things happen in that wait. Oil that was up in the cylinder head and around the cases drains back into the sump, which is oil you would otherwise leave behind, and the exhaust stops being an immediate burn hazard. You are aiming for cases that feel warm to the back of a bare hand held near them, without you flinching away. If you cannot bring a hand close to the plug area it is still too hot, and you lose nothing by waiting. How long that takes depends on the bike, since an air cooled engine sheds heat far faster than a liquid cooled one. Go by your hand, not by a clock. Why the bike being level changes how much comes out The sump is a shaped cavity and the drain plug is a hole at one point in it. Oil pools at whatever the lowest point of that cavity happens to be. Stand the bike upright and the lowest point is the one the engine designers intended, normally at or near the plug. Lean the machine on its sidestand and the cavity tips with it, the pool moves to the low side, and the plug may now sit above part of the oil you are trying to remove. Which direction helps and which hurts depends on where the plug sits relative to the lean on your engine, and that varies between models. So the useful rule is not lean it left or lean it right. It is hold it upright, on a centre stand, a paddock stand or lift, or with a second person steadying it vertical. The same applies when you read the level afterwards, and reading a level on a leaning bike is the usual reason a careful person overfills an engine. Why a long drain beats a fast one Oil leaves in two phases. The stream is most of the volume and is over quickly. The drip is the film clinging to every internal surface finding its way back to the sump, and that is where a thorough oil change differs from a hurried one. Take the filler cap off. A crankcase draining through a small hole with everything else sealed is draining against its own vacuum. Open the filler and air comes in as oil goes out. Then leave it alone. Deal with the filter, get the old oil into its container, and come back when the flow has gone from a stream to occasional drips. Past that point the returns fall away sharply. Rock it gently, if you can do it safely. Tipping the machine upright and back, properly supported, moves oil pooled where the plug cannot reach it. Do not blow compressed air into the crankcase. You drive whatever is on the outside of the case into the inside of it. Do not crank the engine to pump the last of it out. That runs bearings and a cam with no oil supply. Specifications you need to look up for your bike Value Why you need it Where to find it Oil grade and the specification your maker calls for Choosing what you refill with Owner's manual Oil capacity, with and without a filter change Knowing how much goes back in Owner's manual Drain plug torque Fitting the plug without stripping the case Factory service manual Sealing washer size, type and part number The washer is a consumable, replaced every time Parts fiche or dealer The position and engine state your oil level is checked in Reading the level instead of overfilling Owner's manual Filter part number and fitting instructions Fitting the right filter the right way Owner's manual and factory service manual Whether your engine has a sump screen or strainer Some designs expect it serviced at an oil change Factory service manual When to stop and take it to a shop The drain plug will not move, or its head is rounding as you lean on it. The plug turns with a gritty feel and then spins without pulling up tight. That is a thread failure, not an oil change. The drained oil carries metal flake or glitter, or looks milky. That is a finding about your engine. You cannot hold the bike securely upright for the drain and the refill. You cannot find a torque figure for your model. Get it before you fit the plug, not after. Related checks How to change motorcycle oil, and which procedure your bike needs The drain plug oil change, step by step Drain plugs, crush washers and stripped threads What to do with used motorcycle oil Frequently asked questions Can I change the oil completely cold? Yes, and it beats not changing it. You get less out and leave more of the suspended material behind, because cold oil is thicker and has had time to drop some of what it was carrying. Give it considerably longer to finish dripping. How long should I let the engine cool before draining? Long enough that you can hold the back of a bare hand near the drain plug area without pulling away, and no longer than it takes the machine to go cold. There is no single figure, because air cooled and liquid cooled engines lose heat at very different rates. Does draining warm really get more of the old oil out? Yes, for two reasons that are easy to confuse. Warm oil is thinner, so more of it leaves in the time you give it. And warm oil is still holding the fine material it picked up while circulating. Should I lean the bike over to get the last of it out? Not as a habit, and not on a sidestand. Whether leaning moves oil towards the plug or away from it depends on where the plug sits on your engine, so the trick that helps one machine loses you oil on another. Upright is the position the sump was designed around. Should I run the engine before checking the level on the fresh oil? Your owner's manual states which condition your model is checked in, and engines differ enough that it is worth following exactly. What holds generally is that the first job after a refill is to check the plug and the filter for leaks. About this guide Published by MotoGearRater. Reviewed by Tim Bob, motorcycle mechanic, 26 years in the trade. Universal procedure only, with no model-specific specifications. Read our editorial standards.

The answer turns on how your machine is built, not on which brand is in your hand. If the engine oil also lubricates a wet clutch and the gearbox, a car oil formulated for fuel economy is a real risk, and the body that writes the motorcycle oil standard says so in its own words. If the clutch and gearbox run in separate fluids, the friction argument does not apply to your machine at all. The rest of this page is the evidence, kept attached to the body that published each piece. The two most quoted facts in this argument come from two different organisations and are routinely welded into a claim neither of them made. Before you touch anything Settle how your machine is built before you decide anything. Whether the engine oil also lubricates the clutch and the gearbox is the single fact this question turns on, and it comes from your own manufacturer’s documentation, not from a rule of thumb about brands or engine layout. Keep the two labels apart while you read. An API service symbol and a JASO classification are issued by different bodies and answer different questions. Blending them is how a warning ends up attributed to an organisation that never issued it, and that mistake is the reason this page exists. Do not assume a decision already made was harmless. JALOS names clutch slippage and transmission gear pitting wear as the concerns behind low friction oils in motorcycles. Nobody publishes how quickly either arrives, so we will not tell you that one ride or one season is fine. A slipping clutch is a diagnosis, not an oil choice. If yours is already slipping, changing what is in the sump is a guess. That belongs with somebody who can open the primary and look at the plates. If you are draining oil out today as well as choosing it, the hot oil, hot exhaust, fire and used oil handling hazards belong to that job. They are set out, with the EPA guidance on used oil, on our motorcycle oil change guide. The question is architecture, not brand A passenger car engine oil lubricates an engine. The car's clutch or torque converter is a separate system with its own fluid, so a car oil is free to be optimised for low friction and fuel economy with no consequence for how the clutch grips. Most four-stroke motorcycles are built the other way round. One body of oil lubricates the crankshaft and valvetrain, the gearbox gears and the wet clutch. JALOS describes this arrangement in its free Implementation Manual as motorcycles in which a lubricating oil is used commonly for the engine, clutch and transmission. Put a low friction oil in that machine and the behaviour that saved fuel in a car is now acting on clutch friction plates and on gearbox gear teeth. A wet clutch has its friction plates immersed in oil, in sliding contact every time it engages, which makes the oil's friction behaviour part of the clutch design. A dry clutch runs in air, sealed from the lubricant. Which one you have is a per-model fact from your machine's own documentation. What API says, and where it says it API 1509, the Engine Oil Licensing and Certification System document, Twenty-Third Edition, defines Resource Conserving as a supplementary classification for engine oils that have resource conserving properties, for gasoline-powered passenger cars, sport utility vehicles, vans and light-duty trucks. API's own words are that such oils "are formulated to help improve fuel economy and protect vehicle emission system components", demonstrated as a fuel economy improvement in a sequence test. API 1509 also states: "The Service Category must be placed in the upper part of the 'Donut', the SAE viscosity grade in the center, and the optional 'Resource Conserving', CI-4 PLUS, and SN PLUS classifications in the lower part." And here is what API does not say. API does not state that Resource Conserving oils slip motorcycle clutches. API 1509 was searched for a clutch claim attached to that classification and there is not one. API's stated purpose for the label is fuel economy and emission system protection. Attributing a wet clutch warning to API is putting words in its mouth. What JALOS says, separately The clutch warning is real, and it belongs to JALOS. Explaining in section 2 of the Implementation Manual why JASO T903 exists, JALOS writes: "There are concerns that such low friction and low viscosity oils, when used in motorcycles, may cause clutch slippage and transmission gear pitting wear." Section 3.4 goes straight at this page's question. JALOS writes that "there is a concern that four-cycle oils for 4-wheel vehicles may cause problems in the drive-line components, when used in motorcycles in which a lubricating oil is used commonly for the engine, clutch and transmission." That is a standards body naming car oil in a shared-sump motorcycle as the problem its standard exists to address. Reading the two together, without misquoting either Side by side, neither body is misquoted. API tells you what a Resource Conserving oil is optimised for: low friction, in the service of fuel economy, in a vehicle whose clutch is nowhere near the engine oil. JALOS tells you what that same property does when the oil works in a machine where clutch and gearbox share the sump. They describe opposite ends of the same mismatch. So on a machine whose clutch runs in the engine oil, an oil carrying Resource Conserving is the wrong tool unless your maker says otherwise. Note also what JALOS does not claim. It states a concern, not a certainty, and it does not say how long a given oil takes to do a given amount of harm. A page that gives you a mileage figure for when the damage starts is making it up. One more thing about the API label The current API service category for gasoline engines is API SQ, not SP. API 1509 Twenty-Third Edition, dated February 2025, records that SQ was adopted for oils available in 2025 and became displayable in the Service Symbol from 31 March 2025. SQ supersedes SP for new licensing without deleting it. Worth telling you, because API's own page on the latest oil categories still described SP and ILSAC GF-6 as the newest when we fetched it on 6 September 2026. Where that page and API 1509 disagree, 1509 controls and is the later document. Even a standards body's website can lag its own standards. Where the clutch is not in the engine oil Not every machine has this problem, and the clearest published example is Harley-Davidson. Its Formula+ product page describes a transmission and primary chaincase lubricant, formulated to maintain the coefficient of friction for proper clutch operation, and states that it is "Not for use in the crankcase as a motor oil." On the models H-D names there, the wet diaphragm spring clutch runs in that separate fluid in a separate cavity and not in the engine oil, so a friction classification has no bearing on the clutch. That is not a general truth about V-twins or about any other brand. It is what H-D publishes about the models it names, and the equivalent fact for your machine has to come from your machine's maker. H-D also gives its own account of why the two oils diverged, on its oil basics page: "Motorcycles require much less oil at a given time than a car and typically run hotter than car engines." That is a manufacturer statement about its own products, not an independent finding. How to check a bottle instead of trusting anybody The JASO Engine Oil Standards Implementation Panel publishes a free register of every oil holding a current four-stroke filing, the Filed Motorcycle Four Cycle Gasoline Engine Oil List. Search it for the oil code printed on your bottle, and a classification and a grade either come back or they do not. The full method is on our page about how to check an oil actually meets your bike's spec. Absence from that register means one thing only, that an oil has no current JASO filing. It is not a failed test, not a quality judgement, and a low count against a brand name says nothing at all about how that brand’s oil performs. We set that reading out in full on how to check an oil actually meets your bike’s spec. Specifications you need to look up for your bike Value Why you need it Where to find it Whether the engine oil also lubricates the clutch and gearbox Decides whether the friction argument applies to your machine Owner’s manual and factory service manual The JASO performance class your maker asks for, if any It is the requirement you have to satisfy Owner’s manual The SAE viscosity grade for your machine and climate Grade and friction class are separate requirements Owner’s manual Which fluid goes in the primary or gearbox, if separate A different product from engine oil on those machines Owner’s manual and factory service manual What the API service symbol on your bottle reads, upper part and lower part Resource Conserving sits in the lower part, and that wording is the whole subject of this page The container label Whether your maker names an API service category as well as a JASO class Some manuals name both, some name neither, and it changes what you are checking for Owner’s manual When to stop and take it to a shop Stop if the clutch is already slipping, because that is a mechanical finding that wants diagnosis. Stop if you cannot establish from your machine's own documentation whether the clutch shares the engine oil, because every decision here depends on that one fact. Related checks JASO MA, MA2 and MB, what the classes actually mean What 20W-50 actually tells you, and what it does not How to check an oil actually meets your bike's spec How to change motorcycle oil, and why there is no single procedure Frequently asked questions So is it ever safe to put car oil in a motorcycle? The question your machine answers is whether the engine oil also lubricates the clutch and the gearbox. If it does not, the friction argument does not apply and your maker's stated requirement governs. If it does, the JALOS warning is directly on point. Either way the thing to satisfy is the requirement in your owner's manual, not a general rule from a website. I ran car oil for one ride. Have I wrecked my clutch? Nobody publishes an answer and we are not going to invent one. JALOS states a concern about clutch slippage and transmission gear pitting wear, not a timetable, and no primary source we found puts a distance on it. What is verifiable is whether the oil matches what your manual asks for. If it does not, change it, and treat any slipping as a symptom to diagnose. Does Resource Conserving mean the oil contains friction modifiers? API's definition of Resource Conserving does not use that phrase. What API does state is the purpose, a fuel economy improvement demonstrated in a sequence test. The clutch concern about low friction oils belongs to JALOS. Keeping the two attributions straight matters, because a claim API never made is repeated everywhere as though it did. The oil I want is not in the JASO register. Does that mean it is bad? No. Absence means no current JASO filing and nothing else. Filing is voluntary and costs money, and many North American V-twin oils are built to a manufacturer's own specification instead. That is a fact about filings, not about quality, and the Panel does not certify oils in any case. About this guide Published by MotoGearRater. Reviewed by Tim Bob, motorcycle mechanic, 26 years in the trade. Universal procedure only, with no model-specific specifications. Read our editorial standards.

A drain plug does not seal because it is tight. It seals because a soft washer under its head is crushed flat against the case, and that washer is a consumable, replaced every single time. Reuse it and you will chase a weep with more torque, into an aluminium thread that will not survive the argument. That is how a routine oil change turns into a case repair. Difficulty Time DIY cost Tools Safety Beginner for the washer, shop work for a stripped case Minutes for the washer, an afternoon or a shop visit for a thread A washer is pocket change, a thread repair is not Torque wrench, the correct new sealing washer Hot oil, hot exhaust, bike stability If you have not drained the oil yet, the temperature you do it at feeds straight into this problem. Read warm or cold, when to drain motorcycle oil first. Before you touch anything Hot oil and hot exhaust. The plug sits at the lowest point on the engine and your hand goes in under a header pipe to reach it. Oil leaves as a stream rather than a trickle. Let the engine come down to warm, and wear gloves that cover past the wrist. The bike falling. Freeing a tight plug means real force applied sideways to a machine standing on something. Level ground, a proper stand or lift, and never a jack on its own. Keep every part of yourself out from under it. Fire. Oil that lands on a hot header smokes and can catch. Work out where the stream will go before the plug comes out, and wipe the pipes down before the engine is started again. Used oil on your skin. The US Environmental Protection Agency describes used motor oil this way: "Used motor oil is insoluble, persistent, and can contain toxic chemicals and heavy metals." Source: US EPA, Managing, Reusing, and Recycling Used Oil. Wear eye protection and nitrile gloves. Drilling and tapping. Any drilling or tapping means safety glasses, not reading glasses, and an engine that has been drained first. A tap that snaps or a drill that grabs throws metal at head height, and swarf dropped into an open sump becomes the second repair. Never run an engine in an enclosed space. What the sealing washer actually does The plug supplies clamping force. The washer supplies the seal. It is a deliberately soft, sacrificial ring that deforms under that clamp until it has filled the gap between the plug flange and the sealing face on the case, taking up machining marks in both. Deformation happens once. After a washer has taken the shape of your case and your plug it is thinner, work hardened and already the shape of that joint. It is not a seal any more, it is a metal ring that used to be one. The forms vary. Some machines use a solid aluminium or copper washer that flattens, some a hollow crush washer that collapses, some a bonded washer with a rubber element, and some an O-ring on the plug rather than a washer at all. Which one your bike takes, and in what size, is a per model fact that lives on the parts fiche. What actually happens when you reuse it Usually nothing at first. Then a film appears around the plug, then a drip on the floor. Here is the failure path, and it is the same every time. You see the weep, so you nip the plug a little tighter. It weeps again, so you go tighter still. Each pull adds tension to a thread cut in soft aluminium, chasing a seal that a fresh washer would have made at the correct torque with room to spare. Somewhere in that sequence the joint feels slightly soft, then turns freely, and the oil change has become a repair. Two related habits are worth naming. Turning a used washer over does not restore it, because what changed is its thickness and hardness rather than which face was up. And stacking two washers to take up a gap gives you two sealing interfaces instead of one, which is two chances to leak. Why this page does not print a torque figure This is the number you came for, and we are not going to give it to you. A drain plug torque figure is a per model engineering judgement made by the people who designed that engine. It follows from the thread diameter and pitch, the alloy and thickness of the boss the thread is cut into, the stiffness of the plug flange, and which sealing washer the design uses. Two machines with an identical thread size can carry different figures because the rest of that list differs. There is no universal value and no safe range. A wrong figure is not harmless in either direction. Too low and the washer never crushes properly, so the joint weeps and you are back at the top of this page. Too high and you strip the exact thread this article is warning you about. Any site that prints one number for all motorcycles is guessing with your crankcase. So the figure goes in the lookup table below, with the document that holds it. If you genuinely cannot find one, buy the service manual or ring a dealer service department and ask. That is not a reason to go by feel on aluminium. Steel plug, aluminium case The plug is steel and the case it threads into is an aluminium alloy casting, so when a joint is overtightened it is never the plug that loses. The female thread in the case deforms and tears out, which is why you cannot fix a stripped drain plug hole by buying a new plug. The boss is a modest thickness of casting with a limited number of threads engaged, sized for the correct torque and a fresh washer, not for somebody leaning on a bar to stop a drip. Cross threading is the other way this ends badly, and it is entirely avoidable. Start the plug by hand every time. Turn it backwards until you feel it drop into the start of the thread, then turn it forwards. It should run all the way down to the washer under finger pressure alone. If it binds early, back it out and start again rather than reaching for a spanner. Never start a drain plug with a power tool. When the threads are already stripped In rough order of severity. Confirm it is actually stripped. A plug that will not pull up tight might be sitting on a doubled washer, a damaged sealing face, or a plug whose own thread is chewed. Fit a new plug and a new washer first, because sometimes that really is all it was. An oversize or self tapping drain plug. Slightly larger than standard, it cuts a new thread into what remains of the old one. This is a genuine repair, widely sold. The honest limits: it removes more aluminium from a boss that has already lost some, it cannot be repeated indefinitely, and it produces swarf that must not end up in the sump. A thread insert. A wire coil insert or a solid bushing puts a steel thread back into the aluminium at the original size. Done properly it is the strongest option short of replacing the casting. It also means drilling and tapping a crankcase that is still in the frame, above an open sump, square to the sealing face, while catching every chip. Repairing or replacing the casting off the bike. Engine out, sump removed or case split. Full engine work with a full engine bill. Now the honest part. For most riders, everything from the insert onwards belongs in a shop. If drilling into a crankcase with the engine in the frame, controlling swarf over an open sump, and starting a tap square to a sealing face are not things you have done before, hand this one over. Getting it wrong leaves you with a larger hole and metal chips in the oil system. One option is not on the list at all. Epoxy and chemical metal are not a repair for a fastener that has to clamp a seal and be removed again at every oil change. Specifications you need to look up for your bike Value Why you need it Where to find it Drain plug torque The reason this page exists, and the number we will not guess for you Factory service manual Sealing washer part number, material and size Buying the right consumable, every time Parts fiche or dealer Whether your plug seals on a washer or an O-ring Different part, different fitting Parts fiche Drain plug thread diameter and pitch Choosing an oversize plug or an insert if it comes to that Factory service manual or parts fiche Whether your plug is magnetic, and how it is cleaned Some designs use one and expect it wiped at every change Owner's manual Oil grade and capacity Refilling once the plug is back in Owner's manual Sump or case part number Only if the casting has to be replaced Parts fiche When to stop and take it to a shop The plug turns and turns without ever pulling up tight. Aluminium comes out on the plug threads. That metal came from your case. A new washer at the correct torque still weeps, which points at a damaged sealing face. Any repair that means drilling into the casting with the engine in the frame. The plug head is rounding, or the plug will not move at all. Related checks Warm or cold, when to drain motorcycle oil What to do with used motorcycle oil How to change motorcycle oil The drain plug oil change, step by step Frequently asked questions Can I reuse a crush washer just once? It will often hold, which is why the habit spreads. But it has already given up the deformation that made the seal, so the joint now depends on luck. The washer costs almost nothing. The case does not. How tight is tight enough if I do not have a torque wrench? There is no answer we are willing to write down, because feel is exactly what strips these threads. Buy or borrow a wrench sized for a low figure, or have a shop fit the plug. Extra force buys nothing here, because the washer makes the seal, not the clamp. Is an oversize self tapping plug a real fix or a bodge? A real repair with real limits. It works and it is sold for the purpose. It also consumes aluminium you cannot put back and commits you to a non standard plug. If the case is otherwise healthy it is reasonable. If this is the second repair on the same hole, it is not. My plug only drips when the bike is hot. What is that? Oil thins as it warms, so a joint that holds thick cold oil can pass thin hot oil. That points at the seal rather than the clamp, which means a new washer at the correct torque, and a look at the sealing face if that does not cure it. Can I use thread sealant or tape on a drain plug? No. The thread is not the sealing surface, so sealant only hides the real fault and puts material into the sump that does not belong there. If the joint will not seal on a new washer at the correct torque, something is damaged and needs looking at. About this guide Published by MotoGearRater. Reviewed by Tim Bob, motorcycle mechanic, 26 years in the trade. Universal procedure only, with no model-specific specifications. Read our editorial standards.

A viscosity grade describes how an oil flows, cold and hot, and that is the entire job it does. SAE J300, the standard behind a grade like 20W-50, says exactly that in its own scope. The grade tells you nothing about whether an oil suits a wet clutch, nothing about additive chemistry, and nothing about whether it will protect your engine. That one fact settles most of the arguments people have about grades. What follows is where the grade comes from, what its two halves are measured against, and what the motorcycle market actually files, using data anybody can download for nothing. Before you touch anything The grade is your maker’s call and not a rule you can derive. SAE classifies engine oils in rheological terms only. Nothing on this page lets you work out which grade your engine wants, and your owner’s manual is the only thing that does. A grade tells you nothing about clutch friction. Two oils sharing a grade can behave differently against a wet clutch, so matching the numbers on the front of a bottle covers only half of what a machine with a shared sump needs. We do not print the grade limits table, and free sources cannot either. SAE sells J300 rather than publishing it, so a page telling you the temperature at which a given grade stops pumping is not working from the free material. Substituting a grade because the right one is out of stock is a decision, not a formality. Where a maker ties a grade to an ambient range, that range is part of the requirement and not a suggestion attached to it. If you are pouring it in today as well as choosing it, the hot oil, hot exhaust, fire and used oil handling hazards belong to that job. They are set out, with the EPA guidance on used oil, on our motorcycle oil change guide. What SAE J300 is, and what its scope says The standard is SAE J300, Engine Oil Viscosity Classification. The current revision is J300_202405, revised 9 May 2024, issued by the SAE Fuels and Lubricants TC 1 Engine Lubrication committee. SAE's own record gives the original issue as June 1911, which makes this one of the older standards still in daily use. SAE publishes the title, scope, committee and revision history free, and sells the document itself. So the scope can be quoted, and here it is exactly: "This SAE Standard defines the limits for a classification of engine lubricating oils in rheological terms only. Other oil characteristics are not considered or included." That is from SAE's record for J300_202405. Read that twice. Rheological means flow. The phrase about other oil characteristics not being considered or included is the standard telling you, in its own scope, that a grade on a bottle is a statement about flow behaviour and about nothing else. What the two numbers actually denote The grade limits table is behind SAE's paywall, so we do not reproduce it, and a page that prints those limits without saying where it got them owes you an explanation. What can be described is the structure, because API 1509 is free and sets it out directly in Annex F. API describes two series of grades, those containing the letter W and those that do not. A W grade is defined by maximum low-temperature cranking and pumping viscosities together with a minimum kinematic viscosity measured hot. A grade without the W is defined by a band of kinematic viscosity measured hot, plus a minimum high-temperature high-shear viscosity measured hotter still and under high shear. So in a grade written 20W-50, the 20W part is the cold half, set by how the oil behaves when you crank a cold engine and when the pump has to pull it through. The 50 part is the hot half, set by how thick it remains at operating temperature and how it holds up under shear. A multigrade has to satisfy all of that at once: the cold cranking and pumping limits, a hot kinematic viscosity inside the band of one of the non-W grades, and the high-temperature high-shear minimum. Two numbers, two ends of a temperature range. Nothing in either half is a measure of protection, detergency or friction behaviour. What the grade does not tell you This matters more on a motorcycle than on a car, because the friction question belongs to a different standard entirely. Whether an oil suits a clutch running in the engine oil is answered by a JASO class, which we go through in JASO MA, MA2 and MB, what the classes actually mean. The grade and the class sit on the same bottle and answer different questions, and satisfying one does not get you the other. API puts the purpose of grades the same way. It states that SAE viscosity grades constitute a classification for engine lubricating oils "in rheological terms only and are intended for use by engine manufacturers in determining the engine oil viscosity grades to be recommended for use in their engines and by oil marketers in formulating and labeling their products." A grade is a shared language between the manufacturer who specifies and the blender who labels. It is not advice to a rider. Which grades exist API publishes which grades are eligible for its own marks, in API 1509 Table A-2. That list runs 0W, 5W, 10W, 15W, 20W and 25W on the W side, and 16, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 on the high-temperature side. That is API's eligibility list rather than the SAE grade table, and we present it as exactly that. What the motorcycle market actually files Here is something you can check for nothing and that nobody else seems to publish. The JASO Engine Oil Standards Implementation Panel keeps a free register of every oil holding a current four-stroke filing, and it lists the viscosity grade of each one. The edition we parsed is dated 1 September 2026 and holds 2,627 entries. Counting the grades gives a picture of what motorcycle oil actually is on the public record. Viscosity grade Filings in the register 10W-40 862 10W-30 492 20W-50 345 15W-50 202 20W-40 174 10W-50 174 5W-40 160 5W-30 57 Below those come 15W-40 with 44 filings, 10W-60 with 43, 5W-50 with 21 and 0W-30 with 17, and then a long tail present in small numbers: 25W-60, 0W-40, 25W-50, 15W-60, 20W-60 and 0W-50. Two things are worth drawing out. 10W-40 on its own accounts for more filings than the next two grades put together, and the thinnest grades that fill a supermarket shelf are barely present here at all. That is a description of a filing register and not a recommendation. Your machine's grade is whatever its maker specifies for your climate, and no distribution table overrides that. Does the W stand for winter? It is the most repeated claim about a grade, and we could not verify it. Nothing in SAE's free record for J300, and nothing in API 1509, states what the letter W abbreviates. Winter is asserted almost everywhere, but not by any primary source we could find, so we are not going to print it as a fact. What can be said is what the W marks, which is the half of the grade defined by cold-temperature limits. The one thing it certainly does not mean is weight. A related caution: any temperature at which a specific grade will or will not pump comes out of the paywalled limits table, so a page handing you a figure for that owes you a source. Specifications you need to look up for your bike Value Why you need it Where to find it The viscosity grade your maker specifies for your machine and climate The grade is a manufacturer decision, not a general rule Owner’s manual The ambient temperature range your maker ties each grade it names to A grade is named for a climate and a duty, never in the abstract Owner’s manual The JASO performance class your maker asks for, if any Grade and friction class are separate requirements Owner’s manual Whether your maker publishes a second grade for sustained high ambient temperatures Some makers name one grade for all conditions and a different one above a stated ambient Owner’s manual The grade printed in the register row for the bottle you are holding It confirms the label against the filing record rather than against the front of the bottle The Filed Motorcycle Four Cycle Gasoline Engine Oil List Both halves of the grade name, exactly as your maker writes them The W half and the high temperature half are separate limits, so a bottle matching one half does not match the grade Owner’s manual When to stop and take it to a shop Stop if your manual gives a grade you cannot buy locally, because substituting a neighbouring grade is a decision for somebody who knows the machine and not a guess made in an aisle. Stop if the oil pressure warning is behaving oddly, since that is a diagnosis rather than a grade question, and a thicker oil is not a fix for it. Related checks JASO MA, MA2 and MB, what the classes actually mean Can you use car oil in a motorcycle? How to check an oil actually meets your bike's spec How to change motorcycle oil, and why there is no single procedure Frequently asked questions Is a 20W-50 thicker than a 10W-40? The two numbers are two separate limits, so the fair answer is that 20W-50 sits in a higher band at both ends of the range. What those bands are in measured units lives in the SAE grade table, which is sold rather than published, so we will not print figures for it. The grade to use is the one your maker specifies. Does a higher grade mean better protection? No. SAE's own scope says the standard defines a classification in rheological terms only, and that other oil characteristics are not considered or included. Protection depends on additive chemistry that the grade does not describe at all. Can I run a thicker grade in hot weather? Some manufacturers do publish more than one grade tied to ambient conditions, and if yours does, that is your answer. If it publishes a single grade for all conditions, changing it on your own reasoning is not something J300 or API supports, because neither of them publishes advice on substituting grades. Does the grade tell me whether an oil is safe for my wet clutch? No, and this is the mix-up that causes real damage. Flow behaviour and clutch friction are separate questions answered by separate standards. The friction answer is a JASO class, and whether it applies to your machine depends on whether the clutch runs in the engine oil at all. Where can I see the actual SAE grade table? From SAE, for a fee. SAE publishes the title, scope, committee and revision history of J300 free and sells the document. We have not reproduced the limits anywhere on this site, and if you find a page that has, ask yourself where it came from. About this guide Published by MotoGearRater. Reviewed by Tim Bob, motorcycle mechanic, 26 years in the trade. Universal procedure only, with no model-specific specifications. Read our editorial standards.

A vacuum extractor pulls the oil out through the dipstick tube instead of letting it fall out of the drain plug. On a fairing heavy bike, or one whose plug is buried, that is a genuine convenience and it is normal practice in marine and car servicing. The honest counterweight is that suction only takes what the tube reaches, and the job no longer includes the moment you would have looked at the drain plug magnet and its threads. Difficulty Time Tools Safety Beginner, once the tube goes in Longer than a drain, because suction is slower Vacuum extractor, funnel, gloves, a sealed container for the used oil Hot oil in a container that can tip, hot exhaust, a bike that can fall over Whether this method suits your machine at all depends on where its oil lives and how it is filtered. Settle that first at how to change motorcycle oil, then compare with the drain plug method. Before you touch anything Warm oil extracts far better than cold, and warm is not hot. The engine still gets heated, so the scald risk is no lower than on a conventional change, and this method adds one a drain does not have: an open reservoir of hot oil standing on the floor beside you, waiting to be kicked over. The exhaust stays hot long after the engine is off. You work over the machine rather than under it, so the drips come off a tube you are lifting rather than out of a plug hole. They still smoke and can catch if they land on a header, so route the tube and park the rags well away from the pipe. A bike can fall off a stand or a jack, and it falls towards whoever is beside it. Get it upright on a stand rated for its weight, on flat solid ground, before the tube goes anywhere near the filler. Wear eye protection and nitrile gloves. A tube lifted out while the reservoir is still under vacuum flicks oil upward, and your face is above the bike rather than beside it. The US Environmental Protection Agency describes used motor oil as insoluble, persistent, slow to degrade, and able to contain toxic chemicals and heavy metals. EPA publishes no named health outcome from skin contact, so neither do we. See EPA on used oil. Never run an engine in an enclosed space. The warm up before extraction is exactly where that gets forgotten. The extractor reservoir is not a storage container. It is a working vessel with a loose lid, so transfer the oil into something sealable and leak proof the same day. What a vacuum extractor actually is It is a sealed reservoir with a thin flexible tube and a way of removing the air above the oil, either a hand pump on the lid or a compressed air venturi. Drop the tube down the dipstick tube until it reaches the oil, pull the vacuum, and atmospheric pressure pushes the oil up the tube into the reservoir. Nothing on the engine is undone. This is not a motorcycle invention. It is the standard way of servicing marine inboard engines, where the sump often sits in a hull with no reachable drain plug at all, and it is used widely in car servicing for the same reason. The physics does not change in a motorcycle. What changes is what is worth giving up. Where an extractor genuinely earns its place Bodywork. On a fully faired bike or a heavy tourer, reaching the plug can mean removing panels and a belly pan. That is the real job, and the extractor deletes it. An awkward plug. Recessed plugs, plugs behind headers, plugs under a stand foot, and plugs that need the bike lifted before a pan will fit underneath. Nowhere to work. A flat floor with no lift leaves very little clearance for a drain pan and a stream of oil. Mess. There is no stream, so nothing runs down the frame, the swingarm and the exhaust. A tired thread. Every removal is one more cycle on a sump plug thread. If yours is already marginal, an owner who wants to disturb it less often has a reasonable case. What it cannot do, and what it quietly skips It can only take what the tube reaches. A dipstick tube ends where the designer needed it to read a level, not necessarily at the deepest point of the sump. Whatever sits below the level the tube reaches stays in the engine. If the machine has stood cold, more of what the oil was carrying has dropped to the lowest point, which is the part of the sump a dipstick tube is least likely to reach. We are not going to tell you how much is left behind. No source we could verify publishes a figure, and it would depend on the sump shape, how far your tube actually reaches, the oil temperature and how patient you were. Anyone quoting you a percentage is guessing. That uncertainty is itself the argument: you do not know what you left, and you cannot see it. You never see the drain plug magnet. On a shared sump machine the magnet is the cheapest condition monitor on the bike, and reading it is free. An extraction service does not include it. You never inspect the plug or its threads. A plug starting to strip, a damaged sealing face, or a washer reused too often are all things you find by taking the plug out. It does not empty the filter. Extraction takes the sump, not the filter or its housing. If you are changing the filter you are opening that part of the engine anyway, and on a cartridge machine a good deal of the no tools, no mess argument goes with it. Some machines offer no route in. A bike with a sight glass and no dipstick may give the tube nowhere useful to go. Dry sump machines keep oil in more than one place. Pulling the oil tank does not empty the cases, the lines or a cooler. If your bike is dry sump, work out where all of its oil actually sits before deciding that one tube has done the job. How to do it Warm the engine as you would for a drain, outdoors, then let it come down to warm rather than hot. Extractor tubes are plastic. Get the bike upright and level, so the deepest part of the sump is under the tube rather than off to one side. Pull the dipstick and lay the extractor tube alongside it. Mark the tube with tape at the depth the dipstick reaches, so you know how far in you are and can tell if it has coiled instead of going down. Feed the tube in gently. Never force it. If it stops, withdraw slightly, rotate it and try again. A tube that has folded back on itself sits in the middle of the oil and pulls far less than you expect. Check the tube is properly clamped to the extractor before you pull vacuum, and note how much you fed in so you can confirm all of it comes back out. Pull the vacuum and leave it to work, re-pumping as suction falls off. This is slower than a drain, and rushing it is the main reason people are disappointed with the result. When flow stops, feed in a little more tube if it will go, and try again before withdrawing slowly. Change the filter separately if it is due, and expect the housing to spill. Wipe the sealing face and fit a new gasket or cover O ring. Do not set the final level yet. Refill through the filler with noticeably less than the capacity figure in your manual, refit the cap, and go straight on to the next step. Run the engine briefly, check for leaks around anything you opened, then shut it off and let it settle. Only now check the level by the method your manual specifies, and bring it between the marks in small additions. Whether that method means sidestand or upright, hot or cold, running or stopped, dipstick screwed home or rested on the threads varies by model and it is not ours to guess. Transfer the used oil into a sealed leak proof container and take it to a collection point. EPA tells consumers to avoid spilling it and to check with local maintenance facilities, waste collectors and government waste officials for where to drop it off. Specifications you need to look up for your bike Value Why you need it Where to find it Whether the machine has a dipstick tube that reaches the sump, or only a sight glass Whether extraction is possible at all Owner's manual and the bike itself Wet sump or dry sump, and where every drain point is Extraction through one point can leave others full Factory service manual Oil grade, and any classification the maker requires Choosing the oil at all Owner's manual Oil capacity, and whether it assumes a filter change Roughly how much to pour before you start checking Owner's manual Level check method: stand or upright, hot or cold, running or stopped, dipstick screwed in or rested The one step with no universal answer Owner's manual Filter type and part number, and cover torque The extractor does not empty the filter Parts catalogue and factory service manual Drain plug torque and washer part number For the plug services you should still do Owner's or service manual When to stop and take it to a shop Stop if the tube will not go down. Forcing it past a bend is how a tube gets left in an engine. Stop, and do not run the engine, if you cannot account for the full length of tube you fed in. Recovering it is a shop job. Stop if the bike is dry sump and you cannot establish from the service manual where all its oil sits. Stop if what comes out is milky or smells of fuel. That is a finding about the engine, not the method. Stop if the level will not come right, or the oil pressure warning light does not go out after the first restart. Related checks How to change motorcycle oil, and which procedure your bike needs The drain plug oil change, step by step Frequently asked questions How much oil does an extractor leave behind? We do not know, and we will not publish a number. No source we could verify measures it, and it would vary with sump shape, how far the tube reached, oil temperature and patience. Treat any confident percentage you see as invented. Is extraction bad for the engine? Nothing we can verify says suction itself harms anything. The honest objection is different: you probably remove less of what has settled, and you skip two free inspections. Whether that matters is a judgement about your machine and how hard you use it. Can I alternate between extraction and the drain plug? That is the sensible compromise. Just plan the plug services in rather than letting them slide, because taking the plug out is the only version of this job that shows you the magnet and the threads. Do I still have to change the filter? On whatever schedule your manufacturer specifies, yes. The extractor cannot empty the filter or its housing, so that part of the job happens exactly as it would otherwise. Does an extractor work on a dry sump bike? Sometimes, through the oil tank. But a dry sump machine holds oil in more than one place, so emptying the tank leaves the cases, the lines and any cooler still full. Establish the layout from the service manual before assuming one tube did the whole job. About this guide Published by MotoGearRater. Reviewed by Tim Bob, motorcycle mechanic, 26 years in the trade. Universal procedure only, with no model-specific specifications. Read our editorial standards.

There are two oil filter architectures and they are different jobs. A spin on is a sealed steel can with its own rubber gasket that threads onto the engine and is thrown away whole. A cartridge is a paper element that drops into a housing on the engine, and the housing, the cover, the spring and the O rings all stay with the bike. Which one you have decides what you handle, what you can accidentally leave behind, and where the leak comes from afterwards. Difficulty Time DIY cost Tools Safety Straightforward, with two mistakes that matter Part of an oil change, not a job on its own A filter, and the seal kit if yours is a cartridge Drain pan, filter tool or correct socket, funnel, nitrile gloves Hot oil, hot exhaust, the bike falling, used oil handling No torque figures appear on this page. The tightening instruction for a spin on filter is normally printed on the filter itself, and the cover torque for a cartridge housing is in the service manual. Those are the two places that govern. Before you touch anything Hot oil and a hot exhaust. A filter is full of oil, and breaking its seal releases that oil along your forearm. Filters are frequently mounted high on the engine or facing downward, so the release can travel back toward your face as readily as toward the pan. Let the engine come off operating temperature first, and remember that headers and mufflers stay hot long after the cases feel touchable. Fire. A filter emptying onto a hot header smokes and can catch. Trace the path the oil will take before the seal breaks, and wipe the pipes down before the engine is started again. The bike falling. A tight filter sits somewhere awkward and invites you to brace against the machine while you pull on it. Level ground, a proper stand or lift, and nothing that can shift under load. Used oil on your skin. The US Environmental Protection Agency states that used motor oil is insoluble, persistent, and can contain toxic chemicals and heavy metals. Wear eye protection and nitrile gloves. An overhead or inverted mounting puts the release near eye level, which is why the eye protection is not optional on this job. Wash afterwards. EPA does not publish a specific human health outcome from skin contact on its used oil pages, so we do not claim one either. Read the EPA used oil guidance. Enclosed spaces. Never run an engine in a closed garage, and the idle and leak check at the end of this job counts as running it. The two architectures A spin on filter is a disposable assembly. The element and the valve arrangement are sealed inside a steel can, and a rubber gasket sits in a groove around the open end. The can threads onto a stub on the engine and the gasket squashes against a flat machined face. Everything you need comes in the box, and everything you remove leaves with the old filter. One seal, one thread, one decision about how tight. A cartridge filter is the opposite trade. Only the paper element is consumable. The housing is part of the engine, the cover bolts on, and between them live a spring, one or more end caps or seats, and one or more O rings. You are not fitting a sealed unit, you are reassembling a small mechanism. There are more parts, they have an orientation, and several of them do not come in the box. That difference is the whole point of this page. A spin on goes wrong at the gasket. A cartridge goes wrong at the seals and the reassembly. Spin on, where the gasket is the whole job Oil the seal before you fit it. Wipe a film of clean engine oil around the new gasket. A dry rubber gasket can grab the mating face as the filter turns, and roll or tear as it goes, which gives you a seal that looks fitted and is not. An oiled gasket slides and seats evenly. Wipe the mating face. The engine's sealing surface should be clean and dry of grit before the new filter touches it. Then the check that matters more than all the others. Look at the old filter you just removed and confirm that its gasket came off with it. If the old gasket stayed stuck to the engine and you thread a new filter over it, you now have two gaskets stacked in one groove. That is not a weep, it is a large leak under oil pressure, and it usually appears within minutes of starting. Run a finger all the way around the sealing face before the new filter goes anywhere near it. Tightening. Turn it on by hand until the gasket makes contact with the seat, then tighten by the further amount the instruction specifies. That instruction is normally printed on the filter can itself, and your manual gives the machine's own requirement. Use those rather than a figure from anywhere else, because the gasket and the seat are properties of the parts in front of you. Use a wrench only to reach the turn the instruction specifies, never to add feel-based tightness beyond it. Cartridge, where the parts that stay behind are the risk The cover comes off with its bolts, and what is behind it varies by machine. Before you disturb anything, photograph it. That photograph is worth more than any description here, because it is your engine rather than a generic one. Take the parts out and lay them on the bench in the order they came off, the same way up. Elements, seats and springs are frequently not symmetrical, and an element fitted upside down can seal against the wrong surface and let oil bypass the medium entirely. Now count the seals. This is the cartridge equivalent of the double gasket, and it catches experienced people. The cover O ring lives in a groove. It can come off with the cover, stay in the groove, or drop into the housing where you will not see it. If you fit a new O ring while an old one is still in there, you get a leak that is genuinely difficult to trace, because everything looks correctly assembled from outside. Count the seals out and count them into the bin. If the kit contains three seals, three seals should have come off the bike. Lubricate the new O rings with clean engine oil before fitting, for the same reason as the spin on gasket. Then fit the element the way your photograph shows, refit the cover, and tighten the bolts evenly to the manual's torque. Cover bolts are usually small and they usually thread into aluminium, so this is a place where more is emphatically not better. Pre-filling the filter, argued honestly The practice is to fill the new filter with clean oil before fitting it, so the engine reaches full oil pressure sooner on the first start. Whether you can do it at all depends on how the filter is mounted. On a filter that sits with its opening upward, the oil stays where you put it. On a horizontally mounted or inverted filter it runs straight back out as you offer it up, so you finish with oil on the frame and on the floor and very little in the filter. That part is not a debating point, it is geometry. Beyond that, the honest position is this. There are arguments made on both sides, including a concern about introducing oil to the wrong side of the filter medium on some designs, and we have not found a primary source that settles the question with evidence. So we are not going to pretend to. The instruction that governs is the one from the maker of your machine and the maker of your filter. If either tells you to pre-fill, pre-fill. If neither says anything, fitting it dry and letting the engine build pressure at idle is the conservative choice, and it is the choice that assumes nothing your documentation did not tell you. What everybody agrees on is the step afterwards, and it is the one that actually protects the engine. Start the engine and let it idle. Watch the oil pressure warning light go out, or the gauge come up. Stop, look around the filter for leaks, and recheck the oil level, because the filter has now taken its share and the level will have moved. That sequence costs nothing and catches almost every mistake on this page. Specifications you need to look up for your bike Value Why you need it Where to find it Which filter architecture your machine uses It decides the whole procedure Owner's manual and factory service manual Filter part number, and the seals included with it Buying the right kit before you open anything Owner's manual and the parts catalogue Tightening instruction for a spin on filter Sealing without crushing the can Printed on the filter, and in the manual Cartridge cover bolt torque and tightening pattern Not stripping aluminium, and sealing evenly Factory service manual Number and location of every O ring in the housing Counting them out and counting them in Factory service manual Element orientation inside the housing An upside down element can let oil bypass the medium Factory service manual Whether the maker tells you to pre-fill the filter It is the only instruction that settles the argument Owner's manual and the filter instructions Oil quantity for a change with a filter, as opposed to without The filter takes its share Owner's manual Filter change interval for your model and use Knowing when to do this again Owner's manual When to stop and take it to a shop Stop if a spin on filter will not come off and you have already deformed the can, because a crushed filter is harder to grip, not easier. Stop if the threaded stub the filter screws onto turns or feels loose, since that is an engine fixing rather than a filter problem. Stop if a cartridge cover bolt strips or a bolt head rounds off, and do not keep going with a larger tool. Stop if the oil pressure warning does not go out promptly at idle after a filter change, and do not rev the engine to see whether it clears. And stop if a leak persists once you have confirmed a single correctly seated seal, because that points to a damaged sealing face rather than an assembly error. Related checks Dry sump oil changes, and why the oil is not in the engine Engine, primary and transmission, the three fluid change How to change motorcycle oil Frequently asked questions How tight should an oil filter be? As tight as the instruction that came with it says, and no tighter. On a spin on that instruction is normally printed on the can, expressed as hand tight to contact plus a further specified amount. Your service manual gives the figure your machine's maker requires. We do not publish a number, because the correct amount depends on the gasket and seat of the parts in front of you, and a wrong figure either leaks or crushes a can onto the engine. Do I need to pre-fill the oil filter? Only if the maker of your machine or the maker of the filter says to. On a vertically mounted filter it is possible and many people do it. On a horizontal or inverted mounting it mostly ends up on the floor. We have no primary source establishing a measurable difference either way, so we follow the instruction rather than the habit, and we always do the idle and leak check afterwards. Why is my bike leaking after an oil filter change? Work through the assembly errors first. On a spin on, the usual cause is the old gasket left stuck to the engine with the new one squashed on top of it. On a cartridge, it is an old O ring still in the groove or lying in the housing, or a cover tightened unevenly. A dry seal that rolled on fitting is the third. All three look correct from outside. Can I reuse the O rings in a cartridge housing? Not as a matter of course. If your filter kit includes new seals, that is the maker telling you those seals are consumable, and old rings take a set in the groove and do not recover. Where a seal is intended to be reused, the service manual says so. What do I do with the old filter? Drain it and recycle it. EPA states that used oil filters can usually be dropped off at the same collection centres that take used oil, that they contain reusable scrap metal, and that if properly drained they can be safely recycled or disposed. Keep the oil out of the ground and out of the drain. About this guide Published by MotoGearRater. Reviewed by Tim Bob, motorcycle mechanic, 26 years in the trade. Universal procedure only, with no model-specific specifications. Read our editorial standards.

Warm the engine, get the bike level, drain from the plug, deal with the filter, refill short of full, then check the level the way your own manual says to check it. Everything but that last step is close to universal. The level check is not, and getting it wrong is how a careful job ends with an engine over or under full. Difficulty Time Tools Safety Beginner, with one step that needs the manual About an hour, most of it waiting Drain pan, correct socket, torque wrench, filter tool, funnel, gloves Hot oil, hot exhaust, a bike that can fall over Check first that this is the right procedure for your machine. Wet sump or dry sump, shared or separate oil for the gearbox, and spin on filter or cartridge all change what follows: start at how to change motorcycle oil. Before you touch anything Oil that has just been run is hot enough to scald, and the moment the plug clears its last thread the whole sump is coming at your hand. Drain it warm, not straight off a ride. The exhaust stays hot long after the engine is off, and on most machines it crosses the route your arm takes to reach the plug. Oil landing on a hot header smokes and can catch, so have the pan placed and the rags away from the pipe before anything is loosened. A bike can fall off a stand or a jack, and it falls towards whoever is kneeling beside it. You are pushing on a fastener underneath the machine, so put it on a stand rated for its weight, on flat solid ground rather than a slope, gravel, or a soft mat a stand foot will sink into. Wear eye protection and nitrile gloves. You are working underneath with the drain plug above your face, which gives used oil a clear path to your eyes. The US Environmental Protection Agency describes used motor oil as insoluble, persistent, slow to degrade, and able to contain toxic chemicals and heavy metals. EPA publishes no specific human health outcome from skin contact and we will not invent one, but there is no reason to wear it. See EPA on used oil. Never run an engine in an enclosed space, and the warm up that starts this job is where that gets forgotten. Have the new filter and sealing washer in your hand before anything is undone. What the drain plug method actually is It is gravity. On a wet sump engine the drain plug sits at or near the lowest point of the sump, so taking it out empties the sump from the bottom, removing what has settled as well as what is floating. It also puts the plug in your hand, the only moment in an oil change when you can look at the plug magnet and the threads. The alternative, extraction through the dipstick tube, skips both. Step one, warm the engine and get it level Warm oil is thinner and carries more of what is suspended in it out through the drain. A few minutes of idling or a short ride does it, outdoors. Then stop and wait, because there is a real gap between warm enough to flow and hot enough to burn through a glove. A sump drains from its lowest point, and a bike on its sidestand is not presenting that point to the plug. Get it upright on a centre stand, a rear stand, a lift or with a helper, level front to back as well as side to side, and block it so it cannot tip. Step two, drain Put the pan under the plug, allowing for the first of the oil coming out sideways before it straightens up. Open the filler cap so air can get in. Crack the plug loose with a properly fitting six point socket. If it is tight, improve tool engagement rather than adding leverage to a fastener that is rounding. Undo the last of it by hand, with inward pressure so it does not blow off the final thread, and let it run until it is a slow drip. Wipe the plug and look at it. This is the inspection you get for choosing this method. A magnet carrying a fine grey paste has been doing its job. What deserves attention is anything with a shape to it: flakes, chips, or fragments you can feel with a fingernail. Check the threads and the sealing face, then fit a new sealing washer. A crush washer seals by deforming and an O ring takes a set, so both are single use. Start the plug by hand and run it in several turns before any tool touches it. Cross threading an aluminium sump is the expensive mistake here. Tighten to the torque figure in your manual, with a torque wrench. Sump plugs thread into soft castings, so this is no place to work by feel. Step three, the filter A spin on canister is a sealed metal can that screws onto a threaded stub. A cartridge is a paper element inside a housing, behind a bolted cover. They need different tools and parts. For a spin on, move the pan under the filter first, because it is full and empties as it comes off. Undo it with a filter tool, then check the old rubber gasket came away with it and is not still stuck to the engine, because a doubled gasket is a guaranteed leak. Wipe the face, oil the new gasket, fit the filter by hand until the gasket meets the face, and tighten by the instruction printed on the filter body. For a cartridge, undo the cover bolts evenly and expect oil behind the cover. Note the order and orientation of everything that comes out, because there is often a spring or a seat behind the element and it goes back one way only. Replace the cover O ring. Step four, refill Say out loud that the plug is in and torqued and the filter is fitted, because the classic failure of this job is pouring fresh oil into an engine whose plug is still in the drain pan. Use a funnel and pour in noticeably less than the capacity figure in your manual. Manuals often quote different capacities with and without a filter change, and a sump that has not fully drained takes less than a dry one. Do not set the final level yet. Refit the cap, run the engine as the next step describes, shut it off and let it settle. Only then check the level by your manual’s method and bring it between the marks in small additions. Step five, run it and look for leaks Refit the filler cap or dipstick, start the engine and let it idle. After a filter change the oil pressure warning light can take slightly longer than usual to go out while the filter fills. If it does not go out, shut down immediately and find out why. Then look underneath: around the plug, around the filter, and on the floor. Wipe every surface clean beforehand, because residue from the job looks like a fresh leak. Then shut the engine off and let it settle, which is the state the level check in the next step needs. Look underneath again after your first ride. Step six, check the level, and this is where people get it wrong This is the step with the least universal answer and the most confident bad advice attached to it. All of the following vary by model: Whether the bike is read on the sidestand, on the centre stand, or held perfectly upright. Whether the engine should be cold, or warmed and then stopped for a specified settling period. Whether the engine should be running at idle or switched off while you read. Whether the dipstick is screwed fully home or simply rested on the threads. Whether you read a dipstick at all or a sight glass, which is read square on at eye level rather than from above. Those combinations are not interchangeable. A bike read on the sidestand when the manual specifies upright reads low, and topping up to the mark from that reading puts too much oil in the engine. We will not tell you which combination applies to your machine. It is a per model instruction and the owner's manual is where it lives. Anyone giving one confident answer for all motorcycles is describing the bike they own. Once you know the method, bring the level between the marks, adding small amounts and rechecking. Step seven, deal with the used oil Pour the drained oil into a sealable, leak proof container. EPA tells consumers to take care not to spill any as they collect it, and to check with local maintenance facilities, waste collectors and government waste officials for where to drop it off. Do not mix anything into it: petrol, coolant, brake fluid or solvent can make the whole lot unacceptable at a collection point. Drain the old filter and recycle it too. EPA states that used oil filters contain reusable scrap metal and that if properly drained they can be safely recycled, and that centres taking used oil usually take filters. It also gives a reason to bother: used oil from a single oil change can contaminate one million gallons of fresh water, a year's supply for fifty people. State rules can be stricter than federal ones. Specifications you need to look up for your bike Value Why you need it Where to find it Oil grade, and any classification the maker requires Choosing the oil at all Owner's manual Oil capacity, and whether it assumes a filter change Roughly how much to pour before you start checking Owner's manual Drain plug torque The plug threads into a soft casting Owner's or service manual Sealing washer and filter part numbers, and whether the filter is a spin on or a cartridge Buying the right parts and the right tool Parts catalogue or dealer Filter or filter cover torque Cartridge covers and some spin ons are torqued Factory service manual Level check method: stand or upright, hot or cold, running or stopped, dipstick screwed in or rested The one step here with no universal answer Owner's manual Drain point locations, and whether a strainer is serviced Both get missed on bikes that have them Factory service manual When to stop and take it to a shop Stop if the plug rounds off, spins without tightening, or comes out with aluminium threads on it. Stop if the magnet or the pan holds metal with a shape to it, or if the drained oil is milky. Both are findings about the engine, not the oil change. Stop if a cartridge cover is warped, a sealing face is scored, or the oil pressure warning light does not go out after the first restart. Stop if you cannot find the manufacturer's level check method for your model. Guessing it is the likeliest way to hurt an engine on an otherwise correct job. Related checks How to change motorcycle oil, and which procedure your bike needs Changing oil with a vacuum extractor, and when it is a bad idea Drain plugs, crush washers and stripped threads What to do with used motorcycle oil Frequently asked questions Does the engine have to be warm before I drain it? Warm oil flows faster and carries more of what is suspended in it out of the sump. Warm is not hot, though, and whether your manufacturer specifies warm or cold is a per model instruction in the owner's manual. Can I reuse the drain plug washer? Treat it as single use. A crush washer seals by deforming and an O ring takes a permanent set once squeezed. Reusing either is the usual reason a plug weeps, and the cure people reach for is more torque, which is how sump threads get stripped. How tight should the drain plug be? To the torque figure in your manual, with a torque wrench. We do not publish one. Thread size, washer type and casting material differ between machines, and a number taken from a guide about a different bike is a reliable way to strip a sump. Do I have to change the filter every time? Whether your manufacturer specifies a new filter at every oil change or at alternate ones is in the maintenance schedule in your owner's manual. What is always true is that a filter holds oil, so a change including the filter takes more than one that does not. That is why the level check, not the capacity figure, tells you when to stop. About this guide Published by MotoGearRater. Reviewed by Tim Bob, motorcycle mechanic, 26 years in the trade. Universal procedure only, with no model-specific specifications. Read our editorial standards.