Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Heavy Oil Consumption - anyone hear of this?

I got this note from a friend of mine.

Seems there has been a surprising surge of damaged new Triumph engines in the last year because of high lub oil consumption. According to Triumph, 1litre every 600miles is not excessive! Up to you how you take that information, but advice in all the magazines is:
a) There is nothing fundamentally wrong with these engines but some seem to suffer a rather higher than expected oil consumption. Hill climbing, lots of fast bends, track work, seems to exacerbate the problem.
b) The engines that have failed did not show a low oil pressure alarm until after the damage occurred.
c) Check your oil every morning before you ride. This is recommended in the manual anyway, so you'll have to be very persuasive to get Triumph to rebuild an engine that suffers because of this, even in the warranty period. Seems most of the UK ones have been fixed under warranty but Triumph disclaim liability.



This is the first I've heard of this one. Any of you more experienced riders know anything about this? Thanks.

Mine does not use any oil at all with 29,300 miles on it in 20 months of use. Nary a drop.

I have never read any indication that our motors are oil burners at any point. We have a few members here who have big miles on their rides and I have seen no reports from them that they use any oil.

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Mine does not use any oil at all with 29,300 miles on it in 20 months of use. Nary a drop.

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Same! Nary a drop.

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Triumph engines

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Which Triumph engines?


I have never heard this before. Can you find out where this came from?


another thought I just had. We've (BA.com) have been around for quite some time now. If this was even a one off problem, don't you think it would have been reported here?

I smell a rat....

Never heard that one before and it didn't return any hits on Google, Snopes or Hoaxbusters. It's likely just another internet hoax starting up (as if there weren't enough already).

I heard this is a problem with some of the new 1050 Tigers. I believe Bike Magazine ran one low on oil during their test. I don't recall ever hearing a problem with the parallel twins.

Well we have at least two people here that work for triumph.... Let's see what they say......

Triumphdetroit?
Chy?

This bit of news came from a UK acquaintance of mine. I am not sure where he got the info and I will ask him. Unfortunately, he works in a remote part of the world and I am trying to get overseas myself, so it may take a few days.
Like I said, I've never heard of this and just wanted to see if anyone else has.
Thanks again

I did say at least two.... Geez , like I'm supposta remember everyone and where they work.


Sorry Pete.

Nope.. haven't heard a word about it. I see quite a few 1050's.. no issues.

My 45 might use that much oil (if it was on the road)...and I was worried when I saw drips under the 03 the winter before....(the oil filter had gone rusty)

But never had to top either of my Americas up

I bought my '05 Speedmaster used offen ebay with around 1,000 mile on it in May of 06. I had documentation that the dealer had changed the oil at the 5 or 600 mile service, and the sight glass looked right. After I dumped the oil the first time at X,000 miles, I poured only three quarts of dirty oil back into the gallon jug. Kinda ruined my day, but 18,000 miles later, it's now a non-issue. I've seen excessive oil usage in friends and neighbors new vehicles as well. Maybe it's part of some engines break in phase. Dunno.

Nope, no oil losses out of either the Speedy or America sitting in my garage... No, I just own the America, the Speedy is my brother-in-laws... LOL

Hey Martin,

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I poured only three quarts of dirty oil back into the gallon jug

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Did you measure out the oil in the filter (and all that was absorbed by the filter)?

I drain the filter into the drain pan, but sure, there is a certain amount of heel left in both the filter and pan.

My America doesn't seem to lose much at all. I've never had to add between oil changes and I check the level all the time.

Could that have been in reference to the '37 Speedtwin? The HD manuals from that era used to say that at least 200 miles per quart was normal.

That was a total loss system in those days if I remember correctly for HD, the gas tank was split and half held the oil and the other half held gas. At one point the oil pressure was even achieved by a hand pump on the tank no engine driven pump at all.

As for our bikes we have 2 and 15,000 on mine and 7,000 on Wendys and neither one uses a drop.