Author Topic: 1st oil change  (Read 3361 times)

onrbikes

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1st oil change
« on: September 30, 2013, 03:40:40 am »
So after 3400km have just done my first oil change, and didn't like the colour or amount that came out.

There may have been about 10ml that came out and it wasn't very clear.
I do a lot of work on mining equipment and would question the colour. More grey than clear.  :-\. My car oil comes out clearer and cleaner after 8000km of running.

The rinse also was very dirty and the 16ml I put in didn't come out. Should I rinse it again?

triaesthete

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Re: 1st oil change
« Reply #1 on: September 30, 2013, 07:53:56 am »
Remember this is a gearbox with lots of teeth meshing under load so there will ALWAYS be some very fine metal particles in suspension in the old oil, particularly so as there is not a magnetic drain plug or an oil filter to catch them. Worry ye not  :)

I use 25ml to rinse and  it will come out grey because it's doing its job picking up more muck. One rinse is enough unless you are a money no object perfectionist  ::)

It's the refill with the running oil that needs a lesser amount to avoid leakage.

I always measure what goes in and out at each stage of the process to avoid overfilling.

I hope this helps
Ian


geocycle

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Re: 1st oil change
« Reply #2 on: September 30, 2013, 12:09:17 pm »
Like you, I always have 10-20ml of grey/black waste oil when I do a change.  The amount is fine as a lot sticks to the internals or is lost through the breather.  Rohloffs are not hermetically sealed units so some moisture and air exchange will occur and some oil is lost.  I cannot comment on whether the colour is good or bad, probably a question for rohloff. 
 

revelo

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Re: 1st oil change
« Reply #3 on: September 30, 2013, 09:34:10 pm »
One thing I would recommend, to anyone who really abuses their Rohloff, is to simply change the oil more often. If you buy in bulk, the oil is not very expensive. You can reuse both syringe and oil drain screw.

Andre Jute

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Re: 1st oil change
« Reply #4 on: October 01, 2013, 01:10:48 am »
One thing I would recommend, to anyone who really abuses their Rohloff, is to simply change the oil more often. If you buy in bulk, the oil is not very expensive. You can reuse both syringe and oil drain screw.

A complete oil kit with two bottles, a fresh syringe and new plug stud costs under 15 Euro  and under $20. That's very little to spend to keep a gearbox sweet that costs well north of a thousand smackers. Not to mention that it effectively turns your warranty into a lifetime warranty, given only that Herr Rohloff continues his present practice of not charging for repairs to regularly serviced Rohloff boxes if not obviously seriously abused by the owner.

All the engineers here know that the famous Jaguar twin-cam XK engine was designed as the ne plus ultra of pre-war grand prix engines. As such it was a piece of jewelry enlarged, difficult and expensive to work on. As a student at Stellenbosch, I trashed my Porsche racing in the storm drains on the way to Bulawayo, and had to buy another car in a hurry without too much money. I bought a Mark II Jaguar with 250,000 miles (read that again, it's a quarter-million miles) on the clock for fifty pounds. I thrashed that car for another thirty thousand miles towing my racing cars, set a national record in it (under ten hours for 1010 miles on public roads), and then sold it on. I bought it from the Rhodesian Highway Police, who had never allowed the engine to become cold, and drained the oil hot, like a religion, every 3000 miles, a practice my racing mechanics continued. So did the next owner, a redneck racer, who eventually had to open the bottom of the engine at 330,000 miles.

So I'm not impressed with a Rohloff gearbox doing 100,000km, or 100,000miles for that matter, which gets Herr Rohloff and his merry men (and women!) all excited. I see absolutely no reason a gearbox built on the lines the Rohloff is built shouldn't last indefinitely, certainly several generations of cyclists, if it is serviced, like a religion, by changing the oil every 5000km/3000m or every year, whichever comes first.

Yo, OnR, the cleaning oil will become less black with successive services; that gave me too a bad fright the first time, as I thought my expenesive gearbox was going to last 5000km.... And you always get less oil back than you put in. About 12ml clings to the gears.

John Saxby

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Re: 1st oil change
« Reply #5 on: October 01, 2013, 01:54:49 pm »
Great mini-bio, Andre!  Did you bump up against Gary Hocking, Jim Redman, and that lot? Or was that a generation earlier?

(I saw Redman in 2005 at Zwartburg in Pta on a Vintage day. In his late 60s/early70's at the time, he was still the fastest & smoothest...)

J.

Andre Jute

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Re: 1st oil change
« Reply #6 on: October 01, 2013, 11:45:43 pm »
Great mini-bio, Andre!  Did you bump up against Gary Hocking, Jim Redman, and that lot? Or was that a generation earlier?

(I saw Redman in 2005 at Zwartburg in Pta on a Vintage day. In his late 60s/early70's at the time, he was still the fastest & smoothest...)

J.

In my dreams. Redman was a racing generation earlier, in an entirely different class of skill and commitment, a professional, not a moonlighting merchant banker and advertising executive.

Etienne

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Re: 1st oil change
« Reply #7 on: November 28, 2013, 01:31:43 pm »
 :D   HOW nice of you  - get practice and read your topics...

I do confirm - "The rinse also was very dirty xxxx . Should I rinse it again?" >> yes the second time it become grey color.

Also Grey color with another Hub already rinsed a year ago.

Rockymountain

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Re: 1st oil change
« Reply #8 on: November 28, 2013, 02:49:37 pm »
I, too, have just done my first oil change. All went well just according the the Rohloff video. So that's another year's cycling before the next one.

Fraser