I was very surprise to see that many people recon an oilchange with oilfilter every 2000km on the DRZ, when Suzuki says 6000km for oil, and 18'000km for the filter.

And what about the valves clearance check, Suzuki gives 24'000km.

Usually the manufacturer is always on the safe side, so why so many people think it's better to do more maintenance than needed?

Are there any proof that Suzuki is too optimistic with his data?

thanks for the information.

I have just run a DRZ out of oil in Iran. We were just over the 4,000 mile service interval, and it had not used any oil for the first couple of thousand miles so I got lazy and stopped checking. We were one day off our oil change. Both our DRZs were very low on oil, one to the point of top end failure and the other was (hopefully) just ok. One took a litre to full, the other 1.4 litres. The oil in both was black.

Sustained high speed running can apparently blow the oil out of the crank case breather and it gets burnt through the air box scavenger.

Since fixing the bike we have done about 1,200 miles with no oil usage and good clean oil. I don't know what happened, but I won't run it to 4,000 miles again. I can only imagine the oil lost a lot of viscoscity and got burnt away.

Change it often!! Check it every day.

I plan to do it at 2,000 miles from now on, or as soon as it starts to change colour and/or use oil (whichever comes sooner). From now on I'd rather put cheaper oil in more often than use expensive oil and wait for the service interval. We're currently running car oil (without friction modifiers), as motorbike oil was impossible to find in Iran. Fresh oil is better than no oil!

I agree with you about using car oil, it's the same, I red a lot of stuff about oil on the internet. Basically, studies have been made that shoved no difference between car and motorcycle oil, everything you are told is just bullshit, people repeating what they heard and of course, marketing. Why not sell motorcycle oil 3 times more expensive if people would buy it!

The major difference is some aditives in some car oil that can make your clutch slip... Never happened to me to this day.

The problem with car oil, is that depending in the area where you live, you don't find the correct viscosity for your bike...

For exemple, I travelled to mongolia with a BMW R100 GS, could find in central asia and mongolia 20W50 oil for car. almost impossible to find in europe.

About the color, I would say it's ratter normal that oil becomes black, it means that it works!

I would as well put cheap oil and change more often rather than expensive oil.

thanks for sharing informations

Ignore the Suzuki book. The DRZ has been around along time now and it is well known that you really need to change the oil every 2000km with hard riding and maybe 3000km with touring.

I changed mine every 3000km in Africa and the oil was ALWAYS very black and dirty. I always used the best oil I could get and that was always car oil but rated to at least AF-G.

If you set your valve clearances before you go, you should be good for at least 25,000km. Mine were in perfect spec after that mileage still.

As with the above advice. CHECK YOUR OIL often. Every few days or 500 miles. It's a very easy job and only takes a minute.

If you look after a DRZ engine, it will take some serious abuse. Just don't push your luck. It is very easy to work on and very simple. There are no excuses

Just drop the oil and put 2L of oil in it. EASY. Change the filter every 2-3 changes.

RE the clutch.. Mine was starting to slip at about 25,0000 MILES. I don't know if that was down to the oil or not. The plates were in spec but I think probably highly contaminated by car oil (most do have clutch friction modifiers in them) Also, my bike was overloaded and I had the wrong gearing. I suggest 15/42 for best engine life and universal riding.

The MOST MOST MOST important thing on a DRZ400 is to pack REALLY light.

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

When touring I have usually changed oil at about 5000km-s and filter on each second change. I only use genuine filters since I believe they are better quality that cheap aftermarket ones. Changing it more often does not hurt but I just want to see how long this thing lasts on recommended maintenance.

So far the only failure has been strator at about 30000km, which seems to be common failure.

I checked valve clearance after 30000km and they were in spec but need to adjust before next longer trip.

Ahto

Because "most" people rack up the miles very slowly, have too much free time on their hands, and consider whatever motorcycle they own to be some kind of sacred thing that needs to be pampered and have vast somes of money wasted on it.

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UK to Mongolia 2009, on a DR350

And would you buy a bike that the manufacture says "Change the oil every 2000km because we're just not sure what will happen if you don't if you take it travelling."

They all know that problems which come about through dragged out services often take YEARS to show up. By then they can blame the owner for anything.

A DRZ was never designed to be ridden overland. In reality it was never designed to be ridden more than a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon so you have to adjust your maintenance plan accordingly.

Ted

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.