Motor oil as fork oil?

benarmour

benarmour

Active Member
Just wondering if there are any serious risks of using 10W30 motor oil in place of the recommended 10W fork oil? Would the motor oil pose a threat to the fork seals or anything like that?
 
Its what I use. Some people will wring their hands and fret, "oh no you'll kill your bike". Others like me, do it and dont worry about it.
 
I've never used motor oil. I use synthetic ATF. I do know that certain motor oils are not good for seals. I know what to look for on the label but I dont have one in front of me to tell you what to look for.
 
Funny thing- if you read the Yamaha service manual for the TX500, it states the original lubricant for the forks is 10w30 motor oil. I'm sure lots of bikes in the seventies were made that way. Just an FYI.
 
I put 10W40 in my SR500 forks it handled better after, but thats probably because I put motor oil in after I changed the seals. It's been fine for the past 6 months with motor oil in it
 
I have used anything from ATF, to motor oil in forks. Hell, I even use fork oil sometimes. <G>
Back in the 70's, I used to use ATF blended with a little 90 wt gear oil to adjust the viscosity.
 
I've been recommending the cheapest full synthetic motor oil as fork oil for several years
I do use Silkolene 'Pro' Suspension fluid in shocks though (sometimes in forks but only variable damping ones ;) )
For damper rod forks, pretty much anything works, although you only get 'proper' damping over a relatively narrow range of fork rebound 'speed' no matter what you put in there
 
Cheers for all the info guys. Looks like that'll be another little bit of money saved then! i'm such a cheapskate... ;)
 
two-smoker said:
Funny thing- if you read the Yamaha service manual for the TX500, it states the original lubricant for the forks is 10w30 motor oil.
Click to expand...
+1 My DS7 calls for the same.
And as PJ mentioned, I used a full synthetic 10w30 when I rebuilt my forks ;)
 
Yeah I went to Oreily Auto and got their cheap brand of 10w-30 Full Synth., dumped it in there with a fork seal change.
Im quite satisfied, I mistakenly put SAE30 in their thinking it was 10w-30 (Bottle was confusing for a dumbass like me...)... Let just say it would hydro lock on flat ground, haha!
 
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