Hi Steve. These little movies are great. I just picked up an '04 599 and want to change the fluids. Your coolant film is fantastic. Can you do one for an oil change as well?

Thx.

I will make one in the spring. But if you can't wait I'll give you a few steps.

1. Start the bike up and let it idle for a little bit. Then shut it off and let it cool. Don't let it be cold, but also you don't want it so hot that you'll burn yourself. This is how I do it but some swear you need it hot and some swear it should be cold for various reasons.

2. Put the bike on the side stand and place an oil pan under the bike by the drain plug.

3. Put some newspaper, old magazines, or tin foil on your pipes below the oil filter that will funnel the oil to the oil pan.

4. Remove the drain plug and catch the oil in the pan.

5. Remove the oil filter with a filter wrench.

6. Inspect the bike where you took the old filter off. Make sure the old gasket came off with the filter. If not, you'll have two gaskets on and that will cause a leak forcing you to do another oil change.

7. Dip your finger in the old oil then run your finger around the new gasket on your new oil filter.

8. Put the new filter on only using your hands. Never use a tool to tighten the oil filter. Just make it as snug as you can.

9. Now, you'll either need a bike stand to keep your bike level or a buddy to hold your bike level. Anyway you do it, get it level, meaning not on the side stand.

10. Put the drain plug back in and start to fill your bike with oil. It's better to put in too little than too much at this point. Keep a close eye on the glass eye. If you're doing it alone and have no center stand, borrow a hand mirror so that you can check the oil level as you sit up right on the bike.

11. Once the oil level is in the good zone on the eye, put the filler cap back on then start the bike and let it idle for 30 seconds. Now shut it off and let it sit for 30 seconds before you recheck the eye. The oil level should have gone down some.

12. Put more oil in the bike untill the eye reads ok.

13. Start the bike up again then shut it off and recheck. You should be fine at this point.

14. Now you're done, but it's still a good idea to check the eye a few times over the next week to make sure the level is constant and you don't have any leaks anywhere.

Thanks for the tips. I'd be doing it alone since I doubt my 105 lbs girlfriend would feel comfortable holding up my bike so the mirror trick is smart =)

just a couple of additions to Steve's excellent instructions:

1. crush washers cost about $.05. the manual says to replace them every other oil change, but i forget to do it unless i replace them every time. so i do it every time. there's a crush washer on the drain plug.

2. some people recommend pre-filling the oil filter before you put it on the bike. the idea is to get the filtering elements soaked and filtering as soon as possible. i'm not sure that it makes a difference, but i usually do it. pour fresh oil into the filter, then you've got fresh oil there to rub on the filter gasket. after a few minutes the oil will soak into the filter and you can put the filter on the bike.

3. the torque value for the drain plug is 22 ft-lbs. this is one of those bolts you absolutely don't want to vibrate loose (yes, i know someone who had this happen) or to strip (this too--maybe i should start giving out torque wrenches for christmas).

4. if this is the first time you've changed the oil, chances are the filter will be REALLY torqued on there (the manual recommends something like 20 ft-lbs, i think, although Steve is right that it doesn't need to be particularly tight. i do 1/2 turn past hand tight). good luck getting it off. i eventually used some oil filter pliers, but at the cost of mangling the oil filter. subsequent changes were much easier.

hope this helps.

.cyb
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