Oil Change - Stella Automatic

[Elder Scoot]

The Stella Automatic's Owner's manual portion on oil changes is a joke. It fails to point to the location of the oil filter and even state the engine oil capacity.

With some sleuthing, I mean crawling around on the floor and a telephone call to Genuine, I found it on the left side of the engine case forward of the kick starter. It has a cover with the mysterious word "FILTER" in raised letters. Pretty damn tricky if you ask me. Three bolts and off she comes.

Soon I will drain the oil and measure that amount and then by some ingenious extrapolation come up with an estimate of oil capacity.

Stayed tuned if you can bear the anticipation.

[StellaFelL.A.]

The Stella Automatic's Owner's manual portion on oil changes is a joke.

You can say that again! I've been searching for the service manual for the Auto on the internet but to no avail. Wanted: Stella Automatic Service Station Manual
If you can post pictures that would be sweet.

Don't worry everybody Elder Scoot is on the case.

[Cam]

No shop manual ...but diagram #8 in the parts manual I linked to the other day gives a nice blow apart diagram of the oil system components and part numbers for gaskets, filters, o-rings etc.

If you can't find the link...PM me and I'll e mail you a copy of the pdf file.

Cam

[Elder Scoot]

Here is the Gospel from Genuine:

"Hello,

Genuine recommends using a motorcycle grade oil. Synthetic is fine, I would probably convert to synthetic after the first oil change to allow proper break in. Don’t forget to change the oil filter cartridge (part # SF513-1524 can be purchased at a Genuine dealer) located just below the transmission CVT cover. Please save all your receipts in case you have a warranty related issue.

Capacity and grade: 900 ML of 10W40 Check the oil level with the dipstick threaded in, once removed it should be towards the top of the crosshatch area.

Regards,
Massimo"

I did the oil change this morning. It is easy to do on the automatic. The drain plug is removed on the right side of the bike. Remember to remove the dipstick also and it's also helpful to have gotten the motor warmed up to increase flow. Have a pan and a funnel ready. Oil will run out a bit onto the center stand and the muffler pipe. My Vespa 300 GTi did the same thing because of the placement of the stand leg. The drain plug has a spring behind it that holds the wire mesh filter. Clean that filter with carb cleaner and a blast of air. The paper filter is located on the left side in the front of the crankcase and it marked "filter". It comes out easily with the removal of the 3 bolts and gentle rocking. I bought an OEM filter from my dealer for $8.00 (US).

I reinstalled the paper filter and cover, plugged the drain and cleaned off the muffler and stand leg with Simple Green. Using a funnel I put in 900 cc of Castrol 4T Motorcycle Oil. I then fired up the bike, shut it down and let it sit for 10 minutes and then did a reading with the dipstick. All was well.

Because I intend to change the oil every 1000 miles I may stick with plain old dino oil. Synthetics justify their price by extended miles.

While it may just be me - the bike seems to running a little smoother.

[djp4059]

I would strongly recommend using synthetic oil in any engine (car, truck, boat, scooter, motorcycle, etc.) reason being, I work for a chemical company and we make and use all kinds of oil and grease. A chemist told me that the molecules in regular motor oil are different sizes, for example take a bunch of different size ball bearings and place them on a smooth surface then put another smooth surface on top of them, only the bigger ball bearings would be doing all the work. While synthetic motor oil is engineered to have all the molecules the same exact size, which using the example above with all the ball bearings being the same size, all of the ball bearings would be doing the work. I use synthetic for my car, boat and scooter (if you have a manual trans scooter where the clutch uses the engine oil as a lubricant, you'll have to find a synthetic oil made especially for that, if you throw just any synthetic oil in there you're clutch plates would just slip like crazy). I use Royal Purple Max-Cycle SAE 20W-50 High Performance Motorcycle and ATV Motor Oil in my Stella 4T. You'll also get better gas mileage with synthetic along with extended life. The reason you get extended oil life with synthetic is that it never breaks down, the reason you have to eventually change it is that it gets dirty just like any other motor oil. I do change mine at the regular intervals suggested in the manual.

Another advantage to synthetic is that it adheres to the metal much better, for instance when you start your car up in the morning, if your using regular motor oil you have to wait for the oil to warm up (especially during the winter) while with synthetic you can just start up and go.

And another trick the chemist told me about, is to add a little Molybdenum to your oil. Its an additive we add to grease to make it perform better. I forgot how much he said to add, as I have not tried it yet. But he says he uses it in his car and it gets even better gas mileage. And by better mileage he says he'll get 10 to 20 more miles to a full tank of gas.

Years ago, when Royal Purple started up, a rep of theirs visited are factory and did a little demonstration. He took a flathead screwdriver and dipped the flathead part in regular oil and ask us to hold the screwdriver by the tip with two fingers, you could basically hold it for awhile. Then he dipped it in their synthetic oil and asked you to do the same thing, and no one could hold on to it, it would just slip right out of your fingers no matter how hard you tried to hold it. I've been hooked on synthetic ever since and have never had any problems with it.

[Elder Scoot]

I would strongly recommend using synthetic oil in any engine (car, truck, boat, scooter, motorcycle, etc.) reason being, I work for a chemical company and we make and use all kinds of oil and grease. A chemist told me that the molecules in regular motor oil are different sizes, for example take a bunch of different size ball bearings and place them on a smooth surface then put another smooth surface on top of them, only the bigger ball bearings would be doing all the work. While synthetic motor oil is engineered to have all the molecules the same exact size, which using the example above with all the ball bearings being the same size, all of the ball bearings would be doing the work. I use synthetic for my car, boat and scooter (if you have a manual trans scooter where the clutch uses the engine oil as a lubricant, you'll have to find a synthetic oil made especially for that, if you throw just any synthetic oil in there you're clutch plates would just slip like crazy). I use Royal Purple Max-Cycle SAE 20W-50 High Performance Motorcycle and ATV Motor Oil in my Stella 4T. You'll also get better gas mileage with synthetic along with extended life. The reason you get extended oil life with synthetic is that it never breaks down, the reason you have to eventually change it is that it gets dirty just like any other motor oil. I do change mine at the regular intervals suggested in the manual.

Another advantage to synthetic is that it adheres to the metal much better, for instance when you start your car up in the morning, if your using regular motor oil you have to wait for the oil to warm up (especially during the winter) while with synthetic you can just start up and go.

And another trick the chemist told me about, is to add a little Molybdenum to your oil. Its an additive we add to grease to make it perform better. I forgot how much he said to add, as I have not tried it yet. But he says he uses it in his car and it gets even better gas mileage. And by better mileage he says he'll get 10 to 20 more miles to a full tank of gas.

Years ago, when Royal Purple started up, a rep of theirs visited are factory and did a little demonstration. He took a flathead screwdriver and dipped the flathead part in regular oil and ask us to hold the screwdriver by the tip with two fingers, you could basically hold it for awhile. Then he dipped it in their synthetic oil and asked you to do the same thing, and no one could hold on to it, it would just slip right out of your fingers no matter how hard you tried to hold it. I've been hooked on synthetic ever since and have never had any problems with it.

A word to the wise is sufficient. I always used Rotella 6T 5X40 in my other bikes and can buy it at Walmart for a reasonable price.