Low oil level and oil pressure light.?

[bstard]

Hi
I commintted a cardinal sin in the weekend and ran my GS1200SS low on oil.
Did a 40minute run out to our drag strrip and the bike ran flawlessly all the way there.
But as I stopped to turn into the entrance I pulled the clutch in and the bike died.
It sounded wierd as I hit the starter and although it started as soon as I put it back into gear it stalled
Once I gave it a few more rpm it would go into gear and I was able to get it into the dragstrip.
Looked at the oil level window and the window was empty :duh:we had to lean the bike over a bit
until we could see some oil.
Put about 1.25 liters in it and it would start but then it would still stall when putting it into gear.
After about a 2 hr cool down it was all happy again and did the run home with no problems and has
run each day to work and back so far this week.

So......why didn't my oil pressure light come on if the oil level was that low?
The oil pressure light does work.
Was it just the whole motor being much hotter than normal the caused the clutch to bind up and stall.

I know I should be shot for not check my oil more often as I knew that the bandits burn a bit of oil but the damn
thing just runs so faultlessly I just plain forgot.
Richard

[rider123]

The oil in the Bandit is just not used for lubrication but also for cooling. Running the oil low enough not to trip the sensor will not cool the bike properly. You're probably %100 fine but if you ever rebuild check for scoring on the cylinder walls and I'm sure the piston rings didn't like it either. Best to always keep the oil level midway or 2/3rds between low and Full in the window so it's high enough to cool/lubricate the engine but not too full to put unnecessary strain on oil seals. If it started back up I wouldn't worry about it too much at low rpm like idling the oil pressure is low and with low oil it just makes it worse which adds more friction and heat so thats probably why it stalled. These engines are hard to kill permanently, although if you did it would be a perfect excuse to put a big bore kit in.

For me I use semi-synthetic. Because it's a wet clutch and the bike has so much power I don't use full but with semi-synthetic it gives you a slight edge over regular dino oil if you're semi-lackadaisical when it comes to checking oil, etc. You also get a few more thousand kms before you have to change it out which helps the slacker factor in me.

[bstard]

Hi
Thanks for the reply.
It is going to have to keep running as it is my daily ride.
Just seems bad that you can get the oil level so low that it will overheat the bike but NOT low enogh to bring on the oil
pressure light.
Now I know it is a pressure sensor not a temp sensor but still !!!!  if low oil can cuase over heating that bad then you would have though they would have
put a oil temp sensor in there somewhere.
Never mind we have what we have and I should be strung up for ever letting the oil level get that low !
Richard

[rider123]

I think the oil pressure light is slightly underpowered so that people aren't going to the dealership every 2 weeks as it comes on because they are 400ml lower than full. The real function of the oil level light is if you have a catastrophic oil seal failure ie, like your drain plug comes loose or something so you can quickly hit the kill switch. Some bikes I've owned actually had an oil pressure guage with real numbers on it so it was more sensible than a light. If you do a forum search you can find the mod to actually put a real oil guage on your bike very cheaply which would help if you're a big drag racer or something. I wouldn't bother personally I'm not going to enter my Bandit in any GP races. Like I said these engines are really hard to kill and are way over engineered for just a sport tourer so I wouldn't sweat it too much.