How to change oil on a Baron scooter

When it comes to oil, scooters are indeed special. The good news are, there's no oil filter. That's right, zilch oil filters on your scoot. The only exception to this are some really old Vespas. This means no searching for replacement or opening the engine plates like on motorcycles. This also means real fast oil change. The bad news are, there's no oil filter. That means very frequent oil changes. We clean it by throwing it away :)

The "manual" suggests changing oil on my Baron every 500km. The usual suggestion (but not in the manual) is also that one changes the oil more often while the engine is "breaking in", that is first couple thousand kilometer after buying a new scoot. It is in this time that the engine can shed some aluminum chips while "polishing" itself, and you really want them out fast. I've heard of suggestions to change oil every 100-200km for the first 500 or 1000 km. However I didn't do it as often myself as I was trying to find the oil filter replacements in that time :) I normally change my oil between 500 and 1000km.

What you'll need

The brand of oil suggested in the manual is not being produced since 80's or something like that. I use a standard 10W-40 SAE oil for 4-stroke motorcycle engines, made by Castrol.

The important things about this are:
1. It is for four-stroke engines. This is signified by "4T" on the label. Do not use oil for 2-stroke engines on 4-stroke scooters.
2. It is 10W-40 giving enough temperature range. Scooter engines have poor cooling and are prone to overheating.
3. It is a quart bottle, more than you will need for one oil change.
4. It is $4.5o from my local motorcycle store, but can probably get this for cheaper.

Other than a quart of oil, you'll need a narrow-end funnel, a 17mm wrench or hex socket, and some sort of a bucket to drain oil, and perhaps some paper towel ;)

Draining

Oil is drained from a port on the bottom of the engine:


That's right next to the back wheel. The hex head on the drain cap is 17mm. You can undo it with a wrench, but the danger lies in threading the engine when putting it back. A 17mm hex socket and a socket wrench will do you a good service here.

To drain the oil, you'll want your scoot on a center stand. Run it idle for at least two minutes. This thins the oil and helps to get it out. This also makes it hot, so watch out not to burn yourself on engine or the oil. Exhaust will be hot as well. Once I got more skilled at the whole procedure, I would drive it for 5mins or so before starting the oil change.

Once it is warm and firmly on a center stand, put a bucket under the engine. I use a sort of sturdy flat food container with a firm rubber lid. No, I don't put food in it anymore. Less that a quart of oil will come out, so it is easy to pick a suitable container. You may want to cover the area under the engine in case you'll spill some oil.

Unscrew and take out the dipstick.

It is the black screw-like plastic handle between the engine and exhaust on the pic above. You should have been using it all along to check the oil level. No tools needed, it unscrews by hand.

Undo the oil drain cap. It should come off really easy. Engine is made of aluminum, and it is really easy to blow the thread. Usually as I undo this screw, the oil starts pouring slowly. I then just let the bolt and a few more pieces fall into the oil. I can also use this used oil to wash the pieces from any oil curd that they accumulated.

There are three pieces that come out: the cap (with the hex head) itself, a spring and a mesh bucket. This mesh bucket works as a crude filter. This is what it looks like



Make sure there's nothing stuck on the mesh, around the thread etc. My mesh has a few dents. This happened sometime after the second oil change - must have been something flying around the engine. It never got worse, so I kept the old mesh.

Once the oil stopped dripping (cat take a while), you are ready to put in the fresh stuff.

Here's a view down the drain. Note a hole on the side.



Filling fresh oil

Assemble the cap, the mesh and the spring. They go in like like this:



Once I have this little assembly, I put it back in by hand, and screw the bolt fingertight first. Everything goes in easily. Remember this thing lives in oil :) Once fingertight, tighten it a tad more with a tool. The worst that will happen if it isn't quite tight enough is a slow and fixable oil leak. The drain plug seals with a rubber gasket against the engine. That is, it cannot and should not go in as tight as a normal metal screw.

Fresh oil is added trough the dipstick hole. A narrow funnel is really useful here. It can be hard to tell how much oil to put in. The correct level is set by the lower part of the stick - that is when it is screwed all the way in.



You don't want to overfill it as undoing the drain bolt should be done completely, which means you will loose all your oil if you have to drain it again. I took a piece of wire and bent it to make a little gauge out of it, comparing it with the dipstick. This can go in and out really quickly to check if I got enough oil already.

Some time after the oil change, you should check the level just in case you may be leaking the oil from the drain plug.

Used oil

Used oil should be recycled - there's all sorts of nasty stuff in it. Any auto store will take oil for recycling in Minnesota. I take mine to Autozone, they point me to a huge drum and I just poor it down. No questions asked.

See also: new oil.