A little while ago I had noticed that the oil level on the KLR was extremely low. I hadn’t checked it much previously because I didn’t think it would be necessary after just a few hundred kilometers. The 2008 series of the Kawasaki KLR 650 however is known for burning oil like crazy and despite the previous owner claiming that this particular example does not suffer from this condition it turns out it very much does.

Driving with low oil is of course very dangerous and can lead to damaging the engine and possibly locking up the piston(s) and as a result the rear wheel while driving. On a motorcycle that wouldn’t be exactly great. So the engine needed more oil. The gauge on the engine block shows empty but simply adding fresh oil is not a good idea. There is always some old oil left in the engine block. Much more than what the gauge might lead you to believe. On the one hand that means that possibly the situation is not as bad as it looks and you might still be able to drive but on the other hand it also means the remaining oil has to come out before adding fresh oil. The oil consistency and quality degrades under the extreme stress in a running engine and again would eventually clog up and damage the engine if it was left in there and just filled up with additional fresh oil.

So the proper procedure is to always drain the engine completely and refill it with (in this bike’s case 2.5 liters of) fresh oil. From time to time the filter which assures the cleanliness of the oil in the engine should also be replaced with a new one. Since I had no idea when the filter had last been changed on this bike (if at all) I decided to do that too while I’m at it.

I used an empty laundry detergent container to catch the oil from underneath the bike after screwing off the plug at the underside of the engine.

After a few minutes the flow had reduced to a trickle and eventually stopped completely. Just like honey the oil flows easier when it’s warm because it gets thinner so it is a good practice to run the engine for a few minutes before an oil change. Not too long though so you don’t burn yourself when you open the cap and it starts flowing all over your fingers which is almost unavoidable.

Next I took off the cap on the side of the engine that revealed the filter and removed it.

I cleaned the filter barrel (not sure what it is called) …

… lubricated the new filter with fresh oil …

and put it back into the barrel.

The last step waso t close the barrel again …

… and put 2.5 liters of fresh oil into the engine via the opening on the top right above the clutch compartment. As you can see the little gauge at the bottom of the engine is now filled to the top line again.