Engine oil change, weird noise!

About a week ago, I changed my engine oil after 3.000 miles. I went over to my friend's and he did it for me.

I used Suzuki 4-cycle motor oil with their filter. Instruction we found from online said use 2 and a half quarts of oil.

We used his racing stand, drained, changed oil filter(we poured some oil in it) and than we used 2 and a half quarts of oil.

We ran about few minutes in nutural. Made sure it wasn't leaking. Then I rode around about 5 minutes to check the oil level.

The oil was still in low side, we poured another a half quart and it reached about half way.

After I hung out at friend's 30 minutes or so, I was riding back home and heard this noise(not very loud) that I never heard before from my bike. It's like metallic vibrating sound with pretty fast cycle.

I thought I was too cautious and hearing things.

Today, I took my bike out after a week and went for a ride. And there's that NOISE! What the ****???

My friend is very experienced rider. I don't think he screwed up the oil change. Then again, I don't understand what's going on.

The motorcycle drives fine. Just that **** annoying sound.

Anybody? Any idea??

have you inspected and adjusted the chain? Also every once in a while you should check for any abvious problems with loose bolts and nuts, including bodywork.

My chain made a rubbing noise that came from the countershaft area that sounded like an engine noise. It changed to keep pace with the speed of the bike and was even present with the engine off when pushing the bike. It signaled me that it was time to replace the chain and sprockets. Once that was accomplished, the noise vanished.

I would hope that 3k miles on a bike is not enough to wear out a chain. I got about 10k out of mine, but was hoping for more.

Squeaky said:

I would hope that 3k miles on a bike is not enough to wear out a chain.

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I wasn't sure if 3,000 was total mileage or miles since the last oil change.

It's not enough to wear out a chain, but it's enough for it to need adjustment maybe, especially if it's 3000 without cleaning and lubing.

I haven't had to worry about that for a while, the harley belt doesn;t seem to stretch at all, and the FZ I'm wearing out tires in less then 3000 miles.

The KTM is the worst, I have to adjust it after every hard riding day. It's been down a for a while now though. Winter is half over and all I've gotten done on it is pulling the carb.

One possibility is that it is your clutch getting used to the new oil. The SV have a wet clutch and I remeber that when I did my first oil change I got a "funny" fast paced noise, almost like a valve tappet noise. After doing sume research, specifically at http://www.svrider.com/ I figured out it was the clutch and the noise went away in a few hundred miles.

Hope that helps, if nothing else check out the site, lots of helpful info for SV owners.

Good luck

MexicanBandito said:

have you inspected and adjusted the chain? Also every once in a while you should check for any abvious problems with loose bolts and nuts, including bodywork.

Click to expand...

I did with the oil change.

The answer

Guys, thank you so, so much for all your help.

I met up with another SV rider in my area and compare the engine sound. He had the same noise!

There was an answer I got from svrider.com and I think he was right about my problem. This is what he said.

"At around 5-6k miles my bike started making a new noise.(I have 4.200 miles on my bike) I have read that it is normal. I think it is the cam chain tensioner. It adjusts by itself but right before it adjusts it is a little noisy. The sound seems to come from directly under the gas tank."

or

"Something about the different oil I guess."

I think the answer he gave sounds resonable. I think it is a natural cause of this bike.

It's very annoying, but I had two Suzukis before and this is the way their engine sounds.(never had new sound came out like this before though)

I'll learn to ignore it. I think that's the only way other than spend a lot of money on my bike just to get rid of this sound. It doesn't hurt the performance, so I don't care THAT much.

Thank you all. You guys are the greatest!

Ahhh, yes, the infamous Suzuki cam chain tensioner. It will go away after it self adjusts. SVRIDER.com is the BEST knowledge base for the SV. USE IT.

My old Ducati 750 made some pretty strange noises too. When cold, the desmodromic valve train sounded like it was about to start shedding little nuts and bolts at any moment with all the "clickety-clack-clack-clack" ruckus it would make. Finally got used to it after a few weeks. Fortunately, my bike had a wet clutch; if it had been a more typical (re: noisy) dry clutch Duc, I think I would have had to trade it back to the dealer.

BTW, welcome to TWT.

I had a mechanic diagnose a rattling in my engine as the cam chain tensioner. It took 3 trips, $500.00 and a dead engine for him to figure out that the rattlling noise I was hearing was the crankcase bearing going out. Actually, he didn't figure it out until I told him something I had heard. When he rubbed some of my oil between his fingers, the tale was told.