I was bored, so here's my experience with my first oil change.

[98ninja98]

So I thought to myself this morning...I think I'll go change the oil, haven't done it since I bought the bike, its probably about time.



Shouldn't be a problem, I've done thousands of oil changes in my day, what's one more?

First surprise comes before I even start. Walk in to buy the stuff...they charge me 12 bucks for the oil filter! Wth? For 12 bucks it better wipe my butt too! But then again this is the same place that tried to rip me off on a tire so I probably shouldn't be too surprised.



Ok, so 12 bucks is 12 bucks, another 23.97 for a gallon of oil and I head home. I pop open my manual, its got a little picture with a nice arrow pointing to the drain plug.

Ok, I can see that myself, but where's that 12 dollar filter?

"If the filter is to be removed during the service please visit an authorized Kawasaki dealer".



Yeah screw that. Remove the lower right fairing, pretty straight forward process, except I though one part snapped off but there were two more screws, good thing I found them before I started pulling. And lo and behold, there it is. Way in there in the birds nest of header pipe, that little black 12 dollar filter.



Ok, time to drain the oil. Crack the plug loose, screw it about halfway out, and here comes surprise number 2. That nice aftermarket exhaust passes underneath the drain plug, and its actually so close that theres not enough room to take out the plug. Ok, time to get some pliers, take off that little spring holding the two parts of the exhaust together, push down a little and out it comes, followed shortly by a rush of hot dirty black oil.



Now my new problem is the drain pan I have is too tall to fit under the bike so I shove it under there and "most" of the oil makes it inside.



Oh and I notice there's a drain plug gasket I didn't know about, so of course I didn't have a replacement, but its a metal one so screw it, I put it back in. I didn't change the gasket on my car for 2 and half years and it didn't leak, lets hope my luck keeps up.



Now back to my best friend the 12 dollar filter, and with him surprise number 3. My strap wrench doesn't fit on it, the filter is too small. Crap. I could stab it with a screwdriver and twist it off that way, but thats gonna make a pretty big mess, and I usually try to avoid that. So I head over to the Yaslinskiys house to borrow some filter pliers. Can't get the garage open because Yaro's truck is to close and the door garage door hits the bumper when we lift up on it. Orest goes inside to get the the keys, turns out Yaro took them with him. So we grab a piece of wood, break into Yaro's truck, roll it back a little and open the garage. After searching through a pile of tools a tornado could have put there, we find the filter pliers.



Sweet, I'm almost done. Except I get another surprise. The pliers are broken, and wont stay locked on the setting I need. By this time I'm slightly ticked off so I take a screwdriver and stab the filter anyways. The pan isn't even close to being short enough to fit under where the filter is, so the contents spill out onto the floor. I took a brand new roll of paper towels and used up about half of it cleaning up the mess. I was gonna funnel the oil into the pan, but that plan died when I had to impale the filter with a screwdriver to get it off.



Ok, finally, almost done! Fill it with oil, fire it up, nothings leaking, nothing clanging around, no oil spewing from the filter, cool. Go to put the plastic back on and it decides to give me some trouble, stupid bracket wouldn't snap on and I ended up with an extra screw somehow, but oh well, hope it holds and doesn't fall off on the freeway like Brian's did.



So I'm done, a 30 minute job took me about 2 hours, and now the stupid tool kit somehow grew in size and doesn't fit under my seat anymore...how that happened I don't know

[Guitar7272]

Hehehe... sounds about right.

[zx6ghost]

He he That made my day, Good story and was very entertaining along the way

[kawnine]

Now you understand:

"If the filter is to be removed during the service please visit an authorized Kawasaki dealer".

[capncalyx]

F'in hillarious! Sorry though, but thats how it seems to go for me, first time around on most things. By the second time though hopefully, ive usually got the bugs worked out.

[NCDave]

you forgot the beer. that was your problem!

[KwakaKZ1000]

You got that right, beer is the most important part of the oil change.

[CTRider]

Sounds about like changing the oil on the original Concours.

That was yet another part of the curb appeal of my bike: Plenty of room underneath for an oil pan and the oil filter is right up front between two of the exhaust pipes (with plenty of clearance on either side). The only downside is it uses the bolt-on style oil filters. That means more mess and a little more cost for the filter. The nearby Honda shop charges $7.50 for them, which isn't bad considering no modern bikes use them.

[ALStensby]

No beer? No wonder. So you broke in to a friends truck using a piece of wood? Holy crap...if you lived next to me, I'd just give you a key the garage so you don't need to ruin my cages!

[aftermath4788]

lol you were pretty detirmined to change that oil, you broke into a car. What else would you do to get what you want? lol Good story.

[mdqueenz]

lol, this was pretty funny to read. Nothing ever seems to go our way whenever we set out to work on our bikes. A task that's supposed to take half hour always ends up taking 4 times as long.

[Guitar7272]

Originally Posted by kawnine

Now you understand:

"If the filter is to be removed during the service please visit an authorized Kawasaki dealer".

that made me lol.

[98ninja98]

So you broke in to a friends truck using a piece of wood? Holy crap...if you lived next to me, I'd just give you a key the garage so you don't need to ruin my cages!

Ok, its not as bad as it sounds. he had the drivers side window cracked open so me and his brother took a long piece of wood and stuck it in through the window and used it to unlock the passenger side door lol.

[CTRider]

Originally Posted by 98ninja98

Ok, its not as bad as it sounds. he had the drivers side window cracked open so me and his brother took a long piece of wood and stuck it in through the window and used it to unlock the passenger side door lol.

I once had to break into my truck by tapping a wedge between the door frame and the upper corner of my door, then sliding a coat hanger into the gap to push the unlock button. I never wanted to own a slim jim as much as I did that day. Being a holiday, I had no desire to call a locksmith.

Note to self: don't leave the keys in a vehicle that automatically locks its own doors and rolls up its windows when you turn off the engine and exit it.

[98ninja98]

Yeah I locked my keys in the trunk of my old honda prelude that I had. I called my dad and told him to bring the spare key and he says he's never heard of a spare key (I gave it to him)

So we tried to slim jim it open for about 3 hours, used a coathanger and everything we could think of, the neighbor brought over a real slim jim, and nothing worked. Then my dad calls me and says he found the spare key.

We were camping last summer and my friends little brother locked the keys in their van and AAA came out, they pretty much wedged this woopie cushion type aparatus under the door, pumped it full of air to wedge it open and then reached in with something and unlocked the door.

[sdbrit68]

Originally Posted by NCDave

you forgot the beer. that was your problem!

that...........and he forgot to make the statement

" this har will only take 10 minutes"

[mcwrath]

My first oil change went fairly smoothly...until after I dumped out the used oil and found that gasket at the bottom of the pan. Too late to put it back on since the new oil was already in, so it will have to wait till next time.

[freezeradio]

I think I have the same oil pan...lol.I know i have the same roll of paper towells

[Redneckryder]

i put my bike on 2 2x6 boards under each tire and used 4 old college textbooks under the kickstand...worked pretty good. *if you do this and drop your bike off it, I am not responsible* lol

[vulpine]

Originally Posted by freezeradio

I think I have the same oil pan...lol.I know i have the same roll of paper towells

Spill something already those paper towels are like 16 months old.