"Energy Saving Oil" no-no?

[badgerboy]

Hi all. I just bought a new '07 Ruckus. I have spend a good amount of time reading this site but have one question.

My '07 manual says to avoid all "Energy Saving" rated motor oils. In 600 miles when it is time for my first change I would like to use Mobile One (the same Oil I run in my other "ugly" Honda, my Honda Element.

As I understand it, from doing further research, "Energy Saving" oils have a friction reduction additive that may lead to premature starter failure in the Ruckus. It has to do with the starter needing friction to engage the engine and turn it over.

I went shopping discovered that all the pure synthetic oils I could find were "energy saving" while some of the synthetic hybrids (synthetic and regular mixes) were not.

BTW, to look for the the "Energy saving" rating look to the bottom of the oil certification "donut" it will say "Energy Saving in the bottom half-- or if there is a star burst surroundings its rating-- them it is energy saving.

I would appreciate some other opinions as whether this is a real issue or not.

Again thanks to all of you who have already posted and made this such a rich forum it is a great-great resource.

[cabuco2006]

i use honda geuine oil ..i buy it from ronayers.com.i did use regular castrol oil in the beginning and it seemed to run fine.//

[chanito]

Congrats on owning a great scooter.
We have discussed the oil issue a lot, and some people have different opinions, so i am going to give you mine, The starter on the Honda ruckus is the same hi tech brush-less alternator, and is attach straight to the crankshaft with no friction involved, Seems to me that Honda North America did not care much about our rides and have not pay much attention to the info it put out on these scooters, it keep saying on its web site that the ruckus have a 15 mm carb, when in reality it never had.
Anyway back to topic, some motorcycles have the clutch sharing the same space with the engine oil sump, and it would be very bad for the friction surfaces of these clutches to be cover in oil containing friction modifier (which energy saving oils have, to save energy, by reducing friction loses) and that is the reason they do not want any energy saving oil in those motorcycles, our ruckus is more like a car engine, and it has an oil sump all for its own So actually is a very good idea to use an energy saving oil ;D

[Dandy Dan]

Yeah I prefer to use energy saving oils....you get slightly better milage and there's no reason not to. Honda just doesn't care about this little scooter so they don't bother getting the tech details right in the owners manual.

[Ron Rucks]

congrats on the new scoot

[mrgreg1299]

Wow badgerboy, great post. I love this site. Always learning something new. Chanito is the man badgerboy. I'm using pure synthetic. Repsol 10-W 40. Kassandra runs GREAT.
Oh, and my friend.

Mr. Greg

[8chpl]

Would there be any real issue with using one synthetic oil;, then changing to a different brand? I am using ESSO made Moto masterf rom Canadian Tire and have 4 or 5 that I bought on sale. Later I may go to Mobil 1 for the energy saving feature.

I know Dan says use 50 weight, but I am using 5W30 because i ride through most of the winter and because it seldom gets hotter than 25C (about 75F) here in Nova Scotia.

[chanito]

Some brands do not recommend it as they say that some chemicals on their oils can react with chemicals on other brand and create problems, Normaly after a while most chemicals become so diluted it would really not be a problem, but is a concern nevertheless. But if you change it onlly once it should be OK

[Dandy Dan]

8chpl said:

I know Dan says use 50 weight, but I am using 5W30 because i ride through most of the winter and because it seldom gets hotter than 25C (about 75F) here in Nova Scotia.

I've said a lot of things in my 3 years or so here on the this board but right now I think 10w40 (or 0w40) is the best way to go with 50wt oil being 2nd best and then 30wt oil being third best. The newer Ruckus come with a sticker recommending 10w40 whereas the older Rucks recommended 5w30 so clearly Honda has realized that 5w30 is a bit thin for the Ruckus engine. I don't think you'll notice any performance loss by switching to a 40wt oil so I suggest doing that to perserve your engine. Also make sure you're changing it religiously.