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Took my bike to the shop yesterday for its maintainance. They said they found "Metal filliments" in the oil when they changed it. They said there was very little that can be done about this, but this it could be indicitave if a very serious problem. How the heck should i address this? They told me to continue to monitor the oil.

Could this be from me learning to ride, making poor shifts and what not. Is it something that can self correct?

How bad in practic, if not in theory, is this?

New bike? Amount of fillings? Do you put any additives in your oil? Could be a result of something falling in the spout as well.

1999 vstar. Previous owner claims he had the oil changed over the winter. Did not mention anything. There were alot of fillings - all alluminum. So they said it wasn't coming from the engine or any other steel parts. That it might be something that fell in there by some act of god, but he said he couldnt even begin to guess where from. This is obviously not good for the bike. I really would like to fix it.

Has your timing chain tensioner reached full extension? When this happens on the bigger Vulcans the timing chain will begin sawing through the spark plug tunnels. Any funny noises coming from the engine bay?

I have no idea. The shop told me they did a full maintenance in accordance with the manual, so if thats important hopefully the looked at it. I drive a v-star 650, it if still applies. As for noises, the guy took it for a ride and said that everything is running smooth. I dont have a very refined ear for these things but everything seems ok.

Now I remember that the guy I bought the bike off told me that he had recently replaced a strpped bolt which resulted from "the owner before him changing his own oil and not using proper tools" or something. I'm hoping that is the Occam's razor I'm looking for.

I've read a few posts i found on google that seem to imply that metal in the oil is not that abnormal.

How rare is it and how bad exactly is it? How effective is the oil filter in reducing any harm that can result from this.

There will be some metal shavings in the oil or prefilter after initial break-in, but I'd be worried to see it flowing out of a 7-year-old bike.

Well l hope this issue resolves itself, and that it was something mistakenly dropped in vs something that is wearing away.

the previous person may have stripped out the plug bolt when he changed the oil if he wasnt using the proper tools. if the shop says everything seems fine, take them at it for mow, and keep your ears open for any new noises.

I just spoke with the guy I bought it from, who had the stripped bolt replaced. He thinks that as well. I'll try not worry about for a month or so, and then recheck things. It gives me pain in my stomach to think I got ripped off. I really dont feel the guy i bought it from would have done that on purpose. Not only do I truly love this bike, it would suck to have to raise any sort of stink about it.

Is it at all possible that poor riding can cause something like this, or is it certainly indicative of a major problem? (Assuming the oil screw idea is a no go). I'm just racking my mind over this. I feel like my whole summer is ruined if i have to worry about this.

The bike does "crackle and pop" just slightly when its shut down. Is this normal?