Can I take off the oil filter cover without draining the oil or will all of the oil come out? Please let me know, I have a leak I want to fix but would prefer not drain the oil since it was just changed.

Just put a CLEAN container under there and put any oil that drains out, back in.

Not all of the oil will drain out.


Don't put the oil that does come out back in if you can avoid it. Just top it up with new oil from the bottle.

Quote from: galahs on August 31, 2008, 04:23:03 AM
Don't put the oil that does come out back in if you can avoid it. Just top it up with new oil from the bottle.

Yeah all the nasty stuff is on that side of the filter - no point making it go through the system one more time before being filtered out again, if you can avoid it. 

if you're worried about wasting some of the oil's life, just re-use it to wipe your tools down, or on your chain. there is -always- some grass / leaf/something bits to jump into the drain container.

my 2 cents

I'm just going to pony up the money and do a full oil change...I've got 800 miles on it since the last one and I normally change it at 1500 anyway. Am I insane for changing it so often? I've ridden it 3000 miles and this will be my 3rd oil change. I take it that might be a little excessive....it has all been this season too.

Quote from: pjm204 on August 31, 2008, 05:26:57 AM
I'm just going to pony up the money and do a full oil change...I've got 800 miles on it since the last one and I normally change it at 1500 anyway. Am I insane for changing it so often? I've ridden it 3000 miles and this will be my 3rd oil change. I take it that might be a little excessive....it has all been this season too.

I change mine per spec each 6000km.  The stuff in there now is 2000ish old and still looks lovely and golden when you dip.  So yeah I would have thought that your 800mi old oil is pretty much exactly as it was from the bottle!

Don't you have some left overs from your last oil change?  I always end up with some leftover whenever come to do a change.  If you don't then I, personally, wouldn't sweat it with the full change - we were just saying that in a perfect world it would be better to top up with fresh leftovers.

I guess I just have no idea how much oil will come out. If only half a quart is going to come out then I will not do a full oil change, however if 2 quarts is going to come out, then I might as well just change it. I bought 3 quarts this morning so I am ready to do it.

Seems like no one has tried taking the filter cover off with it full of oil.

Quote from: pjm204 on August 30, 2008, 08:15:56 PM
Can I take off the oil filter cover without draining the oil or will all of the oil come out? Please let me know, I have a leak I want to fix but would prefer not drain the oil since it was just changed.

I have changed my oil every 2-3k miles for over 140k GS500 miles (2 bikes) and only did that once, I had a leaking filter cover and fresh oil in the engine.  That's your once.   

I just took the cover off and put a new gasket on and while it was a few years ago I don't recall much oil coming out.  Don't think I even had to add any after done. 

Some of the new gaskets can be difficult to keep in the grove because they seem to be a tad short depending on brand.  Now I just grab a couple fingertips of general purpose grease and heavily coat the o-ring type seal with grease to stick it in the groove and keep it there until the cover is safely on.