Just wanted to get some feed back. Just got an 03Vtecviffer. Seems like a terrific bike, typical Honda quality product. Anyway I wanted some info on what folks were using for oil. My main question is those that use synthetics have you had any identifyable problems? I raced for years with ARRA/WSMC and ALWAYS used synthetics and I know for a fact that the lubrication is vastly superior to fossil oils. But the application is way different. I used syn in my TL and I did notice some clutch slippage on occasion. The TL was "improved" so it could also have been caused by increased hp. Thanks tbtapper
Man, this is almost like asking if people believe in Evolution or Creationism!! ;D Here's my spin on it though. 98 VFR800 Bought it new, ran non-syn for the first 3K miles then switched to the Honda HP4 (gold bottle red cap) which is a semi-syn I believe. Ran that till 30K or so, bike shifted smoother, buzzed a little less and ran a few degrees cooler. Never had any slippage at all. Around 30K I switched to the Mobil One full-syn. The bike now has 49K on it and no hints of slippage yet. Still on the original clutch. 01 VFR 800 Bought it new, ran non-syn for first 6K, went immediately to Mobil One after 6K. Around 27K I started getting mild slippage. At 32K, switched to Shell Rotella something or other non-syn, clutch still slipping very mildly and only under hard acceleration. If it does not eventually go away, I may actually replace the clutch plates. For now, it seldom happens, I never think about it, I ride the bike all the time, so I'm not worried about it. There will of course be people that will tell you all kinds of horror stories from using both non-syn and full-syn. Good luck
