!warning! Do not buy kawasaki motorcycles!

[jkim]

I recently purchased a brand new 2009 Kawasaki ZX10 and upon my first 600 mile oil change, I was horrified the "low oil warning pressure" red light was "blinking" for 3 minutes! My 2008 CBR600RR and my 2008 CBR1000RR never ever flashed a "Low Oil Pressure Warning" light ever. Since it was after business hours did a google search on this and found many hits with other ZX owners also complaining like crazy. Called Kawasaki Motor Corp and was dismayed the reps were callous and unsympathetic. Told me that was normal and if I was that concerned take it to a dealer for inspection which of course if dealer takes motor apart and finds nothing, I get stuck with the bill so warranty basically is useless unless engine blows up. It's why I don't buy warranties because they are mostly scams. Just told me to loosen oil filter and start bike up until oil splashes out and hung up on me. Called several Kawasaki dealers and it was confirmed not only the ZX10s took a long time for oil to get up to the upper half, the Zx6's, Vulcan's, EX500's!!! Grant it many Kawasaki owners will deny this is a problem, I am not partial to any manufacturer and my 08 CBR1000RR was an oil burner and will probably never buy another Honda product. I know I sound like a cry baby and maybe if I bought this bike used for real cheap it wouldn't be a big deal but I bought it new and when you spend a good buck you expect at the very least a vehicle that does not consume vast amount of oil and you expect oil changes to not present problems that should not be concerns. My point of this post is to warn others of what to expect if you are considering a Kawasaki product and the crapy consumer service that could care less about their customers, but I wish I would have known this beforehand and I wouldn't have ever considered this bike. Yes I did do the oil change correctly and no I should not have had to burp or to saturate oil filter as my CBR never stayed on for more than a split second. I paid a lot of money for a well engineered bike. If I wanted something that requires special practices, I would have bought a Harley Davidson which sucks. Yes the 2011 ZX10 is by far probably better than everything else but no way will I buy a bike where the oil pressure takes too much time to build up. It is what it is and sure there will be many who will condemn me for saying this. My only point is to at least give others who are not aware of Kawasaki's issue with warning light staying on after oil change a fair chance. Again, if you didn't pay a lot of money for a bike, it's easy to critique and call anybody complaining a crybaby but low oil pressure warning light for 3 minutes, no amount of reassuring words can determine if there was bearing wear or not.

[Taylor]

Why are you warning people that own a BMW to not buy a Kawasaki, we already know there complete junk

[kanankeban]

Originally Posted by Taylor

Why are you warning people that own a BMW to not buy a Kawasaki, we already know there complete junk

Same question....

[AMRRA12]

I’m going to have to side with Kawi on this man, you did not pre-fill the filter, you can get a pocket of air that and it will not allow the oil to flow freely, YOU made that mistake not Kawi... why should they have to pay for your mess up?

[jkim]

Originally Posted by AMRRA#12

I’m going to have to side with Kawi on this man, you did not pre-fill the filter, you can get a pocket of air that and it will not allow the oil to flow freely, YOU made that mistake not Kawi... why should they have to pay for your mess up?

Owners manual says to send into dealer for oil change. Oviously they are trying to avoid people like me pressing panick button as they don't want people to know the truth. Service Shop manual also does not say to burp oil filter. Even dealer mechanics admitted it happend to them and took them by complete surprise and brought it up to Kawasaki Motor Corp attention but fell on deaf ears. My 2008 CBR1000RR, my 2008 CBR600RR, I never had to prefill or saturate, or leave loose to get oil pressure up fast. A few seconds is reasonable, a few minutes is not. Moreover, there has been others who said they did prefill and still warning light stayed on for too long. Point being, I am not tryingto discourage anybody from buying Kawasaki products, but at least they can go in informed. Had I known this before buying the ZX10 I would have never bought it. If only that issue could have been resolved, I cannot agree 100% with the other poster here that said "Kawaski is junk." I think the ZX10 is a very well built and well thought out machine but the weak or slow oil pump was a mistake.

[1000RR]

I haven't owned a ZX-10 before... but I'm guessing that the oil filter attaches like most in-line 4's... it attaches horizontally?! How does one fill the oil filter and put it on the bike w/out making a huge friggen mess?

[jkim]

Originally Posted by 1000RR

I haven't owned a ZX-10 before... but I'm guessing that the oil filter attaches like most in-line 4's... it attaches horizontally?! How does one fill the oil filter and put it on the bike w/out making a huge friggen mess?

The point is not so much filling the oil filter as much as getting the medium saturated so it acts as a better conduit to have some oil shoot up to the upper heads and allow quicker flow should there be air in the lines. Kawi dealer told me the ZX10' and other models have oil pumps that are probably antiquated and needs to be updated. I can imagine the 2011 ZX10 will most likely not suffer that problem. As badly as I want the 2011 ZX10 because it seems it will be the hottest bike out there, I am leary of buying something that is first year production and add to the fact Kawasaki Consumer Services really don't care about their customers and basically told me I was being ridiculous for worrying about low oil pressure light being on for 3 minutes.

[AMRRA12]

Originally Posted by jkim

The point is not so much filling the oil filter as much as getting the medium saturated so it acts as a better conduit to have some oil shoot up to the upper heads and allow quicker flow should there be air in the lines..

+1 I fill it to the top with oil 1 time, let it soak into the filter

as your feeding it onto the threaded oil neck you slowly rotate the filter as your putting it on,

as soon as it touched the threded neck spin it on, you will not spill a drop of oil.

I learned this the hard way on a 2001 R6 that spun a barring because I do not pre fill the filter and it air locked. bike ran for 5 min then started knocking, we pulled the motor apart the filter was done dry!

[AMRRA12]

Originally Posted by jkim

The point is not so much filling the oil filter as much as getting the medium saturated so it acts as a better conduit to have some oil shoot up to the upper heads and allow quicker flow should there be air in the lines. Kawi dealer told me the ZX10' and other models have oil pumps that are probably antiquated and needs to be updated. I can imagine the 2011 ZX10 will most likely not suffer that problem. As badly as I want the 2011 ZX10 because it seems it will be the hottest bike out there, I am leary of buying something that is first year production and add to the fact Kawasaki Consumer Services really don't care about their customers and basically told me I was being ridiculous for worrying about low oil pressure light being on for 3 minutes.

I hope you’re in the UK because the US version is only 155hp... and I’m a Kawi fan
<---- see avatar 08 ZXR my last bike was an 04 ZX but the gen4 is not going to live up to the hopes anyone had for it, but look at the bright side.... if you spend 2k your still 10hp away from a stock BMW

[kevin_stevens]

That problem can happen on several bikes of different brands, you can Google on "oil pump prime" and find numerous references. Why do you feel obliged to post this on a BMW forum?

KeS