Save Your Scooter Repair Money – How to Do Your Own Oil Change

Changing the oil in our Chinese gas motor scooters is vital in ensuring its proper functioning. Most of us have the tendency to ignore this and as a result end up burning-up our engines. When changing oil, we do not need to go to a mechanic.. Why spend money for labor when we can change the oil ourselves?

Before proceeding with the oil change, let’s make sure we have everything we need. We will need a socket set or adjustable wrench, and an oil collection pan or mini container with a wide mouth (a cut-in-half open milk-carton works great). Of course, we will need oil; we can use any type oil except 30 weight – use 10/40, 15/50 or any combination of a10-15/40-50 weight – just don’t use a 30 weight.

To begin the scooter oil change, put the scooter on the back stands so the scooter is level. Look for the larger bolt under the scooter below the engine. When you remove this large bolt, have your container ready to catch the oil. Once the bolt/cap come off, let it simply drop into the container, as the spring and oil screen are also going to come out. Let it all fall into the container. Once the oil has stopped draining, remove the bolt, spring and oil screen and clean them off. Rinse the oil screen and hand dry.

Inspect the oil to see if it has a milky color. This would mean that there is water leaking in other parts of the scooter and should be taken to a mechanic to reseal the gearbox. Otherwise, replace the oil screen, the spring and the bolt to the bottom of the scooter. A caution about adding oil: Don’t add too much oil. We have had just as many burnt engines come to our repair shop due to people adding too much oil instead of not having enough oil.

Start adding the oil. After you pour in some oil, stop and let the oil drain into the bottom for about 15 seconds before measuring. When measuring oil, the dip stick does NOT need to be screwed in. Simply stick it in as far as possible without screwing it back into the oil spout and pull it out to see how much oil is on the stick. Once the oil level is half way it is OK to stop adding oil. A good tip is to start the scooter, let it run for 1-2 minutes, shut it off and wait about 2 minutes. Then recheck the dip stick to see the oil level. If you are a visual learner, there are videos on the internet that show us step by step how to complete and oil change.