Who makes Honda Motorcycle Oil?

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Boss got two cases of Honda Motorcycle Oil 10w-40 variety. Just wondering who makes it for Honda? I told him maybe Castrol as a guess. Also is this oil synthetic?
 
I think Mobil makes the HP4 synthetic blend (from the Goldwing message boards) and the GN4 is plain old dino juice. I may be wrong, but this is what my web searches came up with.
 
You can never get any solid infomation from these huge companies. Living in the LA area, I have aquaintances who work for Honda (corporate), and not even they can get any info about their own oils!

No doubt they get it where they can get it cheapest. One thing, Honda's oils were API SG for years, but have recently quietly gone API SJ.....a downgrade in my opinion. I no longer use Honda anyway since I discovered Maxima, which has an add pack and a couple of ester synthetics that are the best there is!

Like they said, GN4 is dino oil and HP4 is a synth blend which has a fair amount of ester, judging from the smell. HP4M contains moly, and should not be used in an engine with an integreated transmission.
 
lubowner-So get on the phone and ask you engineer buddy exactly what the formulation is (especially HP4)! (It's probably changed a dozen times since then anyway......) Just saying that "Mobil" makes it is absolutely useless information, seeing that Mobil could have blended it in any one of a thousand different ways.

The biggest mystery to me is why they went SJ, instead of SG. SG had the last descent add pack.

Some good basic oil info.: http://www.thumperfaq.com/oil.htm
 
And a couple things to remember is that just because an oil is made by Mobil doesn't mean it's as good or better than Mobil's motorcycle oils or other oils for that matter. Also, formulations can and do change without notice to the consumer and the GN4 product from last year may not be exactly the same as GN4 this year. I think it was George from AV Lube here on this site once told me that Mobil made Honda's GN4, but that was a couple years ago. I used to also have an older internal memo from Mobil that talked about oil for Honda, but it wasn't specific as to whether it was for their cars, motorcycles, etc. It was pretty generic in terms of the oil it referenced, but it was clear that Mobil was involved with some type of Honda oil at some point in time and they may still be today.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Wayne Kelln:
HP4M contains moly, and should not be used in an engine with an integreated transmission.

What are you basing this on? Just as long as the bottle does not say "Energy Conserving" on it you're good to go.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Wayne Kelln:
You can never get any solid infomation from these huge companies. Living in the LA area, I have aquaintances who work for Honda (corporate), and not even they can get any info about their own oils!

No doubt they get it where they can get it cheapest. One thing, Honda's oils were API SG for years, but have recently quietly gone API SJ.....a downgrade in my opinion. I no longer use Honda anyway since I discovered Maxima, which has an add pack and a couple of ester synthetics that are the best there is!

Like they said, GN4 is dino oil and HP4 is a synth blend which has a fair amount of ester, judging from the smell. HP4M contains moly, and should not be used in an engine with an integreated transmission.


I'll second that Maxima, some of their race oils have ridiculous VI ratings (5W50) yet remains very shear stable even in high rpm shared transmission application. I initially skeptical of the 5W50 as none of the 10W50 I am familiar with (Motorex, Repsol, Castrol R4) hold up under abuse. Apparently the spread was achieved with use of high VI polyol esters. You will be surprised many 'race' spec cycle oils like Maxima Ultra and Motul 300V comes with a healthy dose of Moly.
 
road rascal-Get real! What do you think the M in HP4M stands for??? It stands for Moly! Just go to a Honda dealer and grab a bottle off the shelf and read the label. Honda put the M in there for a reason, so you wouldn't pick the wrong oil by mistake. And, there is no "energy conserving" designation used with motorcycle specific oils. Did you read this article??? http://www.thumperfaq.com/oil.htm

While you are reading that label, also note that it is rated JASO MB (not MA). MA oils are for use in bikes with integrated engines/transmissions, and do not contain additive that will make your clutch slip.

MB oils are for use ONLY in the ENGINE (not transmission) side of the new generation Honda 250/450 dirt bikes and ATV's where the engine oil is SEPERATE from the transmission oil (thank you Honda!). In these ENGINES (but not transmissions), you can run a super slick MB oil that would make a clutch slip in any other bike.

thwwx-I don't think any of Maxima's products contain any Moly. If you are really interested in an answer, contact Maxima and ask them. They are real good at answering questions. Ultra does have an ester additive that makes it extremely slick. I have heard this refered to as "organic moly" on occasions. Yet, Ultra is rated MA and can still be used in bikes with integrated transmissions.

[ March 12, 2006, 10:30 AM: Message edited by: Wayne Kelln ]
 
Wayne- I should have rephrased my question (yes I realize HP4M has moly in it). I meant that just because an oil has moly in it does not necessarily mean that the clutch will slip. I've been using Mobil 1 15w/50 (lots of moly) in my '97 Honda for close to 60,000 miles and no slip. A bunch of other riders in my group have at least a combined 500,000 miles of use with this oil and others that contain moly and have no clutch slipping issues. No need to get tense here.
 
it mobil. my buddy used to own a cycle shop and in his ordering books it would say honda oils, then in small print at the bottom it said mobil

chris
 
road rascal-Many oils that are rated MA contain some moly. Clutches will tolerate low levels, without problems.

I presume that you are a road biker??? I don't thing anybody would dispute the fact that road bike clutches don't get as much abuse in a year as an MX bike gets in a day. So, I would presume that a road bike would be more tolerant to high amounts of moly than a dirt bike, and that may be what's going on with your machine.
 
Honda probably went to SJ because an increasing number of their machines have catalysts and run in closed-loop mode for emissions reasons. Since Jan. 1, 2006, motorcycle manufacturers have the same 10-year warranty requirement on all emissions-related components, per FEderal law, so they are pretty interested in seeing to it that the catalysts will last 10 years. It's quite expensive for Honda (or any other motorcycle manufacturer) to have to replace a huge number of catalysts under warranty...
 
That Thumperfaq article is a load of crap. All you need to do is go over to the VOA to find that are deliberately lying or just don't know what they are talkin' about. Examples: Motorcyle oils don't contain moly. BWAHAHAHA!!! Motorcycle oils contain five times the anti-wear additives of car oils. BWAHAHAHA!!!

Car oil will make yer clutch slip! BWAHAHAHA!!!My ZX-10R is putting over 180 hp to the clutch and it ain't slipped yet.
 
^^^ While I mostly agree with you - there have been a few bikes that crapped out with hi-moly oils and some on synth's.
While only a few of these, it does happen.
That said, I use M1 for my bikes (Hondas) and no troubles at all.

Scott
 
Scott - and you can determine it was the oil and not any other cause?

You can run an MA oil and burn the clutch too. If you ride it a certain way. Or maybe it was a faulty part. Who knows what the conditions really were with all this anecdotal info. Maybe it's easier to blame to oil than the rider.

It's more complicated than that. And more people have good experience than bad with non MA oils. By a large margin.
 
No, there were confirmed cases and I read about them in some of the moto rags over the years.
And yes, if you change an oil, get slippage, change back, and no slippage, that's convincing.
It had to do with clutch plates that would swell with certain oils that had lots of moly.
It was done by motorcycle guys who weren't looking to diss the oils, but to find out why.
They were hi-powered bikes and as I said, only a couple models.
If I get the time, I'll try to find info. But since it was not a big deal, and I use synth in my bikes, I don't really care to argue it.

Again, I only use synth oils in my bikes and I believe what I read to be legit info.
 
Moly will not swell anything. Marginal clutches, in the presence of some forms of moly or synthetic oil, will slip. Changing back to conventional oil will "cure" the problem, just like Motor Honey will fix your worn rings or valve seals.
 
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