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2011 Honda PCX oil question help

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 12:13 pm
by Yellow Cat
Owners manual states to use JASO MB, but I cant find that anywhere, even at authorized honda dealers.
The only oil they had was 10W40, ANSI SJ, JASO MA.
The guy said that it would be fine, I called honda motorcycle usa and the operator didnt really explain anything and just said the generic answer of "follow what the manual says".
Anyways, will it be ok if I use the MA? Or will it mess up my bike?
Thanks for the help.
Bike currently has 950miles.

Re: 2011 Honda PCX oil question help

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 2:47 pm
by Cascanciu
Hi, and welcome to the forums.

I think most of us had a similar problem. Difference between MB and MA is that MA is meant for bikes with wet clutches, as opposite to MB. MA does not contain anti-friction additives, whereas MB does. There are different opinions on whether using an MA oil is bad for your engine or not. My thought is that it shouldn't be that bad, but using MB is preferable.

Your Honda dealer should be able to get you the 10w-30 JASO MB oil upon request. Mine has been. If they still insist that they can't, buy some Castrol 5w-40 for scooters, which is JASO-MB (can't remember the exact commercial denomination of it, sorry) and you'd be fine.

Re: 2011 Honda PCX oil question help

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 3:16 pm
by you you
Cascanciu wrote:Hi, and welcome to the forums.

I think most of us had a similar problem. Difference between MB and MA is that MA is meant for bikes with wet clutches, as opposite to MB. MA does not contain anti-friction additives, whereas MB does. There are different opinions on whether using an MA oil is bad for your engine or not. My thought is that it shouldn't be that bad, but using MB is preferable.

Your Honda dealer should be able to get you the 10w-30 JASO MB oil upon request. Mine has been. If they still insist that they can't, buy some Castrol 5w-40 for scooters, which is JASO-MB (can't remember the exact commercial denomination of it, sorry) and you'd be fine.

Just use any good quality 5-30. Or 10-40 at a push

Re: 2011 Honda PCX oil question help

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2012 3:21 am
by Fiah
Any 5w-30, 10w-30 or 10w-40 will be fine really. For temperate weather, I'd recommend 5w-30. If you're somewhere hot: 10w-40. The thinner (5W-30) oil will net you a bit better fuel economy than the 10W-40, especially when it's cold!

Don't worry about JASO MA or MB, for our PCX it's not relevant. JASO MA oils are made specifically to work with the wet clutches that are ubiquitous in motorcycles, so if you hop by your Honda dealer, you'll probably get some JASO MA 10W-40 because that's what they use on every other Honda. The PCX though has no such clutch, we have a dry centrifugal clutch in the real wheel hub, which is not touched by oil at all.

Re: 2011 Honda PCX oil question help

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2012 9:03 am
by maddiedog
The PCX though has no such clutch, we have a dry centrifugal clutch in the real wheel hub, which is not touched by oil at all.
The above is the most important bit -- since the PCX has a dry clutch separate from the engine oil, motorcycle oil is not required. Any standard, synthetic car oil of the right weight will work.

Use a fully-synthetic, name-brand oil, of 10W30 or 10W40 (see the user manual, it shows what oil is best for which temperatures). 5W-30 is fine too, like Fiah suggested.

Re: 2011 Honda PCX oil question help

Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2014 6:31 pm
by SECoda
I special ordered the MB from my dealer who only carries the MA. (I think they don't want a wet clutch bike getting it by mistake maybe??? Also, maybe a car 4-stroke syn oil is just a bit better than using MA for our scooters???

Re: 2011 Honda PCX oil question help

Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2014 7:24 pm
by you you
SECoda wrote:I special ordered the MB from my dealer who only carries the MA. (I think they don't want a wet clutch bike getting it by mistake maybe??? Also, maybe a car 4-stroke syn oil is just a bit better than using MA for our scooters???

You (and your bike) wouln't notice any difference between any.

Re: 2011 Honda PCX oil question help

Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2014 8:07 pm
by SECoda
I know. It would be interesting to try to measure the difference in friction in a lab. They are using Moly as the anti-friction additive in MB but the spec has MA and MB very close - if fact the top and bottom of the ranges are the same (i.e. top of one is the bottom of the other). Top speed, mileage, engine wear?

Re: 2011 Honda PCX oil question help

Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 7:36 pm
by frog13
The engineers specified it's use based on results I bet / education , not on guess work .

Re: 2011 Honda PCX oil question help

Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 3:20 am
by SmellyTofu
I noticed no difference between the Honda HP4M and Mobil 1 5W30. Fuel economy appears to be the same.

Re: 2011 Honda PCX oil question help

Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2015 10:32 pm
by jkautz
So if my temperature in my area will be in the 90's I should run 10w40? Or will 10w30 be okay?

Re: 2011 Honda PCX oil question help

Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2015 11:42 pm
by WhiteNoise
A few other oil topic threads. Hope it helps and doesn't confuse matters :geek:

http://www.hondapcx.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=3775
http://www.hondapcx.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=2253
http://www.hondapcx.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=3065

Honda 2015 PCX Specified oil can be bought here: (mine was just shipped ;)
http://www.amazon.com/Pro-Honda-Synthet ... stroke+oil