Voge SR1 engine oil, gear oil and strainer change

A scooter carries two separate oils. The engine oil is changed routinely; the gear oil, in its own sealed housing behind the transmission, is the one omitted, and its omission destroys the final drive rather than the engine. Both are covered here.

The quantities

	Quantity	Grade
Engine oil, dry	900 ml	10W-40 SL or above
Engine oil, at a service	800 ml	10W-40 SL or above
Gear oil, dry	200 ml	80W/90 GL-4
Gear oil, at a service	120 ml	80W/90 GL-4

The service figures are the lower of each pair because neither housing drains completely: a film remains on every internal surface. The correct method is to fill to the service figure and then verify the level, rather than to pour in the dry-fill quantity.

Torque figures

Three plugs, three different figures. Applying one figure to all three is how a crankcase thread is stripped.

Plug	Torque
Oil strainer cover bolt	20 - 25 Nm
Oil drain plug, centre of the crankcase	25 - 30 Nm
Oil drain plug, left rear	18 - 22 Nm

The Italian edition of the manual prints the same 20-25 Nm and 18-22 Nm, so the figures are not an artefact of translation.

The procedure

1. Warm the engine, then allow it to cool sufficiently to be handled. Warm oil drains completely, while hot oil and a hot exhaust cause burns. The drain plug should be warm to the touch rather than hot.
2. Place the scooter on its centre stand, upright.
3. Open the filler cap. Oil drains faster with the cap removed.
4. Drain the engine oil at the plug in the bottom of the crankcase.
5. Replace the drain plug sealing washer. The manual is explicit on this point: a reused washer is the reason a plug weeps afterwards.
6. Remove the cover on the left of the engine, withdraw the oil strainer and allow it to drain. A rag placed underneath beforehand prevents the overflow running down the side of the engine.
7. Fit a new strainer, check its O-ring and the pressing spring, and refit the cover to 20-25 Nm.
8. Refit the drain plugs, each to its own figure.
9. Fill with 800 ml through the crankcase filler.
10. Fill the gearbox with 120 ml of 80W/90 through its separate filler.
11. Start the engine, allow it to idle for a few seconds, stop it and wait a minute for the oil to return to the sump.
12. Check the level with the scooter upright and level, not on the side stand. Where the level sits below the lower mark, top up to halfway between the two marks.

The three errors that account for most failures

The wrong specification. The manual states that oil not meeting the specification shortens the life of the spark plug and the catalytic converter, not only that of the engine. The grades for the rest of the range are listed in engine oil grades and capacities.

The omitted gear oil. It has its own filler and its own housing, and no dashboard indication reports its level. Nothing announces that it has run dry until the drive has already been damaged.

A level read on the side stand. A scooter leans a considerable distance. The reading obtained is false, and the correction made on the strength of it leaves the engine overfilled.

Related pages

The service at which each oil change falls due is set out in what Voge asks for at each service, and the remaining specifications for this machine are on the SR1 model page.