Where to put engine oil ? when to put in coolant and how much . i have just bought the bike second hand, but has no manual

if you are using coolant oil (do not mix with standard water base coolant!!!), you need to use same brand and specification (type), best way is to check in your manual what type of coolant will be accepted, and then top it as required.

if you wish to change to another brand or to water based (or from water based to oil) then follow this procedure:
1. run engine for 10 min
2. very carefully open the fill tank and cap, drain whatever is in the system (watch for hot steam/water backflush!)
3. fill about 15% to 20% with new fluid and run for few seconds (flush),
4. drain again and fill with new oil, coolant or whatever you will be changing to.

buy extra liter so you will have for top up.

hope this will help you solve your problem - do not forget to vote!

possable a faulty oil pressure switch

The engine takes 10w-40 motorcycle oil.Trans and engine share oil. Antifreeze is a 50/50 mix.

Look under the motor and you will see the drain plug. I think it takes a 6mm allen. drain the oil and remove your filter, just like on your car. Your bike should take 5 qrts. make sure you put oil on the new oil filters rubber seal and get it hand tight. after you have replaced the oil plug and filter , pull the dip stick over on the right side and look for the full mark and put the oil in. Put the oil stick
all the way back into the motor, and pull it and check it. Check for leaks and ride safe.

most oils will work, you want about 10W30 weight. you will either have a dipstick on the filler cap, or most kawasakis have a sight glass on the engine case with level markers. you will probly need to remove the fairing pannels to do this job. the coolant should have a small reserve bottle with level markers on it, if not open radiator cap with engine cold, and it should be full.

Things you will need, Drain pan, 5 quarts oil, BMW oil filter, oil drain plug seal, can of brake cleaner, allen head wrench that fits your drain plug, a oil filter wrench for R- Bike filters, ratchet with a drive that fits the oil filter wrench, paper towels, latex gloves, funnel that fits into the oil fill plug hole. I also keep an old blanket around so I can lay on the ground. Warm the bike up for 5 mins then turn off. Get the bike on the center stand. Position your drain pan under the drain plug . I like to lay out everything im going to use on 4 or 5 paper towels . Remove the fill plug on the top of the left cylinder, set it on the paper towel to keep crud off it. Take your allen head wrench and loosen the drain plug , if you using an open pan to drain your oil , be prepared to fish out the drain plug, it will fall into the oil drain pan. Let the oil drain for 10 minutes. Take some brake clean and spray it all around the area of the oil filter to get rid of all the crud. All the dripping **** should flow into the drain pan if you bought one big enough. Buy drain pans that you can reseal when your done, put it in the car and take it to a recycling center. Put the oil filter wrench onto the ratchet. This oil filter wrench will slip into the filter slot under the engine. Just turn the ratchet untill the filter comes off. Should be clockwise. After the filter is removed, spray brake clean into the filter housing area to get rid off the **** and oil, wipe down with a paper towel and reach up into the filter housing to get all the ****, one final spray off brake clean should clean everthing out.
IF THERE IS NO MORE OIL COMING OUT OF THE DRAIN PLUG, put a new sealing ring on the drain plug and tighten up , snug not TIGHT.
Now before you put the new oil filter on , open up a quart of oil and fill the oil filter up about 90% with new oil, put a little oil on the rubber seal, put the the oil filter into your filter tool and insert the tool and filter up into the filter housing. Do this be hand so you will not strip the filter housing threads. The filter should go on very easy and you should be able to turn the filter at least 3-4 turns until its hand tight, Finish off with the ratchet, SNUG NOT TIGHT. Finish off with a little brake cleaning on the bottom of the engine housing to clean up any oil. Put the funnel in the fill hole and put in 3 quarts of oil. Read your owners manual for your oil capacity. There is a sight glass on the lower left side off the engine under the cylinder. Fill with oil until the oil level is in the middle of the sight glass. Put you fill cap back on. Turn you engine over a couple of times put dont let the bike run for more than 5 seconds, let the bike sit for 2-5 minutes to let the oil level settle, then check the oil level in the sight glass, it should be in the middle. if you dont see any oil in the sight glass after 2-5 minutes add a little oil at a time until the oil level in the sight glass is in the middle. Start the bike agian for 5-10 seconds , then check the oil level in the sight glass. You should be good to go. email me for any questions

I bought a 2003 Kawasaki Vulcan 500 with 3000 miles. 7 year old bike, but running good. Had the guy I bought it from ride it 10 miles to my storage garage, then I started learning to ride for the first time. I was doing some practice and tipped it over. Not hard, but I had to pick it up off the ground. Rode for a few more minutes and put it away.

When I showed up to practice again, both the coolant temperature and oil pressure lights stayed on after starting. They were probably on while I was putting the bike away after I dropped it, but I was probably too shaken to notice. Thought it was purely electrical since both came on at the same time. I was thinking it was a shorted temp sensor wire. I rode it for a few minutes since it sounded ok and the engine felt hotter than it should have, so I shut down and looked for more info online. People talked about oil system airlocks, but no one explained why both lights would be on. One person alluded to the idea that both lights would go off if the oil system was fixed, but I couldn't find explanation or confirmation. That was enough to get me to accept that problem as a possibilty.

That's when I saw a trick involving unscrewing the oil filter. Some people on the forum said it wasn't a great idea, but most thought it was fine. i couldn't see any harm in it myself, since I was full on oil and there was from my previous ride, obviously enough oil in the heads to run the engine for another minute or so at least.

So after marking it to make sure of how much to re-tighten, I loosened up the filter using both hands until I could turn it with one, then leveled my bike a tad with a piece of wood under the kickstand (no center stand on these), chocked the rear tire and started the bike, putting it into neutral. I held the handlebar with my left hand to be sure the bike wouldn't tip over on me and loosened the filter until I was pretty sure that the gasket was just separated from the engine and waited for a few seconds. No oil came out immediately so at that point I pretty much figured I was on the right track. Trickle, trickle, GLUG, GLUG. oil comes out into my drain pan. Screwed filter back tight, engine sound changed from smooth to really smooth. I looked back up and both lights were now off. Problem solved.

Apparently this air locking is an occasional problem during oil changes as well as with dropped bikes. People that I read said to fill the oil filter before installing to minimize the chances of this.

Like the previous poster, I really want to know is why the temp light and oil light seem to be connected. Both lights coming on at the same time really tripped up my troubleshooting and almost led to me dismissing the warning. When I get the repair manual I ordered in the mail, I'm going to try intentionally tripping the temp sensor, probably by pulling a wire to see if the warning light for the oil will come on when there is a problem with overheating. Can anyone speculate on why the temp light came on too even though it was an oil problem?

Sorry for the long post, but I looked all over for a solution and had to piece it together from several places and guess a little. Hopefully this is detailed enough to help people with this common (apparently with Kawasakis) problem.

the oil level is max upper line on the sight glass on engine/ coolant level is max at upper level of expansion bottle as to the gears from neutral first is up and the rest are down

leave the milage alone when you sell the car show proof with date that you did the work you'll advertise and good luck paper reciepts work well.

 It has auto lube, the oil bottle is under the seat. Use any full synthetic 2stroke oil. Some bikes may have been modified to run on premix and this would be worth getting checked out by a bike shop. If its been sitting for a while its a good idea to put a tank full of 40/1 premix through it anyway.   Look after your bike, they are becoming very rare and many engine parts are no longer available. The NS was one of Honda's premium products, hence the "R". It had hand matched engine parts and was very expensive to produce.  There were only 35 new red/white bikes imported  into NZ in 1986, removed from the Japanese market  to make way for the NSR. All other NS's imported, blue/white, were second hand imports.   I have had mine from new and it was the first sold in NZ, prepaid before it landed. I have a factory Honda manual for the NS250R. I'm happy to help you with tech info you need. Just post your Q.
Mike