Sudden low oil level in my Honda Activa 125 STD : 61,000 km update

Immediately up on start up, I was greeted with more than usual vibrations and gruff sounding engine. I shut it down and removed the oil dipstick and to my horror the oil level was at the minimum.

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Oil change at HP COCO Pump, Kowadiar, Trivandrum.

Last service for Blu was done at a little over 58k kms and it was almost 3.5k kms since that. Also, last time around the SA had said about engine oil being too low at the time of draining. I was not using Blu much since the accident in March and hence I was not aware of the performance. But Blu was being regularly used by my FIL at my request.

Odo at the time of Oil change.

On the first Sunday of May, I decided to take Blu for a ride since it was the longest I haven't used him since I brought him home and also I kind of missed riding Blu. Immediately up on start up, I was greeted with more than usual vibrations and gruff sounding engine. I shut it down and removed the oil dipstick and to my horror the oil level was at the minimum. There was no oil leaks visible near the exhaust and there were no oil drips where Blu was parked. As far as I know there is no bluish white smoke from the tailpipe too. Now, I don't know how oil levels are dropping.

Anyway, I asked my FIL to not use Blu as the oil level is too low and I decided to get the oil changed at the next possible day as I had to be out of town for work for a couple of days. Since every other part was working fine I decided to get only the oil changed. I had done the same thing in September 2022 and the results were decent so this time around also I thought, why not?

On 8th I took Blu for my office commute and decided I'll get the oil changed on the return journey. I did ride around 20kms before the oil change and hopefully I have not done any damage to Blu's engine. The ride was a little rough with pronounced vibrations on the floorboard and handles. Engine sounded a bit rough and throttle response also felt a little dull.

After I reached the pump, I first topped up Blu and then put him up for the oil change. The technician this time around used the machine to suck out the oil through the dipstick hole and even though I couldn't see much there could not have been more than 200ml of oil. When asked the technician also said the oil level was low but there is no way to ascertain as the old oil is collected in a common tank.

This time around, they used a different HP Racer Skutex 10W-30 oil which came in a yellow (golden?) bottle with 'synthetic technology' written on it. The quantity was same at 800ml. I'm not sure if this is a semi synthetic or fully synthetic or if at all synthetic. This one cost Rs. 375/- (printed MRP on the bottle) which is Rs.55/- more than the one which came in the grey bottle.

The whole bottle was emptied in to Blu and I paid the sticker price on the bottle for the job and we were done. On the ride home I observed that the vibrations have gone down to their normal levels and the throttle response also improved but reminds you that it is still a 7.5 year old. Will update the condition and performance once I ride some more.

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