What did you do to your DownTown today?

[NorWeWa]

New to the forum, and first Kymco for me. The local dealer had a 2016 Downtown 300i with only 1780 miles, setting on his floor for over 6 months, and I research Kymco and after a couple test rides decided to buy it. Dealer gave it a new battery as the old one died from non-use. Got it home and immediately changed the oil. It didn't look all that bad, and spent a couple days going over it before getting out for some riding. Belt looked good and measured 24mm. Concerned about the belt age and may change it soon. Tires also look fine, but they also are 6 years old.
I'm fairly new to scooters, but been riding motorcycles since 1961. I sure do like riding scooters, with their low center of gravity, and CVT drive. 

Art 

[CROSSBOLT]

The last year of a GREAT model! Welcome to the nut farm! I am one of the squirrels here that has had two of the 2013 DT300i models (because the first was stolen and wrecked) and think they are a grand design. They do extremely well for a 300 cc two-wheel machine. I even have a car tire in the back wheel.

Sounds like you are off to a good start. One other thing you may want to do is change the oil in the final gearbox. Takes 180 cc of any heavy gear lube but most here use eithe synthetic, Lucas or Amsoil gear lube 75-90 or 140 (whatever is spec'd). Get a service manual and then you can ask here what it means,  what is in error and/or what is missing!

My first one had 22000 miles when stolen, this one has about 17000 miles. Very little problems except batteries. Yuasa the best and worth the price. The Kymco EFI systems are VERY picky about voltage during start sequence and WILL NOT spark below 9.5 volts.

Again, welcome!

[Ruffus]

Welcome here too Art,
on a scoot that age I would check/change

-belt (Bando, Mitsuboshi or similar)
-rollers (maybe change to Dr.Ps)
-coolant
-brake fluid
-oil filter
-air filter
-front fork oil
-front / rear wheel bearings
-CVT / motor/ gear oil seals in general
-fuses and relays
-ground cable connections (green / black)
-gear oil, only NON hypoid oil

-for the next battery I would go for LiFePo4 one because I use them in two scooters and they do pretty well.
Any question welcome.

[CROSSBOLT]

Welcome here too Art,
on a scoot that age I would check/change

-belt (Bando, Mitsuboshi or similar)
-rollers (maybe change to Dr.Ps)
-coolant
-brake fluid
-oil filter
-air filter
-front fork oil
-front / rear wheel bearings
-CVT / motor/ gear oil seals in general
-fuses and relays
-ground cable connections (green / black)
-gear oil, only NON hypoid oil

-for the next battery I would go for LiFePo4 one because I use them in two scooters and they do pretty well.
Any question welcome.

Oops! Why non-hypoid?

[NorWeWa]

Thanks all for the replies. I did get a service manual. Ordered from, The Motor Bookstore. Good price and very complete for my needs. And I also changed the transmission oil. Had a bottle of Lucas synthetic on the shelf. Will get around to other maintenance when the riding weather is not my idea of good.
One mod I'm thinking of doing is to change the front turn signals back to the head light unit. Have to admit, the signals in the mirrors are very visible, one of my riding friends reports, and the mirrors are in a good place for me. No need to turn my head. Just right there with a peripheral eye movement. I just think the Downtown would look nice with some bar end mirrors. Maybe.
The Downtown 300 is the biggest scooter I have bought. Started with a Vespa Sprint 150, next a Burgman 200, then a Honda ADV 150. I know the Downtown is the heaviest scooter I will want and has the performance I will need. I also think the owner maintenance I like to do will be reasonable.

Art 

[Ruffus]

Oops! Why non-hypoid?

NON hypoid oil because HYPOID gear oil is formulated for hypoid spiral gears (aka palloid spiral sprockets) as BMW, Moto Guzzi has. This oils are lightly acid, causes certain (desired) effects on this spiral sprockets, but destroys eventually our KYMCOs oilseals.
Don't know exactely until which year KYMCO oilseals aren't hypoid proof, but wouldn't risk.

[Iahawk]

interesting info, Ruffus. You just sent me into an hour long 'down the rabbit hole' search about different gear types, pros and cons, and the different lube requirements.

In a nutshell, hypoid gears (which we don't have in our scoot trannys) require a lubricant that must be able to withstand the extreme pressure created. These additives can be bad for 'yellow' metals. Straight cut gears (which I believe we have) don't require the same type of lubrication.

The other interesting thing is the viscosity chart for gear oil vs engine oil. They are measured differently. A 75W-90 gear oil lines up, roughly, with a 10W-40 engine oil (see attached chart). That explains the somewhat head scratching (to me) Honda recommendation in their old scoots for 10W-40 (or 10W-30?) engine oil in the scoot gearbox. Straight cut gears, so no need for a hypoid gear oil...and the engine oil weight compares similarly to the usual gear oil weights.

I didn't find any reference to the GL5 hypoid gear oils damaging oil seals but I'm not going to argue with Ruffus's technical knowledge!

[mousejunks]

After 80,000km on a DT300 using hypoid gear oil, I can confirm there is no damage to the seals that causes leaks. You are more likely to have a leak from the weep hole near the axle or a stripped thread for the fill/drain bolts. There is no need to change the gear oil every 5,000km either, this is too frequent and unnecessary.

[Ruffus]

@hawk & mouse, yes both of you have your point.

As a private person who is not responsible against any warranty claims you can use any oil available and fill your KYMCOs gear with.

Even simple motor oil would do, as long NO other complications like a rough bearing, low oil level,
rough sprocket,  excessive driving, etc. leads to a gear demage.

This is why, oil recomandations are set up by motor producers.
Not the hypoid oil itself will demage this oilseals, but this microscopical chemical changed surface of an axle.

During my professional life I saw (not on scooters) a lot of broken (sheared off) shanks up to adiameter of 150 mm, and to 80-90% wrong or no lubrication caused this fault.
Analyses are pretty simple on this items and oil types are very easy to distinguish.
To shorten the story, if you have to grant warranty
" Better safe than sorry".

Attached a pic from a KYMCO Dink 200i gear whose owner simply never checked gear oil.

[NorWeWa]

Took a break from riding my Downtown 300i and changed the fork oil. Removing the fork tubes no issues. The fork tubes are caped with a simple metal plug, and an o-ring seal. The plug is held in the tube with a spring wire clip seated in a grove in the fork tube. I guess this saves Kymco a few cents verses a threaded cap. For 3000 miles of use the fork oil was not that dirty with wear particles. My owners manual does not address when to change the fork oil. I just like to do this after the forks have had enough use to wearing in. Probably reduces the wear on the tube seals to get those wear particles out. 

Art 

[NorWeWa]

Rides before gets cold and wet here in NW Washington, USA

[Beaker99]

I just did a regular oil and filter service but I also changed back from Dr Pully sliders to the original rollers. I’d been running the sliders for about 2 years or so, but in the past month they started to become unbalanced. That is to say, one or two of them would rotate somehow in the variator and this would cause shocking vibration when taking off at low revs. I twice got in there and reset the sliders with the bike preforming flawlessly for about 48 hours, before the vibration would return. Do these sliders wear out causing them to rotate from their normal position?

[Ruffus]

@Beaker99, IMO Dr.Pulleys and TechPülley do usually not wear out in such an amount to turn in their CVTs.
What I saw lately was, tired counter pressure springs and worn out (too small) belts caused such symptoms.
Also worn out CVT shanks might be culprits.

[NorWeWa]

Connected up the turn signals that are present in the head light unit.  Took about a couple hours, but I'm slow.  Using a circuit tester I verified the positive lead to the turn signals, which are already wired in the unit from the left and right side connectors. From the factory the connectors are not wired through on my Downtown, so I needed to run a wire from above the connector to the turn signals. The ground lead off the turn signals is already attached. Found that all four turn signal, the ones in the mirrors and the head light unit will flash. Just my thing, but I do not care for the mirror turn signal combination. And they are really expensive, if you need to replace one.  Now I have lots of choices for mirrors, and I went with bar end mirrors. 

Art   

[Iahawk]

Connected up the turn signals that are present in the head light unit.  Took about a couple hours, but I'm slow.  Using a circuit tester I verified the positive lead to the turn signals, which are already wired in the unit from the left and right side connectors. From the factory the connectors are not wired through on my Downtown, so I needed to run a wire from above the connector to the turn signals. The ground lead off the turn signals is already attached. Found that all four turn signal, the ones in the mirrors and the head light unit will flash. Just my thing, but I do not care for the mirror turn signal combination. And they are really expensive, if you need to replace one.  Now I have lots of choices for mirrors, and I went with bar end mirrors. 

Art

pics?