Alfine 11 oil flush

For discussions about bikes and equipment.
Lodge
Posts: 142
Joined: 28 Feb 2016, 8:59pm
Location: Staffordshire Moorlands

Re: Alfine 11 oil flush

Post by Lodge »

For what it's worth I've been using Rohloff oil in my Alfine 11 for the last three and a half years. Yearly oil changes and about 600 miles per year. So far so good. The Alfine is (currently) in a Tern Vektron with Bosch motor so doesn't have the gentlest of lives. In total it's now done over 4000 miles.

I got fed up buying the Shimano stuff when I had litre containers of the Rohloff oils for the Speedhubs in other bikes/trikes in the stable.
crg
Posts: 99
Joined: 11 Oct 2021, 10:33am

Re: Alfine 11 oil flush

Post by crg »

The oil for Alfine 11 is different from the oil for Alfine 8, Nexus 8 and lower speeds.

Any ideas why?
ElCani
Posts: 537
Joined: 5 Mar 2015, 11:24am

Re: Alfine 11 oil flush

Post by ElCani »

crg wrote: 11 Aug 2022, 2:35pm The oil for Alfine 11 is different from the oil for Alfine 8, Nexus 8 and lower speeds.

Any ideas why?
Alfine 8 and Nexus hubs use grease at manufacture, not oil. Then the service regime is to dip the greased hub into an oil bath, which (supposedly) revives the old grease. There’s a post on here somewhere by Brucey which describes in detail why this probably doesn’t work well.
jb
Posts: 1782
Joined: 6 Jan 2007, 12:17pm
Location: Clitheroe

Re: Alfine 11 oil flush

Post by jb »

Grease doesn't simply dry out, it collects micro partials of metal from the gears. Simply dipping it in oil will just produce a weak grinding paste that will get less weak with every dip.

But it's better than not doing anything, the main purpose of a clean is to get rid of water build up which eventually will cause corrosion.
Cheers
J Bro
ElCani
Posts: 537
Joined: 5 Mar 2015, 11:24am

Re: Alfine 11 oil flush

Post by ElCani »

viewtopic.php?t=93935

Loads of info here.
Tom60
Posts: 4
Joined: 29 Jul 2022, 6:44am

Re: Alfine 11 oil flush

Post by Tom60 »

This morning I did my second oil change. The initial change was at 500km and today it was 1000km. The old oil was slowly removed using minimal syringe suction before being slowly replaced (gravity fed) with my "homebaked" flushing oil. The hub was then spun through all the gears for 5 minutes. The flushing all was then removed and slowly replaced (gravity fed) with new 75W90 fully synthetic gear oil. The change took approx 60 minutes

Unlike the oil from the first change, the extracted oil didn't appear to have any suspended metal. My neodiyum magnet wouldn't stick to the outside of the plastic bag containing the old oil and flushing oil.

After the oil change at 500km the bike seemed to be much easier to pedal. It's an e-bike, yet much of the time I can easily pedal with the power setting on zero. Gear changes are also smooth. There is also no sign of oil leaking from the hub.
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