Will Non-JASO Standard Oil Hurt My Grizzly’s Clutch?

Would accidentally putting engine oil that is not Japanese Automotive Standards Organization (JASO) oil into a Yamaha Grizzly ATV negatively affect the clutch?

Partzilla’s Yamaha ATV expert John Talley hosts live Q&A sessions on our YouTube channel every Friday at 3pm Eastern. In this session, John was asked if non-JASO 10W-40 engine oil would hurt the wet clutch of a Yamaha Grizzly.

Yamaha Grizzly oil change kit

Non-JASO 10W-40 Engine Oil in Yamaha Grizzly Q&A

I accidentally put Castrol 10W-40 engine oil in my Yamaha Grizzly instead of the JASO standard. I haven’t ridden it far, but will this hurt the wet clutch?

John Talley: Well, you haven’t done too much damage. Plus, the Grizzly has a two-clutch system, if you will. It’s got the centrifugal clutch, which is down inside the transmission, if you want to call it that, and then the actual transmission is the CVT clutch. So if you’re worried about that centrifugal clutch being affected by the short-term usage of a non-JASO oil, I don’t think it’s going to be a big deal. But dude, go ahead and get it out of there. Because those centrifugal clutches, the pads toward the outside are really thick. And they’re probably already permeated with the correct oil. Sloshing around in the wrong oil shouldn’t really affect it long-term, but yeah go ahead and get it out of there.