......HORROR....THE HORROR.....

[MtheTiger]

Yesterday I came home after a short trip on and off highway and I noticed some oil on the side and under the sump.

As an oil change was due anyway in preparation of my 2K vacationtrip to Germany I decided to do the oil change right away.

After removing the sump plug and filterunit only about half a litre of oil came out  :shock:  :shock:  :shock:  :shock:  :shock:  :shock:  :shock: WTF

The bike showed no signs whatsoever of this when I came home....no oil pressure warning lights or strange sounds or whatever. No damage or cracks in the sump. Apparently the oring let go?

I put in a fresh filter, new orings and 4 liter of 10W40 rightaway and let it idle for 2 minutes...no problems...all fine....no leaks.

What do you reckon....are my bearings fubar now?
Is there anyway of checking this without splitting the case?

I didn't have the time to ride on it yesterday. I'm planning to do a careful short trip tonite.

Any advice lads?
 
WARNING:
A steamer will run almost without oil and she will not tell ya.

I used to check my levels regularly but not everyday...NOW I WILL !

[Lasboss]

Check the bowl screws - are often too poorly bolted and oil can leak

[Mustang]

is it making any strange new sounds ?
if not I would,nt worry about it .
you probably were still pumping oil to the bearings .
if no new noises like a rod knock you obviously caught it in time ....had you have lost all the oil you would have heard #3 go bang first  :shock:

[MtheTiger]

is it making any strange new sounds ?

yesterday when I let it idle there were no new sounds...all fine.

Tonite I will do a short trip with the new oil and I will monitor this carefully.......hopefully I was just in time.

[rybes]

like mustang says. if its not makin any new noises itll be fine. i once had a boss start up a car to show a new customer it works and how it sounds. thing is, he told me to do an oil change on it and he hadnt realised that the sump plug was sittin on the bench.  :shock: once it was filled up with oil tho, you wouldnt have known.

[97tiger885]

no oil pressure warning lights

My experience with the oil pressure light has been similar.  I have done some oil changes and drained way too little oil...not even any flickering of the oil pressure light as a warning ever.
 

Check the bowl screws - are often too poorly bolted and oil can leak

What are the bowl screws?

[Nick Calne]

Yeah, what's a bowl screw..

[smoketriples]

No oil pressure light was likely because it alarms on pressure, not oil level.  Even though you were very low, the pump was apparently not sucking air so you didn't lose pressure.

Good news is....that almost always means the engine is fine.  Unless of course you have a dodgy pressure switch javascript:emoticon(':twisted:')

[wakdady]

yeah, what is a bowl screw!?! mine leaks from what appears to be the drain plug, but i cant tell.

a few years ago i blew an engine because the same thing had happened. i had no idea the oil was gone. it was like it just disappeared. but the noises it made were horrible!

[Lasboss]

excuse me, to blame my poor english ... it was obviously screws  the sump

[Nick Calne]

No worries Lasboss  (You should see how bad the rest of us are at Polish.)

I just thought we were going to learn something new!  8)

[MtheTiger]

Well, here's an update

Rode the missus this evening beginning nice 'n slow and ending hard & fast  

No weird new sounds and she rides as usual.... she sounds a bit more agricultural than she used to above 4k revs and I can hear the valve train quietly ticking....never heard this before. But it could well be that I'm way to focussed right now on how she sounds :roll:

I have enough confidence in her to go ahaead with my trip next week.

Thx for all the help guys.