Oil leak - Something or nothing?

[Gregorsamsa]

Have to confess, I've not thoroughly investigated this yet, but after a 'spirited' ride out on my 2000 R1100R complete with my missus on the back in the company of an Aprilia Tuono and two Triumph Speed Triples I entered the garage the following morning to see a patch - not a vast puddle, of oil beneath the bike. Never happened before... I check the oil level in the sight glass, it's halfway down, sort of what I would expect after 200 miles of quick riding. Bending down and looking underneath I see that the oil seems to be emanating from a small recess (possibly a hole for an absent bolt? I can't tell, it's difficult to see exactly and everything's black and er, oily!) just behind the big recess where the oil filter sits (there's abosolutely no sign of this oil coming from the OF btw). So anyway I take my trusty pointy scribe from my garage tool kit and have a poke beneath the bike and stuff it into this apparent hole where the oil seems to have been coming from and lo-and-behold it begins to run down my scribe and all over my hand. It's almost like I'm pushing with the scribe against a flap or like pushing on a schrader valve, there's a definite 'give' there. So I remove the scribe and I'm now getting a steady thin flow of cold oil all over the floor beneath the bike. Being a quick-thinker I rip a bit off my handy rag and stuff it into the offending hole. Oil flow stops.

Now that was a few days ago and I've not re-examined the bike yet. I intend to get it on its side and degrease the whole sump area. I thought I'd post here in the meantime however, to see if anyone has any suggstions/ has had the same experience. The bike ran perfectly fine the whole day btw, no weird noises, no blue smoke and with no unexpected extra oil consumption.

Any thoughts?

Cheers,

Jim

[omg1010]

Hi Jim,

wherever this oil comes from there certainly is no open hole on the bottom of your bike. However any excessive oil would certainly find its way to the lowest part of your engine ...

I have had such oil drips coming from the oil filter and tightening the same just a little bit solved the problem. I would suggest you thoroughly clean the bottom with brake cleaner or degreaser and go for a ride (allow the bike to warm up) and then see where the oil drips are coming from ...

Best regards
Oliver

[Gregorsamsa]

Thanks for the prompt and reassuring reply Oliver. I'll report back when I've cleaned everything up and can see better what's going on. I take your point in the oil filter being a tiny bit loose, but there's absolutely no sign of any oil contamination forward of the apparent 'hole' i.e. the curve of the recess for the filter is as you would expect - dry.

Cheers,
Jim

PS Love your R1100. I'm out there looking for a K1200 rear wheel right now. :-) Would you say the fatter tyre affects the handling at all? It certainly looks fabulous! I love the exhaust too. Mine has Wunderlich pipes on the front feeding into a Remus can, so there's no room under the wishbone to mount a GS oil cooler like yours, I've taken the horrible plastic off the twin coolers and the bike immediately looks better!

[omg1010]

Hi Jim,

as said, the oil will find the lowest point. Just clean everything, heat up your bike, sit next to it and wait and see where the oil flows ...

With regards to the rear wheel this is comparatively easy to find. The more difficult is the front. The difference betwen the original 160 versus the 170 tyre is absolutely not noticeable. Not to worry about anything.

Are the wunderlich mufflers covering the whole area under the a-arm? I haven't seen these before. In Germany we have the so-called "power-mufflers" which look a bit like mine except that they are routed aside the oil-sump (as opposed to mine which are routed along the bottom of the engine). But both leave enough room at the front to mount the oil cooler ...

Have fun with yours.

Kind regards
Oliver

[Gregorsamsa]

Here's the offending hole. It's a steel blanking plug which has corroded through. Must be the result of communting back and forth over our Penine Hills between Yorkshire and Manchester over two winters. Damn. Now just got to get it out and (1) replace it, or (2) perhaps clean it up and stuff something in there to block it back up. Any suggestions welcome.

Cheers,

Jim