Should I be concerned?

[nylife]

This a quick picture of my right side airbox, looks like there is a little bit of oil coming through it, the bike runs fine no issues, it does not use too much oil, i never see oil dripping anywhere, but figure i will ask the brain trust here:

[websterize]

Mine has the same leakage on the throttle side — appears to be oil. Just had the 12,000-mile service done at the dealer, and no red flags reported. Bike is running great.

I'll clean it up, and if it comes back, will take it in. I'm under warranty until April.

[boxermoose]

On the older R's the crankcase venting into the airbox/intake elbows would cause this sort of oil condensation Always seemed worse after a long slab run

[nylife]

i cleaned it today, lets see what happens next weekend when i take it out, then on the next dealer visit i will have them take a look

[websterize]

i cleaned it today, lets see what happens next weekend when i take it out, then on the next dealer visit i will have them take a look

Any updates? I wiped my down and no more leakage, but my mileage is way down in the past year.

[nylife]

Honestly I forgot to look at it, my mileage this year sucks, kids just take up all of my riding time, next year I hope it to be better, but I did ride this weekend and while I did not look there specifically I did not see anything abnormal. But I will make sure to look.

[websterize]

… my mileage this year sucks, kids just take up all of my riding time, next year I hope it to be better, …

I feel your pain. It's too bad there's not an OEM car seat that clicks into the handlebars for my two-year-old. She'd look cute in goggles.

[nylife]

try twins, 1 year old

[angellr]

Gentlemen, just remember, it doesn't get any easier!

You have to carve out time if you want it to work out ... life can always get in the way and then you realize you are now 50+ years old wondering where the time went.

I used to travel extensively (250K+ air miles in 2008 alone) and am glad to be in a position where I am closer to home ALOT more often now. Sure I miss the exotic places, interesting foods and other sundry stuff, but I am also glad to be where I can go explore life around me on two wheels when I make time to do so.

With small children, have your wife watch the children while you ride and then you watch them while she goes off and has some "alone" time. In the end, it will work out for both of you, even with small children. Also, we used to watch some of our friends children while they went out and vice versa.

Best wishes to all on getting out there and enjoying their two wheel beauties.

[nylife]

thats what we do now, when i can i go riding and she watches children, but i cant ride every weekend like i used to, there are things that need to be done together, no way to avoid it, but i still ride

[angellr]

thats what we do now, when i can i go riding and she watches children, but i cant ride every weekend like i used to, there are things that need to be done together, no way to avoid it, but i still ride

Good on you! Glad you have an understanding partner.

[websterize]

The least of nylife's worries now, but nonetheless an update: A dealer tech said the oil seepage near the airbox on the throttle side was because of motor oil overfill. "It's gotta go somewhere." It makes sense because I have tried to keep the engine-oil level minimum at the center dot on the indicator. As much as oil level varies with temperature, apparently that is cutting it too close to full. Will now default to that center dot in the sight glass as my maximum fill level, and the space above a buffer for the temperature variation. The difference between the MAX and MIN levels in the site glass is only 0.5 liters.

[rokinrider]

Even when my boys were growing up I kept riding when I could. I remeber alot of friends who got rid of bikes because of family and they regretted it. Now i go riding with my son. He takes the Harley and the ol man leads the charge on the R-1200.
An occasional ride is better than none.....

[deilenberger]

The least of nylife's worries now, but nonetheless an update: A dealer tech said the oil seepage near the airbox on the throttle side was because of motor oil overfill. "It's gotta go somewhere." It makes sense because I have tried to keep the engine-oil level minimum at the center dot on the indicator. As much as oil level varies with temperature, apparently that is cutting it too close to full. Will now default to that center dot in the sight glass as my maximum fill level, and the space above a buffer for the temperature variation. The difference between the MAX and MIN levels in the site glass is only 0.5 liters.

Bill, interesting. I was giving my R it's annual spring cleaning, which means I actually try to get the entire bike clean (engine, trans, driveline..)

For a while now I've noticed slight oil munge (oil and dirt) accumulation around the front of the front swingarm boot (the end that's held onto the transmission with a tie-wrap..) The amount was so small it never really concerned me. It's been a long time since I did a complete cleaning - and this time I spotted oil-munge around the rear shock lower mount.

Curious... never saw anything there before. Was my shock leaking? (Didn't feel like it.)

Laid on the ground and looked. I was able to follow a nice little trail of munge/oil all the way back to the front swingarm boot.

I had been thinking there was a slight misting from the transmission output shaft.. VERY common on R1150xx bikes.. almost all of them do it.. so I hadn't been concerned. As I was cleaning, I realized the misting was coming from up higher then the boot, and followed it up to the top of the transmission, where it was appearing between the bottom of the airbox/battery-box and the top of the transmission.

I'm guessing it's either from the transmission breather, or from an oil drain someplace in the airbox. The R1150xx series had a plug you pulled from the bottom of the airbox to let trapped oil from the engine breather system out. Needed to put a can under it to catch it.. I can't find any sort of drain on our airboxes, but I'm betting there must be one somewhere. The R1200 crankcase does vent into the airbox - the large hose coming off the left (port side) cylinder head to the airbox is the path..

Someone here a long time ago was removing the BMW filter setup and putting oiled-cloth (K&N sort) cone filters on his throttle-bodies. Is that person still here? (I seem to recall he was from Europe.) Just wondering what the bottom of the airbox looks like, and exactly where the transmission breather is located..

It's clean now, so I'll stop thinking about it for the summer..

[websterize]

Well, what the dealer said about top-up overfilling two weeks ago *doesn't* make sense.

Last night, after a 2-hour+ ride, I saw what appeared to be fresh oil seepage on the intake muffler seam on the throttle side which I erroneously referred to as the air box seam in an earlier reply. (The same seam spot on the clutch side is dry.) I haven't topped up the motor oil since they did the oil/filter change two weeks ago, when they filled the oil to the center dot in the sight glass, so there's the flaw to the overfill logic. Level had dropped to about 1/4 full last night. Maybe they're related, or maybe the engine is still breaking in. I switched to BMW synthetic at 6,000 miles, and since then the bike has required top-ups every few months or so. I'm at about 13,000 miles today, and the majority of those were done in urban stop-and-go commuting.

[winkeldc]

I by no means am an expert, but in regards to using synthetic oil at 6k miles, I thought the general consensus online was to wait u til 24k because of the seals not fully seating at 6k. I could be wrong on this as well, but I have never switched to synthetic, and it could just be my experience, but I haven't topped off the oil between 6k services over the last 18k miles or so. I have like 23k right now. I burn a bit of oil, but more like half a quart between oil changes so by the time the oil is at the bottom of the sight glass, i am ready for a change anyway. Is it possible the synthetic is seeping because the seals weren't fully seated during the break in period when you made the switch at 6k? Did the dealer do the last oil change and if so, did they put regular oil back in?

[websterize]

Is it possible the synthetic is seeping because the seals weren't fully seated during the break in period when you made the switch at 6k? Did the dealer do the last oil change and if so, did they put regular oil back in?

I suppose synthetic could be causing the seeping. nylife's bike is showing the same seepage as mine. If he's using dino, then I'd guess no, oil type doesn't matter. The dealer did the last oil/filter change with synthetic -- engine oil services have been with BMW synthetic since 6K.

[deilenberger]

I by no means am an expert, but in regards to using synthetic oil at 6k miles, I thought the general consensus online was to wait u til 24k because of the seals not fully seating at 6k. I could be wrong on this as well, but I have never switched to synthetic, and it could just be my experience, but I haven't topped off the oil between 6k services over the last 18k miles or so. I have like 23k right now. I burn a bit of oil, but more like half a quart between oil changes so by the time the oil is at the bottom of the sight glass, i am ready for a change anyway. Is it possible the synthetic is seeping because the seals weren't fully seated during the break in period when you made the switch at 6k? Did the dealer do the last oil change and if so, did they put regular oil back in?

I've never seen a "general consensus".. just lots of opinions.

Here is my opinion - switch to synthetic when the engine stops using significant amounts of oil. I switched at the first oil change (after the 600 mile change - which was still dino oil..) or - 6,000 miles. The bike had stopped consuming oil at that point (it goes from the top of the window to the center dot between oil changes usually) - and has remained like that for the next 47,000 miles.

And the seals on modern engines don't have to "seat" - what has to "seat" is the rings. The engine seals are rubber (or "dribond", aka Yamabond) and will either leak forever or not leak - there is no "seating" involved with them.

The dealers excuse of overfill is bulldinky. The fill level on a hexhead engine is to the TOP of the window, not the center (that's an Interwebz rumor - show me the writeup from BMW that says the center of the window..)

[winkeldc]

Sorry about my last post, if I had used the proper terms, it would have been more clear. What I was getting at, was it possible that the switch to synthetic before fully breaking in the engine, (what I referred to as seals, I meant the rings, my bad) is causing the need to top off oil every couple months and the seeping is just a separate issue with a bad seal somewhere? If the oil is being lost that quickly, (i am assuming about a half a quart every couple months) and isn't burned off, wouldn't there be a small pool of oil somewhere?

[deilenberger]

It's possible that switching too early might cause the rings to not fully seat - which allows oil to get past them and be burned off.. or it allows compression gases to get past them, pressurizing the crankcase and causing oil vapors to get pushed up the crankcase vent which goes to the airbox.

That said - I think the rings should eventually seat (although they never really did on my R1150RS - which was broken in by one of BMWs best mechanics - Joe Katz). FWIW - Porsche, which uses cylinders like the hexhead delivers their cars with Mobil-1 synthetic from the factory. My Cayenne uses NO oil. Some of the people with turbos report some oil use, but the vast majority of the engines don't use oil.

If you were using more then a quart in 1,000 miles I'd be concerned. Less then that - forgeddaboutit.. just keep it above the center dot in the window (checked in the morning after being on the centerstand overnight.)

BTW - top to bottom of the oil sight glass is WAY less then 1/2 quart. I think it's probably about 8-10 oz or so..