Oil sight glass melted and leak while engine running

[gordonm]

not sure what happened yet

i just started the bike to have it turn over for a few minutes (haven't ridden in a week or so). it was on it's side stand.

i stopped hearing the bike running

went to garage and saw hot oil pouring out and hitting the engine and smoking and dripping on the floor - there was a lot of smoke

here's a pic of the aftermath - see the sight glass is melted (it feels like plastic actually).



will take it to the garage tomorrow.

It's a 2003 with 14k on it.

Any ideas why this happened? possible failure of another component making the oil too hot?

I hope the engine isn't damaged.

[NoRRmad]

I've always heard "Don't warm it up; start and ride off!"

I will take that advice more seriously now.

Any idea how long you left it idling? Was the fast-idle lever up?

[gordonm]

it was idling for 7 or 8 minutes

yes the fast idle was on. i was sidetracked with kids which is why i didn't turn it off after a minute or two.

One theory I have is that the lack of airflow meant the oil became too hot. but I'm no expert as it comes to engines..

open to any and all theories...

[NoRRmad]

One theory I have is that the lack of airflow meant the oil became too hot. but I'm no expert as it comes to engines..

open to any and all theories...

I'd say that was exactly it.


I hope there was no further damage done. The sight-glass (yes, plastic,) is easily replaced. Less so main bearings.

Keep us posted; I think we'd all be interested in the final results.

[gregor]

Extraordinary. Been stuck in heavy traffic with a hot engine and never had anything like that. At tickover surely little heat was developed?
Good lick.

[Boxer]

Odd indeed. The historical result of setting still and idling is the headers turn red hot...glowing even...until the excessive heat causes a failsafe shutdown of he ignition components. I've never heard of the plastic sight glass(oxymoron) melting. But I suppose with the age on the plastic it has weakened to the point where the excessive heat has that effect on it.

Re the idling in traffic: In traffic when you are setting still idling, you are most likely not on "High" idle setting. This would make a crucial difference in heat build-up without windflow.

NEVER, EVER, let it sit and idle to warm up.....as you, of course, know now.

[MIXR]

I've heard of two others. A very hot engine on an R1150RT that did an amazing amount of internal and external engine damage is on the ADVRIDER site. It also melted plastic parts, blistered paintworke, etc etc. Another GS was also mentioned, but I think it just melted the sight plastic window. Both were the result of a 'distraction' leaving the bike to idle.

The window installs from the outside, so you may be lucky with the fix if the old one comes out ok and there is no bearing damage.

These things need very little forward movement (or breeze) to stay below critical temps, hence the need to have a small fan in front of the bike when doing extended TB balances etc. As for being parked in traffic, even the slightest breeze seems to be enough to maintain the temp, but if stuck in a traffic jam, I always switched mine off until I knew I could get it moving again. The lack of oil circulation can work against you doing that sometimes, as it heat-soaks the engine.

Good luck with the repairs.

[towerworker]

An incredible example of how hot these beasts can get. I surely hope for you that the sight glass is the worst of it.

Boxer--I've never heard of any safety or fail safe system built into the boxer engine when it comes to engine or oil temps, is there one? Seems like it wouldn't be a bad idea.


Wayne

[Boxer]

Boxer--I've never heard of any safety or fail safe system built into the boxer engine when it comes to engine or oil temps, is there one? Seems like it wouldn't be a bad idea.

I believe I read about that in one of Paul Glaves' articles in the BMW Owners News articles. Paul has owned a R1150R for years and all his articles for a while were based on this bike. He mentioned something about the Hall sensor in regards to the heat failsafe feature. I'd have to do some research to determine if it really did happen or was only in my imagination.

[kantuckid]

I'll ad these comments for another frame of reference to the thread: I was returning from an extended Mexico ride at the end of March and in crossing the international bridge back into Eagle Pass,TX I was stuck in the Saturday go shopping /visit relatives crowd & it took close to an hour to cross the bridge. It was bumper to bumper , stop & go until customs where I was able to shut it down and talk to" them". My sight glass began a slow seep-the 1st sign of "you better replace me soon" syndrome from the bridge event. The temp was near 90 but a very!!! slight breeze was about. I usually hit the shoulder and avoid idling when possible, but have been in slab detours etc., before but I feel the bridge thing was the crux of mine leaking. I'll ad that they can be a xitch to get out! I am a former pro wrench & had tools all over the floor in the removal. Making certain to not mar the edges and not lacking for choices of seal pullers and so on down the line it was still hard to get out.The center plastic breaks easily as does the tin backing plate tear up too. The rubber coated rim likes to stick in there.My replacement was the part I'd been hauling around for 1,000's of miles!

[NoRRmad]

I read somewhere that the best way to get the glass out was to tip the bike so that no oil showed in the window, and use a heated nail to melt a hole in the plastic. Then, twist a sheetrock screw in and pull on that. Sounds like it'd work.

[kantuckid]

The window is thin plexiglass or acrylic plastic. I too have read of such but after drilling a 1/8" hole and promptly shattering the "glass" while using a small slide hammer I then went to using the sheet meatl backer then on from there. Apparently some are hard and others are easy,kinda like, well you know what I mean...

[gordonm]

update on the repair

shop very surprised it melted.. i'm worried something other than fast idling caused this..

new oil and sight glass replaced

engine wont start

tracked start problem down to melted ignition wire

will replace that and see what's next

[Airman]

update on the repair

shop very surprised it melted.. i'm worried something other than fast idling caused this..

new oil and sight glass replaced

engine wont start

tracked start problem down to melted ignition wire

will replace that and see what's next

There have been other threads on this overheating issue. I don't think there's any question that it was caused by letting it run in high idle. The case I'm thinking of was caused by running on high idle while on an extended phone call. Similar results. Melted sight gage and engine shutdown. I've never checked, but I think the engine will get really hot running at high idle. I never warm the engine up, even when it's really cold. Good news is there's probably nothing serious wrong. You'll likely be ok after the wire is replaced.

[gordonm]

The bike is back up and running

Total damage
- Sight Glass $45
- Ignition Sensor which had melted $276! (http://www.bmwmcchattanooga.com/product ... 73277.html)
- Oil Filter + Oil $65

- Labour $150

[gordonm]

Also my dad said he found an article by someone who had the same issue when sitting in traffic at the US/Mexico border. Presumably overheating because of lack of airflow...

[Xdot]

The bike is back up and running

Total damage
- Sight Glass $45
- Ignition Sensor which had melted $276! (http://www.bmwmcchattanooga.com/product ... 73277.html)
- Oil Filter + Oil $65

- Labour $150

Cheap, compared to what it could have been! One more tribute to the survivability of these engines.

[kantuckid]

Also my dad said he found an article by someone who had the same issue when sitting in traffic at the US/Mexico border. Presumably overheating because of lack of airflow...

That's not what I said-I said mine started to seep having sat @ idle at the border while crossing international bridge and was replaced @ home as precaution because leaking is an indicator of whats to come. I have previously been in roadblocks/detours/construction that didn't cause the same problem. Probably the rubber around the tin on the sightglass just gets to where , enough is enough and hardens, then leaks