Leaking Oil

[Meme]

My 2000 GZ250 recently started leaking oil. It just passed 10,000 miles on my way to work today. It's leaking bad, about 1/4 cup every 10 miles is my best guess and I have a 25 mile trip to and from work.

It's leaking from the top front of the right side cover (I think it would be called the crankcase cover, but I'm not sure). Right above the oil filter. I was hoping I could remove the cover and replace the gasket, or use RTV to seal it. I'm fairly mechanically inclined, but I want to know if there is anything I should look out for. Does the cover come off easily, or are there special procedures I need to follow? I need to fix this quickly, it's my daily driver. My other vehicles are 4x4's that are barely road worthy and get about 10 MPG.

Any advice or helpful pointers?

Thanks

[Easy Rider]

It's leaking from the top front of the right side cover (I think it would be called the crankcase cover, but I'm not sure). Right above the oil filter.

My other vehicles are 4x4's that are barely road worthy and get about 10 MPG.

Any advice or helpful pointers?


There's good news and bad news. :roll:

IF it is leaking from around a removable cover, a gasket will probably fix it.
There is a shop manual ON HERE available for download so you can see exactly what there is at the point of the leak.

The bad news is that it might take up to a week to get the gasket. You probably should NOT ride it until it is fixed 'cause if that leaking oil gets on the back tire you could have much BIGGER problems (ouch)........and if the leak gets worse, or you forget to top it up the engine could go BOOM.

RTV is NOT a good fix; not even temporary.

[JWR]

Clean the engine and spot the leak first.

[dannylightning]

exactly what both of these guys said. if you are sure it's leaking from the cover it may have just blow that gasket but before you go and get a new gasket.

you may want to try and tighten that cover a little bit and see what happens. if you are really lucky that will fix your problem. get that manual and see how much torque to use when tightening that cover, don't go cranking the bolts down as tight as you can get them.

i have fixed gaskets on a car like this. something simply came loose and sealed back up when properly tightened, usually not the case but some times, just some times it is..

[Meme]

Thanks, for the tips. I'll have to look it up in the manual.

I have the leak pinpointed. The red dot inside the circle is where the leak is (the pic is not of my bike, just one off the internet). It is from between the cover and the engine, just behind the front edge of the lump on the cover.

http://s3.postimage.org/1LzifA.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=Pq1LzifA)

[Easy Rider]

I have the leak pinpointed.

Yep, that sure looks like a gasket leak.

A couple of thoughts:

To really fix it right, the WHOLE side case will have to come off. There is a fair chance of messing something up when doing that if you don't have a little experience and good tools......like lots of bolts involved and things like the oil filter need to come out first.

I've not seen the inside of the engine but I can't imagine there being a lot of oil.....or ANY presssure at that point that you have marked. Your reported loss seems like a LOT for a leak at that point (but that's just a guess). [edit] As close to the filter as that IS......there might be pressure there.

A dealer should be able to swap that gasket in less than an hour; labor + part should be $100 or less. It might be advisable to let them do it.

[Meme]

I'm going to try it myself. I have plenty of experience with engines (cars, trucks and bikes), just not on this bike. The manual simply states "Remove the clutch cover." :roll: It looks like I will have to remove the brackets holding the rear brake cable to get to it. I was mostly concerned that the cover was supporting internal components that needed to be properly secured while taking it off. That doesn't appear to be the case. Now I have to order a gasket and wait.

I may try to temporarily seal it with RTV. I know you don't think that's a good way to go, but if I can drive it for the week or 2 that a gasket will take to come in, it will save me a lot of gas money. If it doesn't work, then I wasted some time and a quart and a half of oil.

[patrick_777]

Where are you ordering your gasket from? Bikebandit and cheapcycleparts.com are very fast on their shipping and not expensive in the slightest.

[Easy Rider]

I may try to temporarily seal it with RTV.

As long as you know what you are getting into. If it seals at all, it is likely to come UNsealed suddenly and you would be right back where you started.......or worse.
Have you checked your rear tire for oil ???

I would hate to see you compromise your safety just to save a few bucks. :cry:

[Meme]

I ordered the gasket yesterday from BikeBandit, hopefully it will be quick. It must not be leaking as bad as I thought. It wasn't even noticeable in the sightglass after 50 miles. It sure looks bad all over the side of the engine and exhaust. :cuss: It doesn't look like any got on the rear tire. It sucks when I come off the highway and have to stop at a light though. It drips on the exhaust and smokes bad. It makes a good looking bike look like crap. :roll:

If it doesn't get any worse, I'll just ride it until the gasket comes in. I'll keep checking the oil level and the back tire in the mean time.

[Easy Rider]

It drips on the exhaust and smokes bad. It makes a good looking bike look like crap. :roll:


How about a folded up rag and some duct tape over the leak ???

[dannylightning]

if it gets on the rear tire you will loose control and crash, riding that thing leaking oil is like playing Russian roulette, i know a few guys that have ate it pretty good pulling out of a drive way that only had a little bit of oil on the drive way.

[Water Warrior 2]

Wiping up the driveway also keeps oil off your boots. They need traction too.

[Meme]

I finally got the gasket. :roll: FWIW, the post office sucks. They lost the package for about a week, claiming it was "Undeliverable as Addressed". Then they claimed BikeBandit put the wrong zip on it. Then said it was on it's way back to the sender. Then I mysteriously get the package yesterday. It was addressed EXACTLY the same as all my bills, which I always seem to get.

Anyway, I put the new gasket in today. It was pretty simple, took about 25 minutes of disassembly and reassembly, with about 2 hours of scraping the old gasket off in between. Next time I will go and get some gasket remover. The new gasket feels like rubber instead of paper. :2tup:

The original gasket was installed wrong, probably from the factory since I bought it with 276 miles on it. Even so, it worked for almost 10,000 miles, with about 1/16th of an inch of the gasket sealing for an inch or 2 along the top.

So far, so good. No leaks.

[Water Warrior 2]

Good for you. Glad to hear the operation was a success.