Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Oil drip and other stuff.

Ok, this is the scenario:

I just had my 500 mile service done last Wednesday (at 1300 miles). I've ridden the bike every day since and I go out this morning to go for a ride and I notice some oil on the concrete under the bike. I check underneath and notice a drip getting ready to drop on the bottom of the filter. I check the oil level in the window and it seems overfull to me. I run the bike for a bit (ease of flow issue), shut it down and wipe the underneath completely clean (the burn isn't that bad ). While I'm laying on the ground wiping everything down, I notice at least three rubber hoses just hanging there not connected to anything on one end. Is this normal? If not, what the heck should I do?

Thanks,

Andrew

leave the hoses alone they belong there. the drips are from your oil filter or drain plug.......angelis

Thanks for the response Angelis. What do the hoses do if you don't mind.

I went back out after a couple of hours and there doesn't appear to be any more oil. I'll have to check again after riding to work tomorrow.

It's possible that if you overfill the oil, it could blow some out of the breather.
I believe that at least one of those hoses is an airbox drain. If it's leaking oil, then the overfull blow out the breather thing is what's happening.

I don't think the oil is coming out of the hoses, but I'm not sure. I'm going to have to drain some out tomorrow. Funny how I've never overfilled any vehicle, but the Triumph tech at the dealership overfills it the first time I take it there.

I'll be doing my own servicing from now on. The only reason I took it to the dealership this time was they were supposed to install my BUBs and replace (under warranty) the clutch cover. Of course the pipes weren't in yet.

Oil comes in quarts, so it's easy to just put in four quarts.
Our bikes only hold between 3.5 and 3.8 quarts with filter.
Even though the book says four quarts, whenever I put in four, it reaches the top of the sight glass.

Oh, the BUBs are great

It's entirely possible the filter isn't tightened properly. Or, it could be the crankcase breather; I have to admit I put 4 full quarts of 20W50 in two weeks ago and no drips and believe me I've pressurized the crankcase more than once since then so I doubt that's the case.

As I remember:
1 hose from forward portion of airbox (= water drain).

1 hose from main (aft) portion of airbox(= water drain). However, this can leak oil if you over oil a Unifilter air cleaner

1 hose from below fuel tank tipover shutoff valve.

1 last hose might have been crankcase oil breather (but I can't remember for sure).

Thanks for the info.

Andrew

If you get it drained out REAL good, it'll take 4 quarts.
Hard to do, though.