Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech 07 America oil loss mystery...

So here's the story.
Today I just sold 07 Bonnie America to a new motorcycle enthusianst with NO bike experience. I live in Texas and since he had no motorcycle endosement on his license, I took him for a spin one up. He loved the bike and we did our deal. I pesonally help him load the bike on a big'ole dual tandem farm trailer and he was off.

Later I got a call from him this afternoon (same day, hours later) and he told me there was a puddle of oil under the bike! I ask 'how much' and he replied "about a foot square". And additionally he told me there seemed to be "some hose" undone on the bike presumably with some telltale oil on/coming out of it.

Any ideas?? This is the only Bonnieville I've owned and it's been a trouble free bike from day one less the occasional maintenance problem/question. My wife has ridden it several thousands of miles with no more worry save a fill up.

I changed the oil less than 1k ago with Amsoil 25-50

Some important facts: my wife broke her leg skiing in mid Jan. So neither she or I have ridden any of the three bikes we own for about 3 weeks +. I placed an ad for the bike in Craig's List on ... maybe Monday last?

We went out and started all three bikes that same Monday and let them run for about 5 min. just to keep things in good shape.

Today when the young man came to see the bike, I rolled it out for the first time in nearly a month. As I said, I took him for a spin and parked it in the drive while we signed papers etc.(and jockyed his trailer about so's to load the bike) and....

There's no oil either in the garage (remember: parked for a month; started a week ago and run for 5 min.) or any place we parked it in the driveway while getting ready to load it.


And I'll add, not a drop came out while it sat for a good 30 min. on the trailer.... but the puddle was there when he got home (probably nearly a 2 hour trip for him).

The oil light has never come on...

Of course any sort of problem/failure can happen at any inoportune/mysterious time but now he, the new owner, is 100 miles away and I can't visualize what he's seeing nor pop over for a fast cure.
John has no experience with motorcycles at all. He seems to have some ability to work on cars and such but of course, familiarity is everything; he's never owned a bike before.

I feel bad he's having problems right off the bat but can't help but feel it must be something simple: where in the oil system loop could the loss occur? What is the hose he's talking about?

Any help appreciated.

regards, mitch

I intend to make this good for him but for the life of me I can't figure what could have happened.

There are 3 hoses that exit just behind and below the engine/transmission on the left hand side. One is the tank vent and the other 2 are air box drain hoses, one for each side of the air box. These are supposed to be plugged.

What probably happened is that one or both plugs might have been knocked out of their respective hoses, probably while unloading from the trailer. This would allow any accumulation of oil from the crankcase vent which goes to the air box to drain out. Some accumulation of oil is normal. I normally check mine at oil changes.

Another issue could be that the engine crankcase vent hose has disconnected from the air box and some residual oil is coming out of it. Just plug it back in.

This HOSE link shows the hoses. Note the two number 11 hoses with plugs and number 15 hose.

This may be a dumb question but is he sure it's oil? I've had puddles of gas form under my bike before due to overfilling the tank and parking it immediately. Runs out the vent hose under the bike.

No he knows oil from fuel but agreed; some people might not anyway he's looked it over after wiping it down some and John thinks perhaps its the oil pan/sump cover gasket... does that sound plausable?? And if so, where can I get him a gasket? Dealer only or might Eddy have them as well?

Any other thoughts on where the leak might originate?

thanks folks,

m

Oil pan gasket leaking does not sound plausible. Never heard of anyone else having that problem. Hope the oil drain plug is tight!

What about the oil hose leaking he mentioned. Have you passed on the info from the link above to him?

I'm with the others, this seems very unusual. and a small amount of oil on the garage floor looks like a ton.
Is the leaked oil clean looking "fresh" (from the engine)
Does the oil look "dirty" (from the air box drain lines)
When was the oil last changed. Check the oil filter to make sure it is hand snug. Check the oil drain plug as well.
Lastly I currently have a neutral switch leaking a few drops. The neutral switch is located in the bottom of the engine near the oil filter on the right hand side, I'd give this a look as well.

Maybe the oil filter got hit loading it on the trailer causing it to leak. happened to me once.

No mishaps in loading... that went off without a hitch. I helped him do it without incident.

Oil filter. I bet it got hit loading,unloading. It wont leak(much) until he fires it up.