HEADS UP again... "keep your eyes open" LEAK ISSUE

[~TABASCO~]

Hello folks...

2012 Super Tenere 60K


Had a friend roll into the shop this weekend and parked his bike on the side stand. After ten minutes we walked pass his bike and there was a puddle of oil. I grabbed a flash light and took a look. His entire bottom of the motor was wet with oil.. Fresh liquid wet oil.. He had his wife pick him up and I had a chance to look at it today. There was so much oil I used degreaser and power washer on the bottom of the motor to clean it all up. (there was also oil dripping off the center stand, rear suspension, rear rim was almost wet, oil on the sides of the rear tire, and slung into the under fender, oil on the back half of the bike)

When it was dry this is what I found. On the bottom of the oil pan there is the silver aluminum oil passage cover (Cover, Oil Element 23P-13447-00-00)
I started the motor and let it idle, no oil, no leak, I let the motor worm up and then I started to see oil weeping out of this cover. I let the motor continue to idle till the fan came on 220'ish. When the motor had gone though several fan cycles the motor was now hot and the oil was almost dripping out of this cover... this was only at idle 1100 RPM... I believe that the O-ring (Gasket, Element Cover23P-13449-00-00) has basically given up. I don't know specifically because I haven't taken it apart yet.. I've ordered the part and hope there might be one in the USA.

I work on quite a few Teneres and have not seen this issue before.. Its leaking around the entire cover but its the worst on the rear left (drive) side. When your changing your oil or you happen to be cleaning your bike, make sure to take a look at this area for any wet oil. My friend said it had dumped out all this oil only over a few days... It was a lot of oil....

Keep an eye on that area and it should always be dry. If your bike is really dirty and nasty on the bottom of the motor I suggest you scrub that clean and take a quick look. As fast as this oil was coming out that would have put a stop to a trip or possible engine damage. The part is not expensive and looks to be really easy to fix ONLY IF YOU KNOW THERE IS AN ISSUE !


LOOK OVER YOUR BIKE PEOPLE.... LOL

 

[Dogdaze]

Do you think using some sort of jack to support the front wheel off the ground could have contributed to this, by crushing the o-ring?

 

[Gigitt]

Any Pics???

Thanks.

 

[Checkswrecks]

Thanks for sharing Jaxxon!

::008::

 

[~TABASCO~]

Do you think using some sort of jack to support the front wheel off the ground could have contributed to this, by crushing the o-ring?

No, He has one of our skid plates attached the frame.. He has had the skid plate for several years and this leak started just a few days ago.. After cleaning, the bottom of this motor looks brand new, no damage.

 

[~TABASCO~]

Any Pics???

Thanks.

 

[AVGeek]

Thanks for the heads up Jaxon. Did you (or can you) grab a pic of the underside of the bike, so we know where to look?

 

[~TABASCO~]

The part

 

[hANNAbONE]

cleaning my bike in the next few minutes.

I'll check it.

Thank you for the heads up.!!

 

[Juan]

Do you think using some sort of jack to support the front wheel off the ground could have contributed to this, by crushing the o-ring?

I very much doubt that this could be the cause. The bike is pretty well balanced on the centre stand, with only minimal weight differential towards the front. I use a car scissors jack on this cover to lift the front wheel off the ground (using a thin piece of wood in between the oil cover and the jack) and I turn the screw of the jack by hand easily without the handle. This wouldn't have been possible if the weight was relatively big.

 

[2daMax]

O-rings are designed to compress between 20 to 30% of its thickness, and the Al cover is probably designed to ensure when the metal meets the other metal part, the O-ring are not overly compressed. (O-ring in grooves aids in this objective).

Probably just a bad O-ring with surface scratches that over time under cyclic heat and pressure made it worse. Other thoughts could be contamination by particles that got in between the Oring and it's metallic surroundings.

 

[Ramseybella]

How many miles on this bike?

 

[caillou]

Thank you for the heads-up. Since the XTZ1200 does have an oil level light, the risk for the engine are very limited (light would turn on before any damage).
Unfortunately, Yamaha did not put a low oil pressure alarm of any type, IIRC.