Hi, I noticed a fair amount of oil seeping from my engine after a ride yesterday. I do not get this on my 950 Adventure. Bike has less than 2000 miles and was purchased new in October this year. Is this something to be concerned about? I will check the torque settings on the engine bolts this week...





Thanks for any help,

Mike

YES! and no.
It's not terminal but the bike is nearly new so get the dealer to sort it out.
Many SDs suffer from this - mine did - twice!
The trick if you are rebuilding is to re torque the 3 bolts holding the heads on after the long studs have been torqued down. (Tip from Bash)
But this is all stuff your dealer should sort out.

Great, thanks for the advice. I will book it in this week.

Mike

I had mine in to the dealer twice now for this. Hopefully a new seal and proper torque settings straighten everything out.

ummm it doesnt look like the leak is anywhere near the heads (not that retorquing them is a bad idea), looks like its coming form the water pump. am i missing something?

Ya know I was just having another look at your photos. I might be wrong but to me it looks like the water pump cover has a flat gasket on it - of
the paper variety (maybe it is just grime). To my knowledge all models have a shaped "O"-ring type gasket (part 60035053000) that you can't normally see. If it is as it looks to me there might be something wrong. Has this engine had previous work done?

someone correct me if I am wrong, but that is a water cover, if that much oil seepage is coming from behind that cover then your coolant would have a lot of oil in it...the overflow would be significantly discolored, no?

Mike - if you need a hand with it this weekend, give me a shout.

i can confirm that it is an o ring gasket for that cover (from when i did my water pump seal)

I had the same thing happen when my SD was new. Yours looks like the leaking coolant has attracted dirt while riding.

I can't find the link to my thread? Mine was leaking coolant from the same spots.

My leaks pooled down a bit loweras you can see in the pic:



The dealer told me that they had had to replace a few of them (the seals) in the past. Apparently the newer o-rings were a bit thicker???

Anyway, mine has not leaked since.

Hope this helps

Sorry, I just saw all of these replies.

I dropped off the bike with the dealer this week. The leak is around the water pump but they said given the low mileage it was not likely a failure. Coolant leaking would make sense but it sure looks like oil and there is no discoloration in the overflow tank. To my knowledge the engine has had no work done, I purchased the bike as a new leftover with 30 miles on it.

Dealer thought it was likely a failed gasket but I haven't heard back from him yet...

Thanks for all of the help,

Mike