Minor maintenance saga

[TimC]

Please forgive me, Mods, for posting this here, but it's not really a maintenance question or how-to.  My bike is a 6th gen, so I figured this might be the best place to commiserate.

Here's a little saga on motorcycle maintenance:

 

A couple weekend ago I was ranting on Facebook about not being able to get a bolt out of my motorcycle's lower cowl, cursing the full fairings, and saying I would never, ever buy another motorcycle with fairings. I had an allen bolt absolutely stuck in the lower cowl.  I spent way too long trying to separate it from the hidden well nut.  I ended up ordering some new OEM bolts, well nuts, and fairing clips. As a couple VFRD friends said, it's good to have spares, and when you order small parts like that, order more than you need. The parts arrived last Saturday.

 

To add to my angst about not being able to get the full fairing off, oil was dripping from the motorcycle, though it was very difficult to tell where it was coming from. Very aggravating, because this bike has never dripped oil before in it's entire life.

 

After my son, Josh, helped me try again last weekend to get the bolt and well nut separated, unsuccessfully, the allen bolt was pretty much rounded out. I had spent hours trying to get that stupid bolt off. Now it was either take it to a shop, or take a deep breath and attempt to drill out a bolt head for the very first time. So I did, and it worked. It wasn't easy to get to, with the left front brake caliper kind of being in the way, but I got it.  After removing the remnant of the bolt, I could see why I couldn't get it out before.  Besides the well nut partially disintegrating, the end of the bolt was rusty, and the metal nut couldn't get by the corrosion, although we did get it close to the end.  Next time I'll try some PB Blaster before I spend hours trying to get a stuck bolt and nut apart.  It might not have worked in this case, but it also might have saved me a lot of time and four-letter words.

 

Once I could take off the left fairing and really see the lower front of the engine, I could see the oil was coming from the back of the oil filter. Because I couldn't get enough grip when on the filter when I did the oil change due to not being able to remove the left fairing, the filter wasn't on there tight enough and was seeping just a little. Compounding the issue in my mind was the fact I'd used a different model oil filter for the first time, a K&N HP-1008, which I'd read should fit, but now I had my doubts. When I went to check the tightness of the filter, it seemed pretty tight. So maybe the filter was off-size just enough to be a problem.  Again, it was my first time using that model.

 

I'll also add that I had put just a bit too much oil in when I refilled it a couple weeks ago. It was just above the top line in the sight window, but I didn't think that was causing the issue. I'd overfilled just a bit before without issues.

 

I loosen the drain bolt, take off the K&N filter, and let the oil drain while I run to the auto parts store to buy a Mobil 1 M1-108A filter, which I know works, and which I probably should have bought the first time. I got home and immediately checked the sizes of the two filters against each other, especially the seals. They were pretty much identical, though it seemed like the seal on the K&N had a very slightly smaller diameter.

 

I wipe the excess oil off the underside of the bike, reinstall the drain bolt, install the Mobil 1 filter, and refill the bike with oil. I re-used the oil, which I normally wouldn't do, but it's Mobil 1. It only had a couple hundred miles on it, and I'll be damned if I'm spending another $30 on more oil. At 92,000+ miles, my bike's engine is as worn as it's going to get, so I'm not worried about any little particles from break-in being in that still-new oil.

 

Start the bike, let it run a couple minutes, let the oil drain back down, and top off to the top line in the sight window. Wait a few minutes, and it's dripping from the same place again! Aaughhh!! I lay down on the ground again and this time tighten the oil filter almost as tight as I can, and tighter than I can recall having installed them previously. This time, success - no drips! Just to be sure, I didn't reinstall the left fairing, and parked the bike on it's centerstand overnight, with a paper towel directly underneath the oil filter, so I could check for spots the next day. Thankfully, there were none.

 

And before anyone asks, yes, I moistened the seal of the K&N before I installed it, just like I do every oil change, and did the same with the new Mobil 1 filter I installed a couple nights ago. I think I just didn't get the K&N on there quite tight enough the first time. I saved the filter to drain it and will likely use it next time.

 

Tonight, paper towel still free of oil spots, I reinstalled the left fairing, including using a new well nut and bolt. Job done, finally. For those of us who wrench on our own bikes, I'm sure we've all been through something like this. I'm not a very good DIY mechanic, but I can at least handle minor stuff like oil changes. Drilling out that allen bolt was a first for me, and I was kind of nervous doing it. I know it's a simple thing, but the first time you do anything like that, I think it's understandable to be a little anxious. Now that it's done however, I'm very glad I did it myself.

[mello dude]

Dude - as so as  you mentioned you had oil leaking, my first thought is that you have a K&N oil filter..... and yes you do... ditch it soon! They have a tendency to crack around the

spot welded on removal nut.....   

[Grum]

That's a good story there TimC. But do as Mello Dude recommended, and throw that K&N oil filter in the rubbish, it's not the right one for a 6gen anyway. Terrible failures have been reported with the nut type K&N oil filters, don't go near them.

Oil filter only needs to be very firm by hand when fitting and there should never be a leak, provided you've fitted the correct type. Glad you got it all sorted.

[Dutchy]

If a filter must be tightened significantly more than hand tight, something is amiss imho.

 

But if it does the trick....

 

 

[TimC]

Thanks for the input, guys.  The K&N was clearly leaking from the seal, not the nut or any other part.  But after reading your posts, I'll probably ditch it.  It's not worth reinstalling and having to replace it again if it doesn't fit exactly.

As for Dutchy's post about being "significantly" tighter, I don't know if I'd say I installed the Mobil 1 filter much tighter than usual, but maybe a little.  I've always tried to snug oil filters on pretty tight (finger tight), but not so tight that I'll have to fight to get it off next time.  But I have one of those Honda oil filter sockets should I need it to remove a stuck filter, plus there's always the flat-bladed screwdriver method.  ;-)