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Stelvio Fork Seal Failure

PJD

PJD

Tuned and Synch'ed
Joined
Sep 16, 2009
Messages
36
Riding home from work tonight and I could smell burning oil. On inspection I found the left fork seal had popped out and was spuewing oil over the header and down onto the brake. It was a major leak so off to the shop. Not sure what caused that and they will pull it apart tomorrow. Bike is 20 months old with just under 19,000KLM on it so im a little surprised this happened.

Anybody else seen this
 
Sorry, just re-read my post which was a bit misleading. The seal did not pop out, the circular spring that is inside the lip seal was hanging out. There was quite a bit of oil loss and a big mess. It must have happened real quick as its only 11klm from work to home, I just adjusted the valves the day before so before leaving work I had a good look around the heads for oil leaks and noticed nothing, it happened on the 11klm of surban riding. Now the left side of the engine is completly covered in oil so I think it dropped the lot. I will be at the shop today and if they have not started the work I'll get some pics.
 
I have seen this on a rare few occasions on USD's, where the fork bottoms extremely hard, dislodging the seal and clip. Since you say you were urban riding, had you been off-road with it recently or hit any big pot holes or equal?
 
GT-Rx,...I think your right mate. I hit a hole in the middle of the road that was so hard it jared both my wrists but that was when I was up in Thailand for New Year. I have done aprox 2000klm since then so im still unsure that was the root cause,... but its very likley it was.

Actually I hope it is what caused it then I know,...not knowing what caused if and if /when it will happen again is my worst fear.
 
It just happened to me too, right side, last week. Seal broken, spring scratched cylinder and dealer has ordered new tube for me under warranty.

Thing is, I rode the bike home from the dealer after another warranty repair of strong smell of gasoline and paint rippling around gas cap - approximagety 6 miles! No bumps, potholes, jumps, whoops or curbs. It's wintertime here in NYC, I don't think I broke 45 mph on the trip, yet the next day I found a leak on the floor and with further inspection the rim was full of fluid which I thought might be the brake as it was on the right side, but after feeling the brake I realized it was the fork. The bike has 1785 miles on it... Rode a 300 mile trip 2 weekends before... but no hard hits. Strange.

Discouraging, but I just hope and pray I'm getting the kinks worked out to be ready for spring riding, travel and big trips :D :D :D
 
Yea, one has to wonder. Even if the bump on the sealed road caused the seal retainer to dislodge and damage the seal, should that happen on an adventure bike ?? It wasnt as if I was on some hard ass outback trail. It was a sealed road with a pothole in it..
 
PJD said:
Yea, one has to wonder. Even if the bump on the sealed road caused the seal retainer to dislodge and damage the seal, should that happen on an adventure bike ?? It wasnt as if I was on some hard ass outback trail. It was a sealed road with a pothole in it..
Click to expand...
I personally find the suspension to be far too soft for my ~185 lb/84kg frame. While some will take this as en effort to promote suspension sales, it is not. Pic below is me riding one down a modest hill; *Note* the suspension travel front and rear (pre-load max'ed). I bottomed both ends harshly in a few places (street and off-road) where I shouldn't have, and this was a *very* modest pace/expectation(s) for what I plan on doing this Summer.

Edit: Harsh impacts to the fork seals wouldn't necessarily cause immediate failure due to the design, but it could lead to failure(s) as described by others above.
 

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