Leaking front strut

Managed to replace my battery just in time for a quick cold snap. As the weather warmed up later in the week, I noticed a small amount of oil on the floor just to the right of the front tire. I believe that it leaked out of the right front strut since I could feel a little bit of slickness in that area.

Wanted to check with the experts to see if this was a serious issue before I took her out on the road ...

Thx,

clunk

(oops ... wrong forum)

sounds like one of your fork seals has gone, the other one will probably be more likely to fail too now

the main danger is oil spills onto your brakes, and stops them working

it'll probably affect the damping too, and might put more stress on the springs (not sure about this)

get it fixed asap, if it's leaking ontot he floor then it sounds like it's quite far gone

Consider where that oil is dripping when you are riding.

Under your front tyre!

I'd get it sorted asap, sounds like one of your seals has gone.

Thanks for the replies. I read the how-tos and think I may wanna go ahead and let a professional handle this ...

Strut?

joe1971 said:

Strut?

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Sorry ... wrong terminology ...

I would make sure the seal is leaking first. Very unlikely that a fork seal would leak oil onto a floor when just sitting. I would also check if instead of oil on the floor it could be brake fluid or engine coolant.

+1 on the above.....

A leaking fork seal will show up as a ring of sludge above the most compressed point in the suspension travel. A 'high water' mark, as it were. If you can't see that on either one or both forks' swept area... it's not likely to be a bad seal. (This is true of the OEM damper rod fork.... if someone has swapped out the fork for an upside down unit, all bets are off.)

You may have another leak, probably engine oil. Where does the oil on the floor of your garage line up with? Use your fingers, and touch the part of the bike immediately above where the drips hit the ground and trace that back to the source.

My was leaking also but due to a hair which got stuck. My stupid own fault on how the hair got stuck, used high pressure to wash it. And an emergency break solved the problem hasn't been leaking since then.

But I feel that the front suspension is a bit shaky when breaking, probably related to the lost of oil.

goanookie said:

My was leaking also but due to a hair which got stuck. My stupid own fault on how the hair got stuck, used high pressure to wash it. And an emergency break solved the problem hasn't been leaking since then.

But I feel that the front suspension is a bit shaky when breaking, probably related to the lost of oil.

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You have almost certainly blown water into your fork oil, contaminating it. I'd suggest you replace the fork oil on both legs.

This just started happening to my bike the other day. At first I just thought I had spilled something because I was installing bd43's headlight mod, and cleaned the bike the night before, but I saw another little puddle of oil to the left of my front tire this morning before I left for work. Haven't noticed a difference in feel on anything, but I'm gonna have it fixed asap.

iSteve said:

I would make sure the seal is leaking first. Very unlikely that a fork seal would leak oil onto a floor when just sitting. I would also check if instead of oil on the floor it could be brake fluid or engine coolant.

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unlikly yes but if it was by the front tire then that is almost surely what it is (blown fork seal) my old vstrom did the exact same thing and it actually left a puddle of fork oil on the asphalt in my works parking lot and yes if it continues to leak it will dramaticly change how the bike rides and once it starts to beat you to death you will know its time to change the seal but its a realitivly easy job i havent done one on a yamaha but i did both on my vstrom twice my advice if you wish to do it yourself make sure you pay attention to how the old seal came out you can put it in upside down, keep everything super clean, and get a piece of 1 1/2" pvc it works perfect to set the new seal with out damaging it

If enough oil is collecting on the floor that it puddles then it would be oozing out the seal and down the fork leg. This would be easy to spot and as mentioned before, you would see a ring of sludge on the tube. It really can't leak from just sitting unless the forks are compressed not enough oil in the forks at least on the FZ6. Of course the damper bolt could leak and the only sign could be oil on the floor. But not sure if it could get past the axel.

RJ2112 said:

You have almost certainly blown water into your fork oil, contaminating it. I'd suggest you replace the fork oil on both legs.

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Fork oil has been replaced already and of course the seal too, driving is fun again :rockon: