Light scoring on the fork tubes - Bad Seals? No Oil?

[iuztinrom]

Hi again,
I took a look at the fork today, and I noticed that there is a light scoring on both fork tubes. There might be one more noticeable scoring line when I drag my nail acros but otherwise, I cannot feel the other ones. I bought the bike last year, and at that time, I saw that there was a bit of oil coming out of the tubes, and it looks like it was leaking for a while, as there are some streaks of old oil on the outside of the fork (can be seen in the pictures). I cleaned the oil, then I took the bike for some rides on some bad roads, hit some speedbumps and after that, the leaking stopped.
Now, today, I noticed these marks, and I am not sure if they were there before, and I am doubting if the seals are actually ok, or if I ran completely out of oil in the forks (if possible).
The fork feels springy compared to the back shock witch has a nice feeling when pressed hard. A lot of FZ6 owners complained about the fork feeling soft, so I am a bit confused if I have a mechanical problem.
What is your experience? (Please ignore the very shiny parts of the pictures; my phone is doing that)

 

[grahammarsden]

IIRC a properly damped set of forks should bounce once, then settle, ie you push down on them, they rebound to slightly higher than they were, then recover their original position.

If they rebound more than once, there's definitely an issue as that will have negative effects on the handling.

Did the seller tell you when (if ever) the fork oil was last replaced?

I would strip them down, check the oil level and examine the stanchions and seals for damage.

 

[iuztinrom]

I did not ask him about that, actually. He bought the bike around 2011, and I could see that the air filter had been changed in 2013, when I did the service on the bike. I have a suspicion that was the last time this bike saw a real workshop. I think that might be the last time a technician saw this fork. The service manual says that the seals need to be replaced every 2 years or every 15-25.000 km, and the bike has now 37.000 so they are old and I can replace them. But I am concerned that the scoring might scratch the new seals.

 

[Gary in NJ]

I would disassemble the forks and try to polish the tubes with oil and steel wool. Is the scoring isn’t too deep, this should restore the surface. Of course while the forks are apart you can service with fresh seals, bushings and fork oil. You can also measure the length of the fork springs to see if they are still within specification.