The Curse of Elk Grove

Under the skid plate

So I was suspicious that Elk Grove power sports wanted my bike for 4 days to do a break-in service on my machine then called me the very next day to come fetch it.

My first thought was “I hope they did it properly."

The oil seemed new and the valves were quieter, there is no doubt, but they only did the engine oil and the valves.

On the way home the service light came on but then they said it would as I had not clocked the 1500 km when I had the break-in service done.

They did not offer to clear it when I next blasted past either.

For the $753.21 they billed me for their basic service I felt I deserved at least that.

On the drive home from Elk Grove I immediately started smelling hot oil but could not ascertain where it was coming from.

The engine oil level looks right on the upper line when upright.

It could have come from a lot of stuff, spills, over fill, not properly tightened bolts et al.

A few drips started to appear under the bike a week post service and before we went to Australia I resolved to pull off the skid plates and investigate further on our return, which I finally did Saturday November 7th and again on Sunday the 8th.

Skid plate oil pooling

The Bolt that went into the oil pan that held the skid plate in place was so loose it almost fell out and the pool of oil was directly below it.

What I found when I examined the oil filter cover and other three skid pan bolts and their oil pan partners confirmed that it was unlikely they had changed the oil filter as the oil filter cover had never been split - the original factory paint crust was still all over the cover like crystallized winter snot- only it was a thin black paint crust.

The four nuts that help the skid plate fasteners were all very loose and one of them was covered in engine oil drips.

I consulted Muse and shared the photos I took on my iPhone and it informed me this was a common V85 complaint from the Guzzistas out there.

I tightened all four bolts to spec and checked the oil filter bolt and also tightened it slightly.

Muse advised me to check all the oil pan Allen’s and they were all real tight.

I could not access the drain bolt at the back as I did not have a 17mm spanner that could reach it and the wrench 17mm socket went on but the wrench couldn’t with the catalyst box on the exhaust in the way.

I did check it on Sunday the 8th and slightly tightened them all - the leak was not coming from any of them.

I went to fetch my wife’s meds from CVS as a test on Saturday and check it for drips before taking it in a long blast down Highway 160 and beyond.

13 miles down the road at a 4 way traffic light on the long run I smelt the oil again so it was still dripping on something hot.

I thought it had to be that 17mm drain bolt which I hoped had not been over tightened and stripped by the Elk Grove wrench gorillas.

Sunday I roped my other half in on the mystery and she suggested a ride without the skid plates and a close check with a suitable light source to reveal leaks.

This after removing the air filter showed it was bone dry,

To my utter amazement this revealed the leak was coming from the front right oil pressure sensor.

I quickly found my thin 24 mm spanner wouldn’t budge this thing and the part was just $25 from Harper’s.

However while thinking about why oil would be coming from this source and the failure rate chances after 1200 miles I took myself off to ACE hardware for a deep 24mm socket for my 1/2 inch socket.

I unscrewed the sensor wire and wrenched it off and examined it.

took this picture seconds after I wrenched it off…

It was quite interesting, I could see there had been a crush washer on it before from the circular marks on the sensor surface but there was no crush washer on it when I removed the darn sensor.

This means someone took the copper crusher washer off this sensor.

I drove myself to Harbor freight to get a collection of them only to find they did not have a metric set of copper crush washers, so I bought their SAE crush washer set and used a 7/16 copper crush washer and ran the engine hot for 10 minutes and watched closely for leaks.

There were none, so in the AM I will blast down the 160 to check it post ride to see how it does with oil drips.

I had heard horror stories about this oil pressure sensor being over-tightened at Mandello which caused this very sensor to fail and require a helicoil job to fix.

I don’t think mine is damaged so before I blow $25 on a new one, I will check if it is in fact fucked.

Fact is I had no oil burning smells until after Elk Grove serviced it, can see the sensor once hosted a copper crush washer and now it doesn’t so for me it is clear whodunnit, the bastards!

The oil pressure sensor has this plastic shroud

The source of the oil drips..