Hello, first post here and I hope someone can point me in the right direction.
I have a 2012 with 27,000 miles on it.
It wasn't that many miles ago that I was under the bike, the final drive looked fine.
Cut to today and I'm going to do my first drive oil change (since I've had the bike), and it is totally covered with thick oily black grunge.
The clear spot in the middle is exposed aluminum after wiping it with my fingertip.
Is this a known issue? My searches haven't turned up anything.
Or, maybe it was over full. The tube at the top is a vent. If over filled, at highway speeds they will sling excess out the vent. Road dust will gather on the mist of oil and make that kind of mess.
If it were me, I would clean it up good, drain and refill and then keep an eye on it. When filling, do not spin the wheel. Fill until it starts to run out of the fill hole and then let the little excess drain off before putting the plug back in.
Literally the only spot on the entire final drive case that is free of grime is the breather cap itself, which is shiny aluminum.
Every other part of the undercarriage, brake caliper, brake lines, rim, rotor, and exhaust are unaffected.
I think you're right Ironhorse, it appears to be coming out of the breather. Whoever changed this last time probably overfilled using the gear turn method.
I'll get it cleaned up with some pure dish soap to make sure all residue is off of the case, do the oil change and monitor.
Rear end fluid covered with brake dust. Check the level. Probably overfilled. Check the front boot, both front and back, and make sure it is dry. There is a weep hold under the shaft drive that may be plugged. Just my thoughts.
As others have said, check the oil level. I had a seal fail on mine but everything aft of the diff was covered in the oil grunge. Your upside down picture looks like the diff was painted rather than an oil leak.
I was looking for something localized. The case is evenly coated all the way perfectly up to the lip of the breather. The cap on top of that is clean.
I need to get a lift, it's really hard for me to check the level first.
The drive and picture are upside down and that’s not a vent at the top in the picture. That’s a drip spout on the bottom. Do you drive on coal covered roads? It looks like coal dust stuck to the drive from a minor leak. You need to wash it really good and check the fluid level. Never seen one so uniformally coated like that. Weird...
All you have to do is remove the fill cap. No, or very little fluid should come out. Just be careful removing the cap, they are easy to round off. A six point 17mm box end wrench is the best. Even if you use a lift.
I replaced the oil today. I took the filler cap off first and no oil came out.
I don't have a good way of measuring the oil that came out, at the moment, but it did not seem like 4 fluid ounces.
I occasionally do my own powder coating. Your final drive looks like some of my bad powder coating before baking. Could there be a negative static charge and the brake dust positively charged?? I can’t imagine oil covering it and powder sticking that uniformly..??
I have had similar, yet thinner, on my final drive.
I'm sure it's oil mist from the final drive vent attracting road dust.
Mine wiped off easily.
I wasn't concerned in the least.
Since you flipped the picture, my guess is the main bearing seal is leaking. Time to track down a replacement unit. Either the seal has failed or the bearing is wearing and allowing the gear assembly to flex more than the seal can cover.
That is where my paranoid worst case scenario mind went first, but there are no drip points, and garage floor is perfectly clean.
That leads me to believe the problem 1) only happens on the road 2) doesn't happen fast enough to drip.
Seems consistent with 80W making it up the breather and seeping down.
I also rode the bike on extremely hot days here, not sure if that contributed.
I changed the oil and I need to finish cleaning it up really well. If it happens again I'll go to the next level.
If you park indoors and drive on hot / humid days, it looks to me like a thin film of condensation is forming on the cool / heavy mass when you leave the garage, and that's giving the brake dust somewhere to stick.
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