Must see engine corrosion...

[rednose]

Hi. After 4 years riding my gs1200, I must welcome myself on the club "front cover corrosion" :-( I ask your opinion on the following: is the problem only "cosmetic"? I mean, should I remove the spounge, is the process going to stop, or do I have to disomount the cover and restore it? I've been told that alluminum is not like iron, so there is no such a process known as rust So if I can avoid to repair the cover, without compromising the functionality, I can live with the "nasty look" of riuned paint. Your opinions! Cheers

 

[(RIP) Mark H]

I did a write up on this corrosion matter a while ago, see here for pics and method,

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=136102

 

[deaninkl]

It's been well documented on here that the corrosion is a combination of:

(1) Less effective "VOC free" water-based paints.
(2) Dissimilar metals causing galvanic corrosion on untreated aluminium surfaces.
(3) That stupid sponge which everyone should take out and put in the bin.

You can't do much about (1) above except repaint the engine.
For (2) do a search on starbrite or duralac.
Fixing (3) speaks for itself.

Thanks for the info. guys, I havent noticed any corosion yet, but I will take off the cover at the weekend and clean inside, I get a lot of rain but no salt crap and no winter, but acid rain in there would also cause problems. useful thread.

 

[rednose]

Ciao Easy! Yep, I deeply read your post, but your abilityies are much greater than mine . And I don't have my personal garage to "tear down" the gs, too. So options are: 1) go to the dealer and let them repair the problem ($$$$!) or let things as is (apart the spounge) and live with a corroded cover. I'm worried that for option 2) corrosion will increase, eating up the cover (AND WHAT IS BEHIND: THE ENGINE!!!) :-o

 

[GSwadd]

I don't know about corrosion behind the cover, but all my Torx bolts have gone a nice rusty colour on the cover and brake discs. You would expect better on a $25k bike.

 

[GSoh]

I'm going to check mine behind the black panel tonight now after reading this!! No signs of corrosion on the 'outside' as yet. 9k on a 2006 12GS. If I find corrosion underneath should I take it to the dealer for repair/replacement?

 

[roddy]

You ideally want a none conductive layer between the two metals.

for what it's worth, I use PTFE plumber tape on bolts that are in a corrosive enviroment so they don't sieze, it's work for years on all manner of things and they seem to keep there torque settings okay

HTH