R1200GS burnt oil smell

masherbike

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I have a GS 1200 which is just over 2 years old with 14000 mile on the clock. Ever since the last service at 12000 miles it has a smell of burnt engine oil when I stop. There is no sign of an oil leak, I have checked thoroughly and even taken back to the dealer the week before the warranty ran out. They said they couldn't smell it and there is no leak. The smell is definitely there, my 12 year old Fireblade doesn't smell.
I did notice that the dealer filled the oil level up to or above the upper limit. When I took it back to check the smell they topped it up once more above the upper level.
I have checked the air filter which is dry. Engine is running perfectly. I have read other posts and it seems I am not alone, but I have yet to find a definitive answer.
I did have an oil leak in the first year which was very slight and didn't cause a smell. It was the engine output shaft seal which was fixed under warranty, a new clutch was fitted.
I have read about leaky cam chain adjusters, mines not leaking.

Does anyone else have this issue? Please let me know your experiences.
 
Oil pressure switch under the left pot can start to leak, very slowly at first in my case and took me a while to realise there was a leak despite looking several times.

Or, the clutch can stink to high heaven when it gets hot so if you're getting the smell in stop/start traffic in the current hot weather it could be that (smells different to oil though, think Billingsgate.....).

Andres

Andres
 
I had the same on the GS, with just more than half your mileage at the same age. It would only smell occasionally and dependant on how hard I'd worked it, stop start traffic and combined with current climate temps.
Is your oil cooler open to air flow , totally unrestricted? Not that this will make much difference in stop/start situations.

In saying that my GS still performed faultlessly and didn't really concern me. It's something I've had on nearly all my previous air/oil cooled bikes. It's a nasty smell but part of the territory with a/c vehicles (same applied to previous FJ1200's), especially if you run them in the higher gears at lower rpm for prolonged periods. Whilst it's great to have torque on tap occasionally the box needs to be used. :D

Think of your GS as a VW Beetle (without a fan!) and your Blade as a modern car.

Your Blade is water/anti-freeze cooled and has a fan, a huge difference.
 
My bike has done it since it had its first service its now up too 2.5k and still does it. Ride it and forget about the smell.....it adds "character" doesnt it ? :-)
 


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