Storm using oil

[Giddsy]

Hi all,

I fear this could be expensive...

My 02 storm, 33k miles is using about 1litre of oil every 1.5k miles. The exhaust isnt smoky.

Am I right in thinking this is likely to be the valve guides and / or piston rings? If so how much does it cost to sort this? It would be way beyond me!

The other point is I am moving to Oz in Jan and need to sell the bike anyway. Would it better to take the hit on the price and let someone else deal with it? I wouldn't sell it without informing someone this is the case. Bad karma and I know how i would feel if I bought a dud.

Thanks,

James

[benny hedges]

m8 before you panice i reckon you should take it somewhere that can run a gas test on it - any mot place can check emmissions, look for very high hydrocarbons...
it could be a leak somewhere... you'd certainly notice smoke if you were burning so much.

1L in 1500 miles as a leak tho is not a lot, less than 1mm per mile.
could be coming out the gearchange or driveshaft oil seals where you wouldn't really notice it.

just a thought as well, is the oil cooler clean?? the storm only monitors coolant temp, not oil temp... high oil temp could make it pass more than usual - 23k isnt a lot of miles.

talk to anyone who has a recent fireblade & that level of consumption is nothing lol - mr honda seems to think it's acceptable.
i wouldnt be too concerned tbh but get the emmissions checked to ease your mind.
your bike wont fail mot on emmissions btw

[Giddsy]

Right that does sound a bit more promising. Thanks Benny. Will give the engine a proper clean over the weekend and see if I can find the leak...

Cheers

[LotusSevenMan]

If you think that's excessive, I have a mate with a Caterham Se7en and he has some rings that just won't bed in correctly after a rebuild (yes he does know what he's doing!!)
Turns out he has been using (after running it in on cheap mineral oil to get the rings to bed down) Mobil 1 at the rate of one litre....................... every 300 miles. Ruinous!!!!!

New Fireblades use oil at about your 'Storm figure too.

[bazza696]

When did you change your oil last, mine uses oil when it's getting old, around 2500 miles, so I know it needs dropping...

[SlingVTR]

just read this old post, my 13k storm uses 1L every 1500 miles, no evidence of it anywhere, goes like fook, exhaust clean emissions ok....no leaks......it must be evaporating.....

[tony.mon]

Pretty cheap to replace the valve stem seals, only £1.35 each from Wemoto, plus two head gaskets and a bit of time.
Note that you need two types, exhaust ones are different to inlet ones.

It's a bit more of a game to replace rings, engine out and to do it properly split the cases, however I'm sure you could do it just by using a wobble drive and get in via the sump, once the oil pump's out of the way.

[benny hedges]

check the oil collector box as well in the airbox.... part of the breather system, could be it's blocked or something and you are burning oil off when it's getting sucked into the carbs...