Quote:
Originally Posted by choneofakind
This has always been the case. It's nothing new, and it's pretty common knowledge that if you smell gas, it's either the float valves or the petcock, or both.
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Yes, I know this now but I did not know it then despite asking everyone who would listen about the gas smell in my oil for over a year. Remember: Not everyone even changes their own oil, and changing your own oil for financial reasons does not imbue you with other common gearhead knowledge. I usually had it done when I got other services done at the dealer and I never once saw that information included in an oil change guide. When I first changed my oil and smelled gas I asked everyone who would listen and never even got a concerned response like "that's not good!" It was almost a year later when the person doing my valves discovered the leaky petcock and he didn't seem to share my concerns about the 1-week old oil that already smelled like gas. He was one of many. My point is that even with reasonable suspicion that it was abnormal, I couldn't confirm that it was bad without going to even greater lengths. I didn't have another bike around to sniff. I would have had to assume that it was abnormal for a petroleum product that breaks down to smell a bit like another more refined petroleum product and ignore the reaction of all who knew more than me and willingly park my only transportation and pay money to chase a problem I didn't know existed.
Eventually
racer x and others on these forums began warning people with stuck float valves and leaky petcocks of the risk of gas getting past the piston rings and into the engine oil and I picked up on all of that, but it was never in response to me or the smell in my oil. My petcock leaks to this day, but I haven't ridden that bike in over a year (cam chain replacement is way beyond my comfort level). At least I know better than to use the unused Shell Rotella T6 that's been sitting in it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by choneofakind
Anyhow, have fun. I don't think this is as widespread as the xbox overheating issue, but if you think it is, go for it.
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Oh, of course it's not nearly that ratio of defective units vs. flawless units. I'm just saying that the actual ratio of defective petcocks would be similarly much higher than the ones anyone is aware of through statistics like dealer discovery and repair and, thus, much less likely to be discovered and fixed. Defective or normal wear, there are far more leaking petcocks than there are users aware of them for the reasons I discussed. Similarly, there can be a much higher subset of defective ones than anyone realizes due to the fact that it is seldom investigated further even once the leaky petcock is known.
Obviously, I can't keep expecting people to check theirs if I haven't even taken apart my own, so expect that shortly.