Posted by George on March 30, 2000 at 17:04:24:
My Savage, which has about 4,200 miles on it, will soon go into the shop for the fourth time for repair of oil leaks. My theory is that there have been at least two different leaks. When it was new, the bike leaked a bit from the top of the cylinder. After break-in, however, it began to leak from the middle of the cylinder as well. I took it in and the tech found that the bolts needed tightening. That helped briefly, but it soon leaked again. The next time, the tech took the cylinder apart and re-sealed it; that fixed the big leak, which had been coming from the middle, but there was still some leakage from the top. I took the bike back again, armed with info from this forum about the rubber plug problem. The tech replaced the plug. Not long after, when I'd finished a highway cruise and turned off the ignition, I noticed oil on my key ring. The cylinder was leaking from the top, and the oil had blown back onto the left side cover and the key. Back to the shop we went. Inspection revealed that the oil was coming from the oval-shaped "observation cover" on the top rear of the cylinder. The tech's guess: the cover is warped. A new one is one order.
So here's my theory: the observation cover leaked slightly from day one. Later, as the bike broke in, bolts worked loose and caused the leak from the center. When that was fixed, the leak from the warped cover continued, and somehow the tech missed that on my third trip to the shop -- maybe because I pretty much asked him to replace the rubber plug. So I'm hopeful that the next visit to the shop, which will happen as soon as the oval cover and gasket arrive from Suzuki, will finally fix the problem. If it doesn't, or if another leak appears later, I'll probably keep taking the bike back: I reluctantly bought the extended warranty, so I have coverage for four more years.
I rode my 2-stroke Yamahas with Triumph owners in the 1960's and 1970's, so I know that oil leakage was a not-unexpected part of owning a bike in the past, but it seems to me that a modern machine, especially one from Japan, should not leak. If leaking is an inevitable aspect of the Savage, I guess I'll have to accept that eventually, but for now I'm not ready to stop trying to get the bike to be as it should.
I'll keep everyone posted.