I hope someone can shed some light on this.
I've had a search on HUBB, and internet in general, and can't find a great deal of info that seems specific to my problem, sorry if I'm repeating an old story though.

Bike is a 2008 Honda XR650L
I am now about 7,000 miles into my hopefully RTW trip
Bike has about 13,000 miles on the clock
www.GABE-RTW.co.uk

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I'm losing a lot of oil. It's being lost, I'm almost certain, from the sump breather.
I though it was splashing up the hose somehow, and getting, in liquid form, into the airbox, back thorugh the filter, and leaking from the airbox cover.
I went to add a length of pipe to the hose connecting sump and airbox, as a solution to the splashing, that I thought was the problem.
But a Russian engineer I got chatting to, suggested it may be 'blow-by', where leaks past the piston rings pressurise the sump area, and force air out of the sump breather.

I decided to disconnect the breather tube, and started the engine, sure enough clear pulses of air were coming from the tube, and putting my finger in the flow of gas, I could feel the moisture of oil vapour in the air.

So then...

As one of my many wise modifications, I removed a charcoal canister from the sump breather system, and it is now just a plain hose.
Is this part of the problem?
What, if any, amount of gas would you expect to be coming from the sump breather?
I am thinking I'll get a set of rings somehow, and find a workshop somewhere, and replace them.
Is this the best thing to do, are there any other checks I need to do?
Does anything else need to be replaced, along with the rings?


DJORob, if you're reading this and wondering why I didn't contact you direct... I know you have more than enough on your plate at the moment, it's not that I'm being rude buddy.

Gabe
I spoke to Honda just now-
Their view is that one or more of your breather pipes is either blocked or has a kink in it.
They recommended you check each breather pipe one at a time-
They think there is a high chance it is the vacuum pipe.

they did not think your canister removal has anything to do with the problem.
Good luck
BTW- you may want to look at the Honda XR forum here where other bike-specific owners may have come across your problems.

I wouldn't start pulling the topend apart until there was a definitive reason to do so, once you start delving the chances of creating further problems increase, i find. Surely a Honda ring problem at such a low mileage would be slim considering you've (surely) been looking after the bike well? Is the sparkplug clear of oil - if so then the rings could be excluded? Is there too much oil in the system - set/drain oil level to the minimum and see if there is still oil-loss. :confused1:

Bertrand, thanks very much. I assume you phoned Honda entirely on my behalf, and that is extremely generous of you indeed.
I'm a bit mystified by their response though. I'm pretty sure there is only one breather from the sump, and this is the one I've given details of. Certainly not blocked or kinked.
Maybe they are talking about one of the breathers from the carb or something? Not sure

Pottsy, I have looked after the bike well in the time I've owned it, but I've not had it from new. Not that I'd jump to blame the problem on someone else (!?)
The bike is using so much oil, it can't possibly be related to over filling. If this were the case, it would surely shed some of the excess, and call it quits there, maintaining a sensible level.
I'll check the plug tomorrow.
I agree that messing with things can create more problems than it solves, but there is a definite problem, and I'll have to do something about sorting it out before too long.

I ideally need to find out, how much air I should expect to be escaping from the breather tube. Does anyone have any experience of this?
I'll try to do a video, and show what's going on. Youtube or something..

Thanks for your help guys.

I've just rebuilt the top-end of my xt6e after it developed a gradual smoking habit (40/day+ ), boy, it was like Krakatoa #2 at times! Turns out the barrel was scored so a re-hone and new rings has (so far...) sorted it, but it was a bit of a faff. The smoking was a real sign of a major failure, hence i feel it's some sort of over-pressurisation/wet-sumping issue with yours. Keep us informed . Dave.

Baron
Could you find your problem?
Could be a faulty pressure ring from piston cause the breather to spit oil?Mean explosion pressure from chamber going into gearbox and breather?
My 94 makes after 18 month of paper filter the need of raplacing it.So that is the normal quantity of oil that goes into the carb again.
Karl

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It works as a trap for oil!I have desmog mine 15 years ago but let the filter on! Javier from Dakarmotos says its very important!
Try and test ride.
Karl

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America is a nice continent,not a country.All people who lives in this continent are americans.Discover it in peace!

It is not without a measure of embarrassment, that I hold my hand up, and say that this problem was much more a user error (the user being me), than Hondas.

Only now have I discovered the importance of exactly when you check the oil level. I'm not sure what the manual says, I guess something like 5 minutes at idle, then allow to stand vertical for a minute or so, before checking level with dipstick.

I had been much less pedantic about the timing of this process, and recently this has led to a low reading of oil level. Which was followed by a top up that wasn't really needed. This excess was shed via the breather, making me think the problem was worse.

This is the only explanation I can think would explain the situation.
It seems much better now, and I'm cautious about getting the reading right. If it seems odd, I'll let it cool or warm, and test again, often getting a different reading.

It is using a bit of oil, and I think the breather is the problem. I will replace the charcoal canister at the next opportunity.

So sorry for wasting your time folks, I only hope that someone reads this in the future and finds it helps them out.
Thanks for your input.

I'm glad that you didn't just jump in and start stripping the lump down, could've been an unwelcome diversion out on the road! This is my first dry-sumped bike and it's been a real rite-of-passage learning to deal with their exacting requirements - listen to the manufacturer's instructions, i reckon they know best in this respect. I wouldn't worry too much as to the oil consumption, klr's and gs's apparently use a fair bit so you're in good company...

...Hi fellow....my advice is do not over react!
It seems you are a newbie in the XRs universe....just one advice..forget that dipstick level or you will get paranoid...just check it daily after each ride 15 seconds after turning it off...if it is half to top...just keep it like that.... Once you find that the level is in the 1st quart if the dipstick..add some 25 cl ...and keep watching it daily after each ride...
When travelling, if covering big distances each day, watch it twice...but you just have to watch it until you understand it or its burning oil pattern....It is not likely that it will start burning large amounts of oil suddently..... It happened to me once...i only started to enjoy my trip when i understood the "XR oil level check ritual"