Oil light is on, can't figure it out...

craig074

craig074

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Lets start @ the beginning.
While on vacation in the mountains I got a little to brave and stupid at the same time. I tried a turn around on a steep incline and laid the bike down. I used every muscle in my body to let it down as slow as I could. Just a few scratches on the mirror and bar end, as well as a scuff in the paint on my front fairing. Picked it up and rode away after smacking myself in the face. A couple days later I noticed 2 quarter size puddles of oil. One dripping of the kickstand and the other coming from a drain hose. I didn't think much of it, other than the drain line is doing what it is supposed to do. Bike stills runs like it did before the drop. Almost a week after I laid it down, I rode it into work this morning. The oil light came on as soon as I pulled out of my driveway and lasted for about 5 minutes then shut off. Then it happened again five minutes later and lasted for about ten minutes until I got to work and shut off the bike. Oil level is ok, oil is clean, bike runs like it should. Only other thing I can think of is the sensor got knocked loose...

Any other thoughts/suggestions would be appreciated.



Thanks
 
I own a 2003 gen-1 and I know that oil level needs to be in the upper range of the sight glass or else the light will come on. You mentioned that you saw oil coming from the drain hose. Did you add any oil after dropping it?
 
FSTZ1 said:
I own a 2003 gen-1 and I know that oil level needs to be in the upper range of the sight glass or else the light will come on. You mentioned that you saw oil coming from the drain hose. Did you add any oil after dropping it?
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The oil level is at the halfway mark of the window. When I changed it before the mountains, I filled it to the 3/4 mark. So I did lose a little oil. No I did not add oil to it yet. First thing I will do when I get home today.
 
Do the trick?

I see your in Ocala, I used to blast that area. Go to meetup.com and look for LSR (lake sportbike riders). Awesome crew of riders.... the Organizers dad (Don) has a Fz1 and rides the hell out of it. Tell them NightTrain sent you.... they know me well:tup:
 
NightTrain said:
Do the trick?

I see your in Ocala, I used to blast that area. Go to meetup.com and look for LSR (lake sportbike riders). Awesome crew of riders.... the Organizers dad (Don) has a Fz1 and rides the hell out of it. Tell them NightTrain sent you.... they know me well:tup:
Click to expand...

The trip home from work the light didn't come on once. When I got home I threw it on the center stand. Oil lvl was @ the fill mark. Thought about it for a sec and decided to wait one more day to see if the light comes on again.

On my way to work the light came on for a minute or two in the development, then again when I hit the interstate and it didn't shut off until I got on the off ramp and slowed down. :confused0024:
The bike didn't leak once yesterday, so that is gone.

So I guess I will fill up the window when I get home and see if that does it. I thought I will just keep riding and ignore it, but I can't do that. :banghead:

Thanks for the heads up on the riding group. I will check them out when I get a chance. I ride with a small group of friends now, but it would be nice to meet some new peeps.
 
Well, topped off the oil. Once the weather clears up I will see if that helped.
While I was at it, I flushed out the coolant and replaced it with Engine Ice. Curious to see how that works out.

Sent from my HTC EVO 4G using Tapatalk.
 
Some times the sending units go bad.I change them quite a bit on emergency generators.They give you a false reading. You could install an oil pressure gauge to see what the pressure is just to be sure. Of course I don't know what it's supposed to be.
 
broussos said:
Some times the sending units go bad.I change them quite a bit on emergency generators.They give you a false reading. You could install an oil pressure gauge to see what the pressure is just to be sure. Of course I don't know what it's supposed to be.
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Gen I bikes are know for this and the "cure" is to keep the level toward the high end of the range.

Just an FYI...on our bikes the oil light only indicates oil level and has nothing to do with pressure. So if your oil is at the correct level and you lose pressure the light will never come on.
 
I checked my Gen II manual and it appears that Gen II also only monitors oil level and there is no monitor for oil pressure which seems rather archaic especially taking into account the number of other PIA sensors used on the bike.
 
I topped the oil off Saturday morning and rode it Sunday afternoon. Oil light did not come on once during the 6 hours we were out riding. Thanks for the help. Just like anything, always check the most simple solution first, heh.

Seemed like the Engine Ice worked great as well. Hard to tell with a temp monitor, but nothing bad happened and the engine didn't get any hotter than normal.
 
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