Oil leak location

Hey everyone. New to bikes altogether, but great with google. Unfortunately, I have a problem that I have no idea how to find the answer to. Today I rode my bike into work and smelt burning oil. Once I parked my bike I noticed a fast drip of oil coming from the back of the engine. It ended up covering my tire while riding and I got lucky not to slip. My question is, what are some of the common or uncommon areas that oil can be dripping fast from in the back of the engine? It doesn't seem to be coming from the pan or the filter cap, but it is everywhere from the splashing while riding, so it's hard to pinpoint. I know it's all guesses because it's a crappy description, but areas to look at is really all I'm looking for!! Thanks everyone!!

 

Use a degreaser to clean your engine.. once clean and dry, dust everything with baby powder. You should be able to track the oil leak to its source by the wet powder.

Leaking while driving - the wind can displace the oil to places other than the source.

 

what flavor xj is it?
there should be a hose from the shifter cover to the bottom of the airbox. take it off and see if there's excessive oil in it. look in the airbox behind the air filter for oil. when is the last time you put oil in it? is it just oil or oil/gas mix? always check the oil on the center stand on level ground

 

+1
First step is to make sure that the sump isn't overfull. Put the bike on the center stand. There is a sight glass on the right side of the engine, in the clutch cover.

 

+1 on checking oil level first

take a look at your air filter and compartment there is an overflow tube at the bottom of the air box. but if you have oil in there you probaly have an overfilled crankcase or gas leaking into your crankcase.

then there is the drain plug may be loose or not have a crush washer.

if it is a 550 the oil seal behind the front sprocket.

have you changed the oil and filter and lately? could be a leak from the filter housing possibly installed up side down

 

All of that ^^^

How long have you owned it?
Has any work been done to it since you have owned it?
How many miles on it?

 

Hey everyone,

I posted on here a few days ago about a pretty bad oil leak. Im 90% sure I found the main area it is coming from. It seems to be coming from the drive shaft prop boot cover. The only place I can find them is on ebay, super cheap, so thats a plus.

My question is, Is there anything else, gaskets, washers, or anything I should change at the same time? I dont know much about these things YET, but I bought the owners shop manual and am fully prepared to do it all correctly.

 

Welcome WArider
If oil is leaking it's not the boot itself but rear of engine or from rear drive. That boot is just a dust cover to keep dirt out. Does it smell nasty like gear oil or engine oil or gas or??

 

Son of a! Honestly, I have no idea. I smell burning something after I ride it, it smelled a lot like oil. After a dangerous ride one day, i noticed that oil was EVERYWHERE over the back end of the bike, including the tire. So, yesterday I cleaned it all up, put baby powder on the back end (someone suggested this in a previous thread) and found that its coming from that area. It mayyyyyy have been coming from just above the boot, but i wasnt too sure seeing ass it was at least dripping from the boot itsself. I put my finger in it and it didnt seem too slick, so maybe it could have been gas, or the oil wasnt the slickest ever.
What are some areas of concern i should look into around that zone? I have no idea and I just want to safely ride this bike once again!

 

Check oil level in engine, if it over full or has gas been running past float needles and it will pump into airbox and dump out onto rear of engine

 

big +1 on this^^^^^^^^^^^^

I guess you didn't like the advice in your other thread. please make it easy on us and keep oil leak to one thread
Oil leak location

so what bike is it you have this leak on

 

I added oil about two days before this started to happen, so the air box overflow is probably the best possibility. I will check as soon as I get home today. Thanks for the heads up!

 

How much oil did you add, and how low was the level in the sight glass?

 

Merged the threads.

To find you own posts easily, just click on your name in the upper right of the page. That takes you to your profile, where you can select the POSTINGS tab to see what you've written.

 

@WArider87 Don't leave us hanging! Did you check your oil level?

If you have gas in your oil then that gives you some motivation to church clean your carbs.

If you overfilled when you were topping it up then that's a learning experience. Easy to do if you don't know to put your bike on the center stand when checking the level.