Black clutch fluid

Tbh, yes it's pretty normal. Doesn't degrade the performance of the fluid. Changing it would be for aesthetics to be fair, but it'd blacken again.

 

I'd bleed it to freshen up , recommended every 2 years anyways and not a hard job on these. I usually suffered from a leaking clutch slave not too long after the fluid went black though the later slaves cylinders seem to be better made than the earlier ones which is where I experienced the failures, not that the repair was hard either.

 

I bled mine up whilst fitting a oberon slave cylinder. It went black again after a month or so.

 

+1. Bleed it 6 months ago, because it looked dirty, even though it was working ok
Now it's black again, not sure why it does it, but seems pretty standard from other multi's I've seen

 

I don't know why but Ducati's have always suffered from this. I've owned 3 other bikes with a hydraulic clutch & the fluid never changed colour. My MK1 multi was the same, I changed the fluid & less than 6Mths later it was black again. The Mk2 Multi is better though, it's taken nearly 18Mths for mine to start going dark.

 

Heat is the problem - the slave cylinder gets COOKED on the side of a very hot air-cooled motor... imagine running around with your brakes on all the time and your brake fluid would discolour too?

 

It's not heat that causes it. It's the action of the internal rubber seals on the alloy body of the slave cylinder. Just as you get a black residue when polishing alloy with a cloth.

 

Its cooked. I change mine every 6 months just to keep it spot-on.

 

Normal :smile:

 

Not air cooled

 

Yes my clutch fluid is black within around 500 miles (if I'm lucky!)

 

So the black is bits of slave seal? Explains why mine blew just before xmas then... :biggrin:

 

I guess you guys need to change it as soon as it goes dark then. Especially if you're going to be far from home or an AA rescue squad.
My Multi lost its clutch in a hot traffic jam in Budapest while on tour. It slowly came back over the next day or so when it had thoroughly cooled down so that I could get on with the rest of the tour. When I got home to the UK the fluid had gone black which I put down to the overheating it had endured. I didn't change the slave cylinder seal then, only the fluid.

 

Aprilia Tuono's used to do the same thing, it was down to the rubber seals and the grease Brembo used during assembly. One of the guys dismantled to whole thing and cured it - but the general opinion was that as long as you changed it when necessary it didn't do any real harm.

 

My 999 does the same and its very common, just replace fluid every couple of years and its not a problem is what most say.

 

Yes, the black fluid looks bad but has never caused me a problem on the 748 or the monster

 

This was told to me by the owner of Oberon and i would think he knows what he is talking about.

 

Yup - mine was black though no clutch problem. I replaced it and in 5000 miles it hasn't gone black again. Considering the above explanations, I am happy to see it stay clear.