Hi, So long story, I part ex'd my 1299S, then missed it and about it buy it back. It has been sat keeping warm in the dealership for 2 months. I took it out for a test ride to make sure it still made me smile, and it is awesome. When I stopped, I noticed oil on the right fork legs, quite a bit. I rode it back to the dealership, it didn't leak much more, was still a little. The technican came out and said, blah blah blah, the electronic ohlins, right leg has more oil in than the left, it is quite usual a little oil to lubricate the stanchion, and it is because it has been sat for 2 months, and it is absolutely fine and would not replace the seals as I wanted, he said if it was leaking oil with ohlins they properly leak. I was a little bit... iI don't know whether to believe him? so thought I would just ask you guys your opinion. Cheers
I'm no expert but your parting with money and to say the fork leg is leaking oil no matter what they say it needs sorting, if they are to relieve you of money, fork leg seals are well seals.
I know very little about suspension and for that reason had my V4S in for suspension tune just last week with my local Duc workshop. We had a long chat when I picked it up and he mentioned that in his experience Ohlins often leaked. He said that on the new V4s with Ohlins, though, this no longer seemed to be the case - good for me. He went on to mention that in his experience Ohlins seem to prefer to err on the side of less stiction at the expense of a little oil leaking past the seals. He said for customers who want to address this his very simple solution, which works, is to trim and therefore shorten the joiner on the seal. The actual seal looks like a very long tightly coiled spring with a bit on each end that joins together - he trims one of the ends. Just a tiny bit is all that is needed to tighten the seal enough to stop the leak. After that just good fork hygiene giving them a regular wipe to remove dust. Anyway that's my story best as I can tell it. Sounded like it was not a bad thing for Ohlins to leak a tiny bit, just a different approach to maximise feel.
leaky fork seals are an MOT failure i think, as its a risk of brake contamination. i would expect the seals to be replaced and oil renewed by a good dealer... otherwise how can you tell if its been leaking for 2 months since the last test ride and how much oil is missing?
FWIW, I've had the same problem at times over the years with different makes of bikes, Ohlins and other forks. Far more often than not, I've cured the problem in minutes with one of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SEAL-MAT...355795?hash=item1aa12ee913:g:-f8AAOSwwRtbUJvD. It almost seems as if the seal lips simply need to reseat. For the money, definitely worth a shot.
