Strong smell of oil while idling?

[Dave M]

Following on from previous problem with stripped thread on oil flow bolt I've noticed when sat at lights etc there is a very strong smell of FRESH oil coming from the bike. Ive just put new oil in and no leaks etc. I've checked level and seems ok. I was thinking if it was over filled with oil it would be coming from breather pipe? What do you think this might be? A little concerned as I've never come across this before?! Advice greatly appreciated. Cheers.

[RhynoCZ]

Is there any chance some oil dripped on the exhaust system? That would make your bike smell of oil at idle = not moving, smell goes up to your nose. Once in move the air is taking the smell behind the motorcycle so you can't smell it.
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'87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor

[Dave M]

[RhynoCZ]

Are you sure it was oil smell? Could be even burning/melting plastic/rubber parts of the bike.
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'87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor

[Dave M]

[Dave M]

[talkToTheHat]

My GZs used to stink of cheapish mineral. Put some shell advance ultra in after a change and thereabouts odourless. My garage uses Motul 5100 which has a strong fruity smell. It really reeks. It was particularly bad after they did the valve clearences and spilt oil on the exhaust headers. Worst after a ride and turned off, so I'm guessing that a load of smelly and volatile compounds get forced through the breather tube into the airbox. Occasionally there's a little thin oil in the bottom of the airbox, which is linked with the most smell and being slightly over full of oil.
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Bandit. does. everything.

[Dave M]

[cheeseman]

Do you have a radiator style oil cooler? My Sprint ST many years ago had similar issues, turned out there was a tiny oozing leak on the oil cooler.

[Dave M]

[cheeseman]

[hondakawasaki]

my old cg 125 gets a new oil smell for a while after changing the oil

i always thought the smell came from the crank breather

[Dave M]

[talkToTheHat]

Oil on an exhaust is usually gone pretty quick. Every bike I've had has had the oil filter cover over part of the exhaust, and it always spills. A wipe with a rag and a few minutes ride is sufficient to kill the smell. Cleaning of the exhaust is muc off and a hose followed up with acf50 overspray when dry, so replacing one oily smell with another. Now that i think about it, when the 535 was seeping oil out of the filter cover due to an expired o-ring she stank way worse than usual.

Have you overfilled with oil, have you used the correct procedure to check, your owners manual (download one if you don't have it) will tell you what is required, but run bike until warm, turn off and wait 5 minutes is often the correct procedure. If I check the level immediately after turning engine off then it reads low. More so when I had a 125 when the difference between not enough and too much oil was about half a panda-pop bottle (100ml?). No prizes for guessing what I carried a spalsh of oil in for the GZ that drank oil.
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Bandit. does. everything.

[Ichy]

Just check the air filter. Most breathers feed into the air box and the vapour is sucked into, and burnt by the normal running of the engine. Over time a lining of crud seems to settle in the bottom of the box. Check how much vapour is being pushed out the breather while the engine is running.
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[Dave M]

[Wonko The Sane]

My bike had a spot of corrosion or muck stopping the oil filter forming a good seal against the bike which was allowing a little bit of oil to spray onto the exhaust which would then burn off with a load of smoke coming up from behind the dash - usually happened when queuing for a hill start.
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[moonzoomer]

Are you possibly confusing the oil smell with that created by the catalytic convertor built into the exhaust on the R125? the smell is much the same as engine oil and common to small capacity engines fitted with a cat due to the high temps they operate at.

[Dave M]

[Dave M]