Tiger 955i Oil Leak

[Adler]

I got home after a short trip out on my 2003 Tiger, to find the back end of the bike (including the tyre)covered in oil.

After degreasing everything and then running the engine, it turns out to be a damaged oil filter. The enamel paint has been chipped off the filter and the oil was seeping out pretty quickley once the engine was running.

I'm lucky that it was a short journey and I never ran out of oil. Has anyone else seen this?

I'm about to take replace the filter and will know more once I've got it off. I'm assuming that it may have been damaged by a stone from the front tyre or possible just damaged by rough fitting by a Neanderthal.
More to follow..........

[Kurt]

The filter seems very exposed to me. I've been searching around for a plate to cover up the sump and filter area but have had no luck so far. I guess I'm not too surprised that it could happen though I haven't heard of it before.

Kurt

[Kurt]

On one of the Tiger boards, I can't remember if it was the RAT board or triumph-tiger.com, someone had a burst oil filter. No one else had ever heard of that. Some seemed to think maybe it was a defective filter.

Kurt

[Adler]

I inspected the filter closely and couldn't find the crack in the filter wall, so I can only assume that it was either hidden by the black enamel paint (although I did chip off any that was loose) or it was a hairline crack that only opened up under pressure from the oil pump.

I'm now considering a sump guard, if I can find one long enough to cover the filter.
I'm still a bit puzzled by this as I've only done very gentle off road stuff in the Alps in June (ie driving on gravel tracks and alpine meadows) so stone damage is unlikely. Maybe it was all down to a faulty filter.
Cheers and thanks for the input.

[Kurt]

If you find a good sump guard, let me know. I'd love to have one. Thunderbike in New Zeland has one but you have to use their crash bars. I already have the Touratech ones, so don't want to buy new ones. (Plus they are very agricultural looking).

Kurt

[Adler]

I've added my experience to the Triumph Rat forum and now there are 3 of us that have had the same problem.

How many others ???

[DAVSATO]

find a food tin of the correct diameter, cut it in half, hold it on the filter with a strong magnet from an old radio speaker, or put a small blob of bathroom silicon sealer in the bottom of the tin and glue it to the filter. (dont worry, its easy to pull off when you need to, but the magnet is best)
do i need to tell you to wash the tin out first?