Water in oil

[Mad Mike]

G'day all,

I have a problem with my water pump seal (i think) leaking oil into the gearbox and vice versa on my '09 EC300R. I replace the seal just the other day because i had water in the oil and low and behold, i now have the same issue.

Any ideas or known probs with these things? I thought it may be the clutch cover gasket where the oil gallery goes through from left to right at the front of the motor, i had another suggestion saying that the head gasket my be partially gone and pressurising the coolant more than normal and therefore puching it past the seal (don't know about that one but open to ideas). I still think it's the water pump seal though. There is a bit of crap in behind it which makes me think it's that...

Any help would be apprecitated as it cut short a ride today and i have another big one coming up in 2 weeks time...

Cheers,

Mike.

 

[wence]

Love to help Mike as I am guessing you are talking Gawler in a few weeks?
I would check the seal again if it was me.I am sure someone on here will have a better idea though.
Cheers Mark

 

[pevs]

I had same problem and was driving me mad! changed the seal etc. Then I noticed one day when the engine was running and I was routing the breather pipe from the right hand side of powervalve that a small amount of water vapour was coming out of the breather pipe, as I had previously routed the pipe directly upwards from the powervalve any water build up from the vapour would remain in the pipe and drain back into right hand power valve case and down into the gearbox, turning my gearbox oil a coffee colour, since I`v taken the pipe down as soon as it leaves the powervalve case I`v had no problems

 

[Mad Mike]

Good thinking Pevs but my oil has a distinct green tinge to it from the coolant. I replaced both the seals (the rubber/spring and the rubber/ceramic(?) one behind it). I did the whole proceedure by removing the water pump cover/impella, is this the right way to go about it or are you supposed to remove the whole RHS clutch cover to replace that 2nd seal?

 

[Adrian]

We had a problem with one. The new seal would work good for about a week sometimes a ride. We preloaded the the seal with a washer and the problem never reappeared. Take the seal out and see if the wear on the mechanical seal is concentric.

 

[Mad Mike]

We had a problem with one. The new seal would work good for about a week sometimes a ride. We preloaded the the seal with a washer and the problem never reappeared. Take the seal out and see if the wear on the mechanical seal is concentric.

Where abouts did you put the washer? Seems the best place for it to me would be behind the inside seal between it and the case (where the magnetic washer is).

 

[Adrian]

Its been a while since we did this. I can't remember where we put it, but it preloaded the spring in the seal.

 

[goose202]

I'm sure you mean the water gallery from left to right, rather than the oil gallery.

Just thinking out loud here:
Head gasket doesn't make sense to me, because the radiator cap will let go at 1.2 bar or whatever it is, and if that pressure was a problem for the pump, every gasser that's ever boiled would put water in the gearbox.

So, possible leaks that would allow water into the gearbox are:
-Water pump seal
-The above mentioned water gallery
-What about where the water is pumped from the water pump up into the cylinder? There's no visible hoses joining the high pressure side of the pump to the cylinder, so I would assume it's pumped up through the base gasket? Though even if there were a leak here, that should put water in the crankcase not the gearbox.

 

[Adrian]

I use a bicycle pump with the funny cone needle attachment to test for coolant leaks. Pump in About 14 psi through the overflow hose and listen for where the leak is coming from. You can pump in air to transmission vent and see if it coming out the water pump seal with the water pump cover off. It doesn't always work but at least it is cheap to do.

 

[skid jackson]

hmm Have you ever pressure tested a tranny?? how much pessure would you use on the tranny?? I would think you would have leakage around the kicker seal and the sprocket seal??

 

[Adrian]

I use soapy water. Instead of a just seeing if it holds pressure. If it leaks oil it will leak air even worse. I drain the oil first when checking the water pumps in this manner.