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[Heatwave]

God I hope your right.. I did shut it off without idling long.

I certainly understand the “panic” as I did the same thing. But if the bike was running properly (no overheating or power loss), I really suspect you may have simply checked the oil too soon afer shutdown. SB1450 states you need to let a warm engine idle for 2 minutes, then shutdown, then immediately check the oil level.

My guess is if you follow thise steps, you’ll find the oil level is back to normal based on your feedback that it ran well.

[JCZ]

And to make matters worse when I was riding my 12 Roadglide last weekend the front speakers stopped working so that bike is at the stereo shop and my wife is giving me endless crap about "how many motorcycles do I have to have so I can keep one running".. She is very much enjoying my frustration
She also likes to point out like JC that I said I wanted this bike because I needed a reliable stock bike to depend on...

ROFL.....       Just tell her it's my fault!   

I checked the crystal ball tonight......I see a BMW in your future......but keep your Road Glide so that when you start missing the personality and atmosphere you have it to fall back on.   

[SDCVO]

I certainly understand the “panic” as I did the same thing. But if the bike was running properly (no overheating or power loss), I really suspect you may have simply checked the oil too soon afer shutdown. SB1450 states you need to let a warm engine idle for 2 minutes, then shutdown, then immediately check the oil level.

My guess is if you follow thise steps, you’ll find the oil level is back to normal based on your feedback that it ran well.

No doubt there is "panic" involved here! though I didn't let it idle for a while, I did check it same way I was the day before and oil was always to top line on stick and I only went 150 miles before I saw it. I do know that on other new motors I have had (unfortunately quite a few) they have burned some oil until broke in and there is a thought in my head that maybe motor just burnt some oil (they used dino oil for break in) but still doesn't make sense that it wouldn't use any on Sat where I went 375 miles. I hope I am wrong.. I do trust this dealer and am confident they will at least figure out if it sumped or not so we will see

[SDCVO]

No doubt there is "panic" involved here! though I didn't let it idle for a while, I did check it same way I was the day before and oil was always to top line on stick and I only went 150 miles before I saw it. I do know that on other new motors I have had (unfortunately quite a few) they have burned some oil until broke in and there is a thought in my head that maybe motor just burnt some oil (they used dino oil for break in) but still doesn't make sense that it wouldn't use any on Sat where I went 375 miles. I hope I am wrong.. I do trust this dealer and am confident they will at least figure out if it sumped or not so we will see

Is strange that bake ran so well though. I went down a road close to my work that I went down last weekend when I tested out the BMW and I was "comparing" which most of you know what that means and no doubt I would have been able to tell then that it wasn't running strong. That is unless thats when it sumped because of me "comparing"..

[grc]

Btw, the "idle for two minutes before shutting down" thing is nothing new, those same instructions have been around for a very long time and I've mentioned them often in old threads talking about oil consumption and how to check oil levels, or how to ensure when changing oil that you've moved as much as possible back to the tank before draining.  They would apply to pretty much any dry sump engine.  HOWEVER, if you haven't been doing this in the past, and you're comparing the dipstick reading today with what it read yesterday after using the same shutdown method, I'd still think something is going on.  Perhaps consumption, but if halfway down the stick means what I think it means, that's a lot of oil to consume in just 150 miles after not consuming any the the previous 375 miles. 

If this is again the beginning of a sumping problem, I'm baffled by Harley's inability to fix this seemingly basic engine function issue.  They have either given this project to some seriously unqualified personnel, or they know the root cause but don't want to spend what it would take to fix it properly so they just keep trying band-aids.  Who knows.

JMHO - Jerry

[KGB]

More bad engines on the way to you


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Cvostu]

makes me glad I kept my 16 with that good old most reliable 110. Stuart

[KGB]

makes me glad I kept my 16 with that good old most reliable 110. Stuart

X2

[mark]

Btw, the "idle for two minutes before shutting down" thing is nothing new, those same instructions have been around for a very long time and I've mentioned them often in old threads talking about oil consumption and how to check oil levels, or how to ensure when changing oil that you've moved as much as possible back to the tank before draining.  They would apply to pretty much any dry sump engine.  HOWEVER, if you haven't been doing this in the past, and you're comparing the dipstick reading today with what it read yesterday after using the same shutdown method, I'd still think something is going on.  Perhaps consumption, but if halfway down the stick means what I think it means, that's a lot of oil to consume in just 150 miles after not consuming any the the previous 375 miles. 

If this is again the beginning of a sumping problem, I'm baffled by Harley's inability to fix this seemingly basic engine function issue.  They have either given this project to some seriously unqualified personnel, or they know the root cause but don't want to spend what it would take to fix it properly so they just keep trying band-aids. Who knows.
JMHO - Jerry

Bingo.  Limp the problem along, kicking the can down the road, and just repair what's brought to the service counter.  Keep this up for two years and these bikes will be out of warranty...and more importantly to the MoCo, not their responsibility.  I've got a hard time believing mechanical engineers haven't figured out the cause of the sumping.  I know what's causing the absence of a recall... 

[Heatwave]

Bingo.  Limp the problem along, kicking the can down the road, and just repair what's brought to the service counter.  Keep this up for two years and these bikes will be out of warranty...and more importantly to the MoCo, not their responsibility.  I've got a hard time believing mechanical engineers haven't figured out the cause of the sumping.  I know what's causing the absence of a recall... 

Sad but obviously true!

[J.D.]

They have demonstrated this same basic strategy with:

- Early twin cam chain tensioner failures and oil pump design(s)
- Later twin cam lifter failures and compensator design

[mark]

I don't think they ever acknowledged a problem with the lifters...other than to say, they all do that.  On the cam chain tensioner, they fixed an engineering flaw with a new and improved SE setup (about $500) which involved about $500 in labor.  So for a cool grand, you got to pay for an engineering blunder.

[mslcpa]

Got over 60K miles on my 2010 FLHXSE. Been through the lifter issues (failure at 24K miles) and upgraded to S&S 20K mile ago. Valve train still quiet as church mouse. Just had the cam chest rebuilt. New inner cam bearings, fueling HV oil pump, tensioners, chains, cam plate. Only performance mods are headers and race tuner. Bike rides rock solid and except for a bit of flaking chrome on the rims, she looks showroom new.

Test rode a new M8 and was impressed, but think I'll keep what I have. Sometimes the latest and greatest isn't necessarily the greatest.

[SDCVO]

OK, I have to "man up" and admit when I screwed up! I have been using the LED dipsticks on my bikes for years even though they constantly break and I am replacing them under warranty as they never last a year. My tech hates that I use it and has always told me to ditch it and check my oil manually. How they always break is by either not coming on or temp being off by about 100 degrees but the oil level has always been accurate. This is my 6th motor I have broke in in the last 4 years and each time when brand new I have used some oil during break in and after. Sometimes on our forum I will read about how some people will say they have never burned a drop of oil with their motor so when I checked my oil with the LED dipstick Sat night after going 375 miles and it said "high oil" which it says when it is completely full I just figured this motor was was going to be one of those motors that never used oil. On Sun when I only had gone for a couple of hours and when I stopped and only showed 1 bar on LED I manually checked the oil and it was down about halfway between add and full thats when I assumed it had sumped again. The one thing that didn't make sense was that the bike never lost power and I did run it very hard.
I have to admit I absolutely tortured the dealer and even contacted a attorney about "next steps" if it had sumped again and yes I did tell the dealer I had done that..
It turns out that the LED dipstick was broke and it did use some oil Sat (and Sun Im sure) and if I would have manually checked the oil Sat I would have seen that and known it was normal as in about 600 miles motor used a bit over a half a quart.
Bottom line is I freaked out for nothing, bike is fine and I made a complete moron out of myself!
Of course the fact the biked sumped in the first place is still not ok but that doesn't change that I have made a bunch of peoples life miserable since last weekend (including my family..).
Good news, as of right now my bike is fine!
And yea, I got a new LED dipstick...

[JCZ]

OK, go back and tell your wife and her Maltipoo that it wasn't my fault!   

Then go throw that LED dipstick in the trash.....where they all belong.  I'm surprised they still sell enough of those to make it profitable to keep producing them.  Seriously Alan, I'm going to sing the same tune that your tech sings to you.....get rid of it....it's only a stress creator.   

Then go out for a long ride......Rapid City is do-able!