2018 x4 se

1-Yes
2-240 miles, 22.9 hours
3-Yamalube 10/40 (Factory fill)
4-Mostly trails with some high speed. First 17 hours was all dunes and the rest has been trails.
5-Yes, as per manual
6-I’ll be calling the dealer on Tuesday when they open.

Noticed oil on my garage floor a week after my 20hr service and thought I didn’t tighten something... after investigation I removed the intake drain and a decent amount of oil came out so I capped it and grabbed the phone to video what was left. I would say this was a 1/4 of what came out before I grabbed my phone.

 

To add to my post.

Ifollowed the instructions in the book. But I hadn’t even ridden it since the oil change.... I serviced it per the manual and then parked it until my trip this weekend when I pulled it out of the garage.
So this happened on the factory/dealer fill... and I had checked it and it was fine.

 

I just looked at mine tonight , keep in mind this bike has 50 mikes on it and 14 hours and this is my filter and it’s sticky as hell

The tube also is showing stuff in it

 

General, please check the drain tube underneath the vehicle:

What's funny about this picture is that I took it to show someone where the drain was located awhile back. You can see that I have oil in the tube.

 

Ok will do , is that filter ok ??, it was sticky not like oil sticky but something else ,

 

Sticky is most likely the Foam Air Filter oil. Motor oil doesn't feel sticky, or at least it shouldn't.

 

It looks OK.

 

So after 2700 miles this is how much oil came out of the air box drain. That's a 20 Oz bottle, so figure about 12 oz, around 4 oz per 1000 miles

What to do now is monitor the next 1000 miles to see if it keeps up. For all we know, most of that oil could have all come from breaking it in.

The 847 cc engine uses new nickel-ceramic coated aluminum bores (no iron liners) and the nickel is supposed to be scuffed away (unless I'm confusing my technologies). I'm wondering if I switched to synthetic too early.

I don't believe one should be concerned about losing enough oil to damage your engine, especially if you're doing 1500 mile oil changes. You should however make it part of routine oil changes to drain\check your engine intake as obviously this oil isn't getting recirculated as it should and is puddling upstream in the low point of the system. I do think Yamaha should address it with redesigning the PCV system IF more owners chime in with the same issue. Those really concerned should be able to use an oil catch can if they don't want to wait on Yamaha.

 

The response from the dealer. Makes sense... but I’m 99.9% sure I only put maybe 2/3 the oil in since that’s what the manual stated to do.

I’ll be going for a long ride in less than 30 days, so we’ll see what happens.


“I've seen that happen on some of these snowmobiles with the dry-sump motor you put all the oil in it once in the suction pump from the tank air locks for a little while and it'll overflow the oil tank and push some into the air box it's really nothing to worry about”.

 

Reading up on dry sump oil systems, I'm hearing the same thing. One would think keeping the oil level closer to the minimum level would help prevent excessive airbox filling, but some may not be comfortable doing that. I wonder if putting a catch-can in the return would help prevent oil from getting in the airbox.

 

I'd like to throw in a few thoughts on this, it might be relevant, it might not, Harley's have a dry sump system & the Shovelheads & Evolution motors can get similar symptoms to what you guys are having, the oil check valve that stops oil draining from the oil tank to the motor can leak, this raises the oil level in the crankcases, maybe only a bit, maybe a lot, so when you start the engine in the morning the downward piston pressure forces excess oil out the breather hose & into the airbox until the oil pump gets the oil level in the crankcase back to a normal level, this is 1 thing, another is that the breather hose leading to the airbox can have a dip in it which allows oil to pool in it overnight, on 1st start it blows this oil into the airbox, I think you covered this, don't check oil level on a cold motor, dry sump motors will blow an oil vapour out the breather hose which is supposed to get drawn back into the intake without too much pooling, that's the theory, don't know if this helps at all, have to keep an eye on it.

 

I think the problem is that as soon as the oil is expelled, it goes downhill towards the intake drain so it never gets a chance to get sucked back in, which is why they should have put a baffle in so the oil would puddle closer to the hose return.

 

I daresay your right, but it's why it's doing it is the concern, the easy way to eliminate a check ball problem is to do an oil check to factory spec's after a ride, then do a check the next morning & see if the level has dropped, if it has you know where it's gone, expect oil build up in the airbox, you can also take the filter off & on 1st start get someone to start motor while you look at(not down!) the breather hose end to see if it spits oil out, just gives you an idea if anything is out of the ordinary, Yamaha, no doubt, has a spec on how much oil build up is normal. Auto shops have a lot of compact catch cans with drains that you can put on as well.

 

Just did my 20 hr scheduled maint.

I was expecting to see some oil in the intake drain tube. However to my surprise...not a drop. Clean as a whistle.

1-X4. Not yet.
2-21.2 hrs with 130 miles
3-First oil change thus far so started with Yamalube 10W-40
4-Regular trail use. Ave speed 10-15 mph with the occasional 30 mph or so on brief short straightaways
5-Oil regularly checked after warmup per manual guidance.

 

I talked to dealer mechanic about it, his only thought was synthetic oil may be the cause , I am running 10 40 and that’s what they just put back in, was done yesterday and he looked in the tube underneath and was dry

 

There may be a relationship between synthetic vs mineral oil, if Yamaha is using a new whizz bang cylinder liner it might not like synthetic, Yamaha would do all their testing using stock mineral oil & might not have factored in the use of synthetics, pure guess of course, oil weight might have a bearing on things as well, hmmm, the plot thickens, something else to eliminate is the breather line having cable ties squish it up against the frame, would create extra pressure that might speed the vapour flow into the airbox.

 

I always in all vehicles run what the manual says for oil , it may be old school , but that’s what I do, and I can’t imagine that they would not have tested the formulation etc, I do wonder why one would switch to synthetic in this engine if it was non synthetic to start? Is it better for engine or gears etc,

 

The debate on Synthetic vs Mineral. Left twix, Right Twix. I've read as much as I can absorb web wide. The thing that sticks in my mind is that the molecules in Synthetic are able to sized much more consistently than Mineral. Thus more equal coverage across surfaces. After reading info here I'm in process of switching all my small motors to Mobil 5w30. Mainly due to availability and cost of big jugs from the local Wally World. Change it often and i'm not sure it would matter all that much.

http://www.wolverineforums.com/forum/images/smilies/popcorn.gif

 

Hi.. any updates on this topic i.e possible causes/fixes etc? Have a brand new machine with 14.1 hrs and I noticed the same this morning. About half a teaspoon of oil under the machine in the garage.

 

The cause is most likely typical of a dry sump oil system. I don't know if there will be a Yamaha fix unless more report the problem. Pull your clear drain inspection tube off and see how much more oil is in the intake.

 

Hello everyone I'm the new guy who was just cruising the internet looking for answers and found this forum and this thread specific to what my machine was doing.
I just purchased a 2018 x4 SE and at 30 miles I had this issue come up. Took it to the shop and they told me the oil tank was overfilled causing the issue. The drained the tank so they said but took it for a 20 mile ride came home noticed oil in the floor again pulled the clear cap and about 5oz hit the floor. I checked the oil tank again ( should have checked when I got it back ) and it was still over filled. I drained it myself to proper level but haven't had time to ride since. I will be on a ride this weekend and hopefully draining the tank to proper oil level fixes my issue. I will put my findings on this thread Monday morning. Sorry there is more people with this issue but I'm glad I found them.

 

Well, what did you find??

 

Do you wait 10 seconds or 10 min after the engine is warm? Haven't tested to see if it matters. Just did my 6 month service and came across this.

 

If you're just checking the oil level, 10 seconds after shutting it off. If you've changed the oil, they say 10 minutes. After changing my oil I now do the following:

Measure the drained oil that came out of the dry sump pan and oil reservoir but not the oil filter. If I'm changing the filter, I'll pre fill the oil filter to where it won't leak out when on its side and install the oil filter. I'll then add the amount of oil that was drained back into the reservoir. I'll go for a few trips letting the SxS sit between trips and on my final check I'll let it warm up, pull into my garage and let it idle for a bit and then check the oil level without screwing it all the way back in but I'll only fill it to halfway up the hash marks if it needs topped off.

 

MassiveOverkill

Could you please tell me exactly where this drain is located on the vehicle?

Thanks,

Pete

 

If you look underneath your vehicle, it will be in the middle towards the front of the skid plate but behind the front tires.

 

I'm going to install a catch can. Initially I was going to try and make my own baffle, but for $25, I think I'll just pony up, looking at this one: https://www.amazon.com/Ruien-0046-Universal-Aluminum-Reservoir/dp/B06XK9PTP7/

 

Link wasn't working for me. EDIT...But it's good now.

 

Any word on what causes this? I was just under my machine, installing the skid plate. Decided to pull the drain cap, I was ready with a cup to catch a bunch of oil. Not so much as a drip. My machine only has about 250 miles and I just did the 20 hour first service. I was very careful to not over fill, checking the oil several times while topping it off. Mine ended up taking 3.75 quarts and is slightly below full on the dip stick.

 

Should have been 3.5quarts max. That would have put the level middle of the dipstick. Just did my service a few weeks ago and was overfilled well over 4 quarts.

 

Overfilling is the most likely culprit.

 

Forgot to link this solution: https://www.wolverineforums.com/forum/266-x2-x4-engine/27874-installing-oil-catch-can-x2-x4.html

 

I am thinking the reason the oil is making it that far is also because of gravity allowing everything that enters the tube to travel down into the airbox. If it was looped up first or any elevation it would have to climb it would run back into the tank instead. It will not push the oil uphill as the hose would have to be completely full for that to occur.

 

Old thread but I’ve got oil. Maybe a couple of ounces. Not a whole lot.

1-If your X2(new model)/X4 is exhibiting this problem = Yes
2-How many miles/hours you have on your vehicle = 1570 miles, 200 hours
3-What oil brand/formula/viscosity you're running OEM Yamalube for first two oil changes then went to Mobile 1 0-40
4-What kind of running do you do, ie; high speed or regular trail use = 85% trail low speed, 15% road above 25 mph
5-Are you making sure you're checking oil correctly = yes I learned from MO here

And the drain clip was EXTREMELY easy to remove with my fingers. Really surprised I hadn’t lost the cap. There’s another thread about replacing it with a real hose clamp.

 

I just checked mine.

1-If your X2(new model)/X4 is exhibiting this problem: No

2-How many miles/hours you have on your vehicle: 1,200

3-What oil brand/formula/viscosity you're running: Yamaha filter-Yamalube 10w-40

4-What kind of running do you do, ie; high speed or regular trail use: Mostly trail use, but do cruise dirt roads often as well.

5-Are you making sure you're checking the oil level properly, see image below: Yes

6-If you reported it to the dealer and if so what did they say: N/A