The race bike went to AP Workshops over the winter for it's annual tune up and valve check etc, also asked Griff to try and find the source of the oil leak as I keep finding small amounts of oil in the belly pan, although it has never made it to the back tyre, not something I want to risk.
Griff went through it & did his stuff, he told me the small leak had been coming form the sump plug, fitted a new washer when the oil & filter was done & jobs a good un, I was skeptical that it was this to be honest.
Took it to Castle Combe for a track day, conditions were damp at times wet & sketchy, because of this and as it was first time out this year probably didn't give it a proper work out, checked the belly pan & no sign of any oil residue, so maybe Griff was right?
Roll on a couple of weeks, test day at Brands, conditions were warm & dry, bike is on slicks and we're having a hoot hooning round Brands Indy circuit.
At the lunch interval after doing 3 x am sessions I was checking the bike over for loose nuts/bolts and checking fluid levels etc, I notice oil in the belly pan ... Bollox!
It was not a lot and it isn't getting out far enough back to be a risk to the rear tyre so I clean it out & carry on for the afternoon, cleaned it out again & searched to see if I could source the leak, the trouble is a little oil spreads quickly & there was no easy way of telling, cleaned everything up as best as possible with brake cleaner & left it running for a while. Nothing appeared, can only assume the leak is only materializing under extreme load, nothing more I can do but continue to monitor. The bike lost very little oil over the 2 race days, went from 3/4 up the sight tube to just under half, so I kept racing it & thought I would find the source easier with it on the bench, or perhaps Griff might be better placed to find it before I clean everything up again.
So I gave him a call on the Monday to ask him what he could do, his reaction was that he didn't have any workshop time to even look at it until July! TBH I have always recommended AP Workshops to others but was more than a little disappointed with this response after having asked him to locate the leak in the first place and having spent over a £1000 on having the bike worked on by them! Obviously it would seem that the routine stuff & replacing service items are what they are interested in?
So I gave the bike to a local lad I have used before for repairs, he is an engineer, motorcycle mechanic though not an Aprilia one, but likes a challenge!
I explained what happens and he said he would take as much of the bike apart as he could get at to try and identify where the oil was coming from, he wanted the bike delivered exactly as it had finished the last race, expressly told not to clean it.
Went and picked the bike up last night, he said there were several areas that it could have been coming from, but difficult to be sure as a little oil gets everywhere, the starter motor O ring was the most likely, then the oil pressure switch seal, some of the oil lines were old & brittle & the rear cylinder rocker cover gasket was not in great nick, he replaced the lot 'just in case'. He also modified the oil tank as it was rubbing on an engine casing bolt slightly, this was a problem waiting to happen!
So all in all I am hoping he has covered all the bases and we have zero oil in the belly pan at Donny, he charged me £215 for this (including putting 2 new wet tyres on rims), I think AP Workshops might have lost a customer!
Sorry it went on a bit and well done if you made it this far!
