Uh-oh: BIG oil leak on my P250

[jprestonian]

... and since the two bolts that drain the crankcase are tight (one being the drainplug, which is bone dry), I have to figure it's either the head gasket, or the one of the seals on the crankcase.

I bet this gets costly... at least it's running, and running fine. However, it had drained all but 0.3L overnight.  :(
.

[axy]

How many miles on it?

[jprestonian]

~8400km, or ~5200mi
.

[olbull]

Can  you  see  where the  leak is  comming from..Above the oil  drains??? Have  you  run  the engine  after  you refill it? Check  your  air  filter...Is there  an  excess  amout  of oil  there  also??  What  im  getting at is an  overfill of oil..Seals  normally  dont  just let  go..
Is  there  any  warranty  left? Check with  your  local  dealer....


Good  Luck
OlBull

[jprestonian]

Can't see exactly where the oil is coming from, no, but the area around the drain plug is bone-dry. There's a bolt on the other side which also drains the crankcase, but it is tight, as well.

Once it had "leaked out" to its lowest level (leaving ~0.4L in the crankcase), adding more oil caused the leak to immediately start, again. It appears to be coming from the head or cylinder, looking at where this fresh, clean oil ran down from. The leak hits the center stand, and causes a drop of oil to hit the ground about every 10 seconds.

No warranty, and not an overfill situation, but the leak seems to have slowed, somewhat. The engine runs fine... I just make sure I top it back off before I ride it (not that I'm riding much, but it is my sole transportation... the near-constant rain this past week has helped curb my urge to travel frivolously, heh). I'll take it to my dealer Friday, when his mechanic is in. He'll have to diagnose it and then order parts...

Until then, I'll keep 'er topped off before I start it up. The oil pressure light has not come on, yet (except during start-up, to let you know the bulb is good), which I hope is a good sign.
.

[jprestonian]

Took 'er in for diagnosis, today.

Appears to be a catastrophic failure of the "lower" head gasket (between the jug and the crankcase).

HOWEVER... tonight, I noticed something new.

I took off on a short errand, and it being totally dark, I saw that the oil pressure light was just *barely* trying to light. So, I pulled over, engine running, and unscrewed the dipstick.

When I removed the dipstick, it's like I opened up a second exhaust pipe on that mutha. Exhaust gasses hit me in the face(shield) with great force, and the noise was what one might expect from a straight pipe on a 250cc.

Hmmm.  Wrong hole!
.

[OldGuy]

If we were talking about a cage I'd say, "clogged PCV (Positive Crankcase Ventilation) valve." When they get clogged up the crankcase doesn't vent and oil starts to blow out of some of the strangest places. Does a P250 have such a thing? Before the days of PCV cars used to develop the same symptom if the crankcase down pipe (just a pipe that vented the crankcase directly to the atmosphere) got clogged up with debris.

Either way, it would explain the blown gasket.

Hope this helps. Best.....

[olbull]

Took 'er in for diagnosis, today.

Appears to be a catastrophic failure of the "lower" head gasket (between the jug and the crankcase).

HOWEVER... tonight, I noticed something new.

I took off on a short errand, and it being totally dark, I saw that the oil pressure light was just *barely* trying to light. So, I pulled over, engine running, and unscrewed the dipstick.

When I removed the dipstick, it's like I opened up a second exhaust pipe on that mutha. Exhaust gasses hit me in the face(shield) with great force, and the noise was what one might expect from a straight pipe on a 250cc.

Hmmm.  Wrong hole!
.

   Fairly  easy  fix... No  sign  of  coolant in the engine  oil? Head gasket failure  is usually related to  overheating...Please  keep  us abreast  of the end  diagnosis..

   OlBull

[axy]

It is very strange that the gasket would blow at only 8400km. Never heard of blown gaskets on scooters of non-Italian origin.

Btw. is there a possibility that the oil and coolant fluid would mix if that gasket blows? Or is it some other gasket?

Please update us what happened finally.

[jprestonian]

Coolant: None detected in the oil, and the bike's not overheating (of course, that may be because I'm not riding it very far until this gets fixed!).

It's difficult to tell from this diagram, since there's no rear view of the cylinder, but if I were designing it, I wouldn't have the coolant passages go all the way through to the bottom gasket, since there's nothing to worry about having to cool below it. So, if that's the gasket that gave out, I can see where the oil and coolant wouldn't have a chance to mix.
.

[jprestonian]

FIXED. But it's not all sunshine and puppies, yet.

Now, it's exhibiting signs that there's a leak in the air intake (dies after riding, and coming to a stop -- have to keep some throttle/brake applied to keep the engine running), so I'll have to chase that down if the rain will ever stop.
.

[jprestonian]

So... the head gasket was fixed, but I had to do some dicking around to get it back to 100%.

Then, six days later, the cam chain broke.

KymcoUSA is working with my dealer to process warranty claims... I'm trying to collect all the necessary paperwork to make it easy for them.
.

[axy]

This is not the best possible advertisement for Kymco. 

[jprestonian]

This is not the best possible advertisement for Kymco. 

Well, it could turn out well, since they seem right now to be reaching out to try to process these two repairs under the warranty.

I'm sure they'll agree that these two breakdowns are not acceptable, given the mileage, service records and riding conditions... but even Honda has made some "Monday bikes," where the line workers are a bit hungover from the weekend. 
.

[axy]

Well, it could turn out well, since they seem right now to be reaching out to try to process these two repairs under the warranty.

I'm sure they'll agree that these two breakdowns are not acceptable, given the mileage, service records and riding conditions... but even Honda has made some "Monday bikes," where the line workers are a bit hungover from the weekend. 
.

How has this story ended? Did they cover the cost for gasket and cam chain?

Today I have noticed a drop or two of engine oil coming out of the gasket shown on the picture (you will notice I have circled with two red ellipses where these drops were but it is not very good shown on the picture, in the upper right corner).

I have washed the scooter so it is not that visible now, but I was wondering is this the place where you have initially noticed the leak?

I have regular inspection in 1500 kms (4500 kms on it now) and then I will claim this under warranty for sure.

Pls let me know about this - thanks!