Oil leak, garage at fault?? advice needed

[DeanoN]

Had oil and filter replaced last week, rode home less than a mile and bike fine, when used it for work later in week got about 5 miles and had huge oil leak from filter area of bike.
Garage have recovered it and said there is a hairline crack and small dent in filter that may have been caused by something thrown up off road hitting it, also the engine is making terrible noises when started they don't know what damage is done till they get it stripped, they are ringing filter manufacturer on Mon but i'm not expecting much off them.

So basically I figure the garage are not going to want to pay out for engine repairs but as far as I can see:
1, nothing large enough to damage filter can be throw up off road without me hitting it and noticing. (mate said it usually takes the help of a hammer to pierce a filter with screwdriver)
2, I have lower fairing fitted which makes point 1 even less likely,

But my problem is how come it didn't leak on way home from garage and all over my drive when i picked it up?????????

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

[thefallenangel]

who serivced it out of interest?

I'd say with lowers on to get a the filter with something that big without either cracking a fairing or you noticing is pretty impressive.

[vardypeeps]

There talking the balls. But how can a filter get so damaged without use?
Sounds to me like they might have had someone new putting your filter on and it's been overtight? creating the dent and crack?
That might explain why it ended up leaking too?

[yorkie_chris]

Do your lowers actually cover the filter?

It's possible someone deliberately loosened it, but unlikely.

More likely is it was over or under tightened causing failure. Or perhaps a defective filter.

[flymo]

I would have said that debris striking the filter and causing this damage is very unlikely, especially without you noticing it.

It may be that you managed to get the thing home without the oil pressure having a chance to rise enough to rupture the filter. After a 5 mile run it may just have blown the weak spot on the filter but almost certainly caused by the fitter or poor filter manufacture I reckon.

[jambo]

Of course, it's quite common for people to remove a filter, not notice the old o-ring is stuck to the engine, and then put the new one on top of that...

That works for a bit, until the oil works a route through the 2 o-rings and sprays oil everywhere.

Jambo

[daveb]

I had this happen in the first 1000 miles of owning the bike - I basically rode over some metal debris which made a small 'clang' and when I got home I noticed a small oil leak from the filter. The metal debris had peirsed a small hole in the filter causing it to leak (not much tho, thank goodness!!).
Never had it happen since but I do feel that the oil filter and sump on this bike are very vulnerable...

Dave

[Dangerous Dave]

Of course, it's quite common for people to remove a filter, not notice the old o-ring is stuck to the engine, and then put the new one on top of that...
+ 1, also not smearing the new o-ring with oil also helps it leak too.