Different coloured oil in forks... Something wrong?

I have a K5 650 and i just bought myself some hagon fork springs and oil, and fitted them yesterday.. Pretty easy job, and everything went fine, however the old oil that came out of the forks surprised me a little..

The right fork had a clean, red coloured oil in it, while the left fork had a cloudy grey oil... Im not mechanically minded in the slightest, but id have thought the oil in both forks would have been the same, specially as the bike has only covered around 6.5K miles.

Left Fork




Right Fork





Is this anything to be worried about?? Or am i just being paranoid?!

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me..

If I had to guess (and I am), it looks like the red-coloured stuff is more fresh because it has less time on it (like somebody had to take just one fork leg apart in the past).

The dirt-coloured stuff looks like typical fork oil that's been in there for a while.

Originally Posted by YZEtc

If I had to guess (and I am), it looks like the red-coloured stuff is more fresh because it has less time on it (like somebody had to take just one fork leg apart in the past).

The dirt-coloured stuff looks like typical fork oil that's been in there for a while.

+1 thats wot i would say aswell.

maby ther has been a slightly leaking seal at some point and somebody has just done the one need hence why thers a fresh one and a not so fresh one.

Looks like the grey muck has had a little water leaking in past the seal and has caused the oil to emulsify a bit. Stick new seals and oil in while you've got them apart, just to be on the safe side.

Originally Posted by Lozzo

Looks like the grey muck has had a little water leaking in past the seal and has caused the oil to emulsify a bit. Stick new seals and oil in while you've got them apart, just to be on the safe side.

+1

Have to say the red stuff looks remarkably clean!!

thanks for the replys!

forks are already rebuilt with fresh oil, but il order some seals and strip them down again.. Good practice if nothing else!

One question though, if there is a leaky seal would i not have seen oil coming out, even if i couldnt observe the water going in?

Originally Posted by mc_phers0n

thanks for the replys!

forks are already rebuilt with fresh oil, but il order some seals and strip them down again.. Good practice if nothing else!

One question though, if there is a leaky seal would i not have seen oil coming out, even if i couldnt observe the water going in?

To be fair, if it was oil tight, then it would have been water tight

So we must be back to the other proposition .. i.e. one seal has been replaced fairly recently and that is why the oil in one fork is clean.

If the seals are not leaking oil, then I'd not bother doing the seals.

Unless you really want to - its never a BAD idea and you would be well peeved if it started leaking in a few weeks and you had put them back in the bike!!