Clutch Slipping

["Tom Brown" <tbrown@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Rob:

I had a '99RT that I sent to the dealer for spline lube at about 40K.  When he
opened it up, he found that an engine oil seal was leaking.  The whole thing
was fixed under warranty including my original spline lube because the spline
lube is part of the warranty procedure for fixing the oil seal.

This oil seal can leak on the clutch and make it wet.   Then it will slip.
14K is pretty early for this sort of problem and 2000 is a pretty late year
for this oil seal problem.  I thought they had it cured by then.

Could be that the synthetic you've chosen is not swelling the seals and you're
getting some leaking because of that.   I seriously doubt it's a worn clutch
at 14K, but I don't know the previous owner.   Maybe he was a burnout/wheelie
king or something.   Try semi-synthetic or mixing synth and regular oil.
Better yet, don't switch to synthetic yet.   14K is a little early.  I wait
until 20K.

- -TB
'05 R1200RT 15K (still on dino oil)
'04 R1150RT (traded at 18K)
'99 R1100RT (traded at 62K)