RE: A Story About Filler Caps

["Tom Brown" <tbrown@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Fred:

Yes, redesigned twice.

The Twin Spark valve cover on the '04s has a lip around the filler neck that 
keeps dribbles from running into the fins when you top up and also contains 
some of the oil that blows out of the cap when you ride hard.   It's better, 
but it still isn't right.

The Hex Head has a screw in cap.   This works pretty flawlessly.

If you have an 1100, don't despair, just buy one of those aluminum threaded 
caps with inserts.   They work great.

The fix mentioned with the silicone sealer and degreasing may be another way 
to go, but my take is that the bayonet type cap just doesn't compress the 
gasket enough for really hard riding or hard engine braking.   One of the 
two seems to cause filler caps to seep a little.

I haven't tried the fix, so I can't knock it.   I just like the screw down 
item better.   BMW seems to have come round to my way of thinking about 
this, maybe because of the seepage issue or maybe because of the security 
issue.   A lot of riders bought these aftermarket threaded caps to keep 
little criminals from stealing the caps or putting bad things in the 
crankcases of the bikes.   They all, including BMW's, seem to require an 
allen or wierd special tool to open them.

- -TB