Fork Oil Change

[freetime2247]

My suspension is getting a little soft on my 06 ST with 56K miles. The left fork appears to have a light film of fluid behind the dust cover but no puddles or fluid on the the rims or ground. I want to perform a fork fluid change as the fluid had never been changed since the bike was new. The local honda shop has informed me they can perform the fork oil change for $45.00 plus cost of the fluid.
They said they will remove the caps and siphon the fluid from each fork. Seems reasonable to me as I will rebuild the forks this winter.
Has anyone changed the fork oil by siphoning and should I go ahead and rebuild the forks now or can it wait until this winter.
Planned 2012 mileage should be around 10K therefore, I should have around 65K on the bike by the the Nov timeframe.
What do you guys think?

 

[Tom Mac 04a]

Before anything, I'd go with the simplest thing first...
Try to clean the seal on the left fork first... using 35mm film or special plastic tool
see vid; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wlzfoVroSY&feature=pyv

If not leaking, change fluid...if still slightly leaking, I'd just go with a full change of seals and fluid... but then I'm a bit anal.

 

[dduelin]

The 1300 uses a cartridge type fork that retains a significant amount of fluid in the cartridge unless the fork is disassembled and pumped dry. Siphoning is better than nothing but a halfway measure IMHO and the fill amount level is measured with the fork vertical.

 

[Mark]

A 'siphon change' is *not* recommended for these bikes.
It will leave you with an unknown amount of fork oil due to fluid being left behind in the 'inards' of the forks.

 

[ChucksKLRST]

Rebuild the forks now with new bushings. You might even go to Sonic springs at the same time. I changed my fork oil and installed Sonic Springs at 50k miles and just now at 100k+ miles replaced the seals and bushings, of course with new fork oil.

 

[forgitaboutut]

Rebuild the forks now with new bushings. You might even go to Sonic springs at the same time. I changed my fork oil and installed Sonic Springs at 50k miles and just now at 100k+ miles replaced the seals and bushings, of course with new fork oil.

+1!
when you see how dirty that stuff is, you'll want to make sure you get it all out!!!

 

[Byron]

The forks may not need new bushings, only seals. To properly change the fluid the forks need to be removed from the bike and not siphoned as the shop said they will do. Us search to see what is involved, it isn't that hard and you can do it right instead of taking shortcuts like the shop whats to do.

 

[freetime2247]

Thanks guys. I'm gonna opt for removing the forks and changing the oil myself. This winter I'll remove the forks again and change, seals, bushings and opt for replacing the springs.

 

[Mark]

Good plan.