I am in the Air National Guard (part time) out of Klamath Falls but live in Redding. I just volunteered for a month of duty in Puerto Rico. I won't be riding it much until I return in September but I will get it taken care of. There is nothing that gets under my skin more than a stinking oil leak, except something worse. I haven't been to Millican Valley. I may have to try it once the bike is healthy.

 

Add me to the list. Have had a leak in my 09's gasket for 6 months now. I'm tired of it so I pulled the cover today and figured I'd check the valve clearances. They were fine, but the gasket was NOT. I also found it to be about 3/16" smaller than the cover. I was PISSED. Had the same problems everyone else had here trying to reinstall. Joined this forum today to poke around, and what do you know, a bunch of other '09 owners with the same "undersized gasket" problem.

So... looks like I'm off to the dealer to buy a gasket... I'm past the one year point. When I brought this up at the dealer 6 months ago, he told me the price and said "they never leak, just clean it up and reinstall". If this is a "known issue", he sure was out of the loop.

 

I think dealers are generally out of the loop on these KLXs. They don't work on enough of them to know much. Not that that is a good excuse. Good luck. Let us know what the gasket cost.
Dan

 

It's like $35 or something like that. Plus you are going to have to pay for the labor. Actually maybe not, you can repair this yourself. I wouldn't let them charge you more than an hours worth. You should mention to them how you brought it up 6 months ago and that they should pay for it. If you have a record of you going in 6 months ago even better. If they refuse, let them know you will not be going there again and you will be telling everyone you know how you were treated, including the entire internet. Review them on Yelp.com. Find out their intentions over the phone, review on Yelp, and print it out when you go in to buy the gasket.

Actually you know what? You don't have to deal with them for anything. Just order the gasket online and fix it yourself. Screw them.

 

yah- unless the dealer is going to cover it 100% and do it right there while you wait - I would jsut do it myself. It will take you 15-30 mins, and one wrench. Actually maybe two - 8mm & 10mm I think.

 

Thanks all, for the info. Yeah, I do all my own work so I planned on completing the fix. Really glad I found this group as it's a really active 250 group, which rocks!

So. Thought you'd like the solution. If this had happened on a normal day and I could have bought a gasket, I would have. But this happened on a Saturday afternoon after the dealer closed, and I needed the bike Monday. So I thought I'd try something anyway to get it together. If it leaked, I was going to buy a gasket (and WILL at the next valve clearance check).

BUT... I was really trapped so I thought about the situation. And after thinking it through, here was my fix; I cut the gasket at three stratregic (symmetrical) locations as shown in the diagram below. This immediately allowed the gasket to be inserted properly, and due to the shrunken nature of the gasket, left three gaps that were now unprotected (arrows). I put a dab of blue silicone RTV at each of the cuts and put it together. Let it sit Saturday night and Sunday night I fired it up - (also rode it 60 miles today)... and no leaks!

So it's a corny fix, but I'm thinking I'm set (and nice and clean, finally!!) until the next valve clearance check. It was a breeze to assemble this way. If the gasket had been the right size, it wouldn't have required any cuts of course.

Thanks again.

 

Add me to the list of incontinent valve cover folks too. My '2009 has 3500 miles on it. A few hundred miles ago the right front corner of the cover started leaking -- first a little seep, and now there's oil everywhere after my last ride. Yuck. I'll order a new one from BikeBandit and pop it on before I go on my next dual sport ride.

 

Nice fix Watt-man. Thats using your head.......and some silicone. Sad that Kawi doesn't stand behind their product. Looks like a well documented flaw.
Dan

 

Oh man, I totally forgot to write an update to a thread I started. Here's what happened. In September, I returned from Puerto Rico and bought the gasket and decided on letting the dealer put it on for $65 since it came with a 6 month warranty. I was talking to the mechanic and he said he'd done a few and to hold on to my receipts as I'd be reimbursed if there was a recall. We'll I thought fine. Then while watching MNF, I decided to write kawasaki a letter. I detailed the situation to them, told them about the mechanics comments, the kawasakiforums.com guys who it happened to, and the fact that I've bought 3 kawi's in my life. About a month later, I got a call. The guy at kawi HQ said he was disappointed that the dealer didn't call their liason (or something like that) and they cut me a check for the part and labor, about $100. Score one for writing a letter. I thought it was worth a try and it worked... Sorry for not posting it sooner but they really stepped up for me. If you do it, send all receipts.

 

Good to hear about the Kawasaki Customer Support Mikey. Congrats