Rattle on start up for 10 seconds ?
 

Hi all
Has anyone come across this. I have a 5000 mile bike pretty much as new condition. What I am finding is when I start the bike after it's been left a day or two. So not started for 2 days. I am getting quite a loud rattle that gos up and down when I rev the bike , after 10 or 15 seconds it dies down to normal I am guessing oil has got to it. Bike runs and rides spot on. As it's a dry sump is this normal. It's not cam chain. It's on the right side/ Center of bike. Any help would be good. Thanks

Ask kev mate :)

How do I do that mate, I have real trouble working my round this site. Must be getting old lol

A short video is always helpful to diagnose these sort of things.

hi mate
oil is spot on been working on bikes 35 years. all my bikes are 100% serviced right. i service my bikes every 2000 miles. the xt will get done every 1000 miles being a single. i have re checked the oil and its 100% right. run the bike for 15mins, then check the oil level, its about 6 or 7mm from the top so is right. going to change the oil filter back to an OEM one just in case as the one i put in was after market (but 99% its nothing to do with that) also going to put a brand new OEM clutch in next week at the same time, its only �79.99 for full set of plates and springs so may as well stick one in as it cheap and will only take me 40 mins or so to do, as when i start a ride the cltch play on the leaver is 2mm so spot on and after 15 mins (worm up) it has 15mm play so have to pull over and adjust it back. and when you have finished the ride and the bike cools down there is no play at all, so thats not right and noise maybe coming from there about's ? the only other thing i have done is from when i got the bike i have run it on the premium fuel, do not think that would do anything but will go back to standard fuel to see if it makes any difference,. thanks for your input.

when i changed the oil i did it from all 3 places ie sump,frame and filter. plus made sure after i changed the oil it was coming out of the bleed nipple on the filter cover so all was good. just went and started the bike again and its not right, do not think its nothing bad, its more of a plastic rattle than a tiny rattle . will film it tomorrow and up load it to here if i can do that.if i had to guess would say its around the clutch

Just out of interest, does pulling the clutch lever in (disengaging the clutch) make any difference to the rattling noise?

Hi no it does not, BUT I just started the bike and put my stethoscope to the clutch, oil filter and water pump covers. When I pulled in the clutch leaver the noise did change with the stethoscope on. So pulling in the leaver dose effect the noise ? Not that you can tell without the stethoscope on, so that may be normal

Have found the problem, Well it's nota problem. After doing some more checking on line I found 3 others that had the same noise when cold on start up and one of them noticed it went away when the weather picked up, and only started when the weather went very cold so it looked like it was the cold. Anyway I put the bike in my kitchen for 24hours where it was nice and worm. Started the bike the next day and the 20 second noise on start up had gone. So it looks like it's the cold weather that does it. Something to do with the metal shrinking more then some of the other parts when really cold. My garage is not heated so when it's -2 outside my garage is -2 . Started the bike on the second day and started with no noise and sounded perfect.

Mine does this on a cold day too, very slight rattle for 15-20 secs on a cold day. I saw a thread where Kev mentioned it being something to do with a 1 way oil valve in the clutch somewhere but there wasn't a follow-up post unfortunately

FOUND what the noise was 100%. its the cold weather. after doing a LOT more checking on sites, i found about 10 others now that have come across the same thing. but only in the winter ?. long story short ,they all found the noise was only there when it was really cold 3 or 4c or below. and as my noise only started when it was really cold i thought i would put it to the test. I brought my bike into my kitchen as it was 1c out side. left bike in the worm over night started it up no noise at all. left it another 3 days to make sure all the oil had dropped. started the bike again no problems at all. put bike back out side its -2 over night now. started the bike in the morning and yep the noise was back for about 10 to 15 seconds, then oil gets round and its spot on again. and bike rides 100% spot on. One lad has had it happen every year for the last 3 years when it got really cold. and has done 30.000 km and when it wormed up never happened again till the next winter.. so it must just be one of those thing. some are saying its the metal/or plastic shrinking just that bit more than it normally would or oil is just that bit thicker in the cold. Anyway it seams to be normal on some bikes so nothing to worry about. hope this can help some people out. trust me it took some finding out.
ps i checked the one way oil valve but it was not that, and kev said it was very unlikely to be that. easy to check. just take out your oil filter clean the oil out with a cloth. you will see a small hole in the bottom of the housing. this will have oil in it. leave it 4 or 5 hours and if the oil has gone, ie dropped back into the engine the the valve has gone. if the oil is still at the top of the hole, all is well. (thats what kev's link said). mine was pushing the oil up slowly so not dropping back so was all good on that front. and if it was the valve it would still do it in the worm. and just for my own peace of mind i put a brand new OEM clutch in just in case, but it was nothing to do with that but no harm putting in a new clutch.