my friend has an '02 Rubicon. he has noticed engine oil in the airbox. last week after a trip to the black hills he had 1 quart in the airbox. the air filter is saturated. the engine does not smoke and it runs fine with no loss of power. the oil appears to be coming from the crankcase breather that is next to the foam airfilter. if the engine was loose and smoking i would think it was rings but there is no smoke or loss of power. anybody have any ideas what is causing this. the quad was purchased new and well maintained.

 

Check the oil level and see if its a quart down....if not, it was overfilled at the last oil change.

 

did he roll it or have it on it side on anything like that.
or did he change his oil latly.
maybe he overfilled it and it came out the vent tube.

 

If you lost a quart of oil, your oil stick would be the first place I would check. If it;s still full, clean the airfilter well, re-oil (you should only need about .7 oz.) and keep an eye on it.

 

hondabuster and mudblaster thanks for the replies. he did roll it over once last fall and thought that was the reason for the oil that he spotted at that time. he changed the oil 2 times since and it still has oil in the airbox each time..he cleans it out everytime. before his trip to the black hills last week he changed the oil and cleaned the filter. they drove 90 miles in two days up many hills ( but no rollovers) he was a quart low on the dipstick and he had about a quart in the airbox. the oil always looks fresh (amber colored) i think the capacity is 5.3 or 5.8 qts i cant remember what he told me. it seems high to me but i think it is the hondamatic tranny that makes it need so much oil. again it never smokes so i think maybe he does have too much oil in it. any other thoughts?

 

Ya, its alot of oil, i think a fill is 5.2 quarts.
He could do a compression test, and if its low, then id suspect worn rings, and the compression is leaking by, and causing blow by. Probably not likely, because hes not smoking or burning oil....usually if the motor has blowby, itll also smoke.

 

If it blows out whole quart then just don't put so much in next time.

 

A friend of has the same problem with his 2005 Rancher. The first day he rode it, it started cutting out and loosing power. Found about a half a quart of oil in the air box. Drained it, cleaned the filter and checked the level (without screwing it in). Level was OK. Figured that it was overfilled. The next week he took it in to the Honda dealer. They basically shrugged it off and performed service on it. Next weekend, same thing. Figured they over filled it again. Same routine. It would puff a slight bit when shifting. Thought it was residual oil. It has not been rolled. Last weekend it started making nasty noises so he shut it down immediately. Put in a quart of oil and it hardly registered on the stick but we had not started it to circulate the oil. Turned it over to start and it made some nasty, nasty noises. Towed it back to camp. The only thing I can figure is that there is a problem with the crank case breather and was hoping to find someone with the same problem. It has less than 200 miles on it, It’s going to the dealer again tomorrow and I'm hoping Honda will do the right thing and replace the whole ATV or at least put a new motor in it. He has also had a problem with the Speedo showing MPH in relation to RPM's while in neutral?? I have a 2002 Rancher with 1040 miles on it and have hot had a single problem.

Fredfl

 

You know every time I change my Honda Rancher oil, calls for 2.1 Quarts. Usually doesn't take more the 1.75 quarts or 2. Reason being for all I can figure is that you never really get all the Oil out when you drain it.

If you do a search on this site, you will see this topic alot. If your putting the Max amount in, without checking it. Then I suggest its getting overfilled.

 

[quote]
[i] Reason being for all I can figure is that you never really get all the Oil out when you drain it.

Thats true. On many specs they will give you two different oil capacities. One for oil and filter change and another for complete overhaul. Anybody who has ever stripped a motor right down will tell you how much mess you can get into unless you are prepared for it.