I don't care if the dealer says they checked it and thye give you the filled out the inspection sheet. That may be common knowledge to some. I trusted my dealer. I checked the engine oil and coolant(easy stuff) right away. Today(15 hours on the bike) I checked the diffs and tranny. Rear diff is basically empty!!!! And it isn't leaking. The little oil that is there doesn't look good. A lot of fine metal particles. Not happy!

 

Since my dealer is 2 hours away and not open again until Tuesday I decided to drain the little fluid that was in there and re-fill it. It had maybe 2 oz
( supposed to be 5oz) I'll ride it a litte and change it again. I saved the drained fluid to show to the dealer though. It looks BAD for only having 15 hours on it. Hopefully I caught it soon enough. Time will tell.

 

There is a special procedure to use for checking the rear diff fluid. And sometimes it won't take long for diff fluid to become dirty, especially a front diff with ADC. I posted some pics on this that you might be able to find by searching for forums. I just flushed the front diff the other day for the fifth time, this time about 10 hours of use without using ADC, and the fluid was gray already.

Let me know if you can't find the pics and I'll find them for you. The thread might be called "change those fluids" or something like that. I've got to get to work now. LOL!!

 

Thanks. The front looked fine, level was good and since I have made it a habit to not use the ADC unless needed the fluid was pretty clean. The manual for the 08 800 states the rear should be filled with 5oz or upto the threads on the fill port. The fill port is now in the back. Looks like it used to be on the side, which looks higher than the read location. I have changed diff fluid with ALOT more time on it than this that didn't look this bad. I understand the front looking bad quick due to the clutch material.

 

Wow, I wonder why they changed the rear diff level for the '08 800. Makes me wonder if I should put more fluid in mine. I'll have to look at an '08 rear diff to see if its been changed from the previous year. Going strictly by the procedure for check and fill in the '07 manual, I can't even see the fluid in my rear diff.

 

i havent even had time to ride my bike except once this year and havent gone enough to change fluids but its coming right up so ill have to check this weeknd. i know they will be fairly dirty for the the first change just from normal wear in.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: stendori

i havent even had time to ride my bike except once this year and havent gone enough to change fluids but its coming right up so ill have to check this weeknd. i know they will be fairly dirty for the the first change just from normal wear in.</end quote></div>

Yes the initial change will have a little more contamination due to break in of the gears and mostly the seals. A properly assembled/designed/lubricated ring and pinion differential will exhibit very little wear. Most of the contamination will be seal material and will give the oile a dirty look. It should have very few metal flakes and should not look "silvery" like mine did. That is excessive metal wear. Once a ring and pinion has had metal ran through it it generally wears at a greatly accelerated rate.