Rohloff oil leak

[il padrone]

My Rohloff reached 5000kms back in December so it got its first oil change. No major problems, although much less than 50ml came out - about 28mls actually  . There had been some weeping of oil during its first 5000kms, that I just wiped clean.

Now after another 1000kms while on a tour of Tasmania, the hub leaked a fairly large amount one day. It was about 6-8 drops of oil on the sand after I had parked the bike. I'm guessing that I lost maybe 10ml of oil.

The question is, do I:

1. top up the oil some amount,
2. do a second oil change, or
3. do nothing??

Any advice gladly appreciated.


PS. I have since ridden a further 400kms with no negative effects.

[Danneaux]

Pete,

I don't own a Rohloff and have no experience with them, but that won't deter me from passing along a snippet or two of understanding I have gleaned from those who do have them...

From what I understand, even a leaking Rohloff hub will still retain enough oil to ride safely for awhile; the remaining oil will be enough to go on until service can be rendered.

Further, I don't think all the oil one puts in comes out again.

Given this, I don't think you've done any harm to the hub to this point and have some margin to weigh your options.

I realize this doesn't solve your problem or find the cause (maybe a worn or damaged seal), but may give a bit of well-meant comfort and reassurance.

Best,

Dan.

[julk]

Pete,
I have never had oil leak in drips from my Rohloffs, I have had some weeping which I just wipe off.

Thorn suggest that on an oil change doing a 25ml refill of hub oil is overkill and only about half that is actually needed.
If you have used all of the 25mm, then it is possible that the leakage is just the unneeded excess escaping.
As Dan mentions, Rohloff say that you can run a hub losing oil safely until the next oil change.

If the oil loss is not from overfilling, continues and you want to stop it then it is probably going to require new oil seals.
Rohloff have a good video on their site showing the replacement process and tools needed - looks easy with the right tools.
http://www.rohloff.de/en/technology/workshop/videos/hub_seal_replacement/index.html
Do you have a Rohloff capable bike shop within reach or will you have to do it?
Julian.

[pdamm]

il pardrone
The Rohloff on my Raven Tour (owned since 2006) has leaked a few drops on several occasions in that time.  It also seems to weep a small amount of oil.  I haven’t worried about it and it is still working well.  Since you have ridden another 400k since the incident with no further leaks I would not worry about it.  As Dan says the hub can lose a lot of oil and still be ridden to the next oil change because there is enough oil on the mechanism to prevent any damage.  I believe about 12 ml sticks to the insides.

If it keeps on leaking a lot of oil on a regular basis I would get the seals replaced.

Peter

[Andre Jute]

A Rohloff's a damned expensive gearbox. I take the view that, even if you know that 25ml of oil is overkill, a service kit and delivery is only about thirty euro (and much less you buy in bulk and so save on the delivery), well worth it for the peace of mind. As for the mess when the excess oil comes out, as it will, well, it happens on one or two days (and for no obvious reason), you wipe it off the hall tiles or let it soak into the shed floor, and then you're good for another year. If you happen to be touring Tassie when it happens, count yourself lucky!

As for worrying, I wouldn't. What I would do though, is at the end of the tour to sacrifice a service kit to run the cleaning oil through it to get the gunge of the tour out and put clean oil in there, rather than let the box go for x months more, commuting or incidental riding or whatever, until the routine annual service comes round again. That seems a reasonable precaution to me.

Andre Jute