Rohloff oil leak?

[GamblerGORD649]

2014. #1943xx.
I think it was broke in at 16,000 miles. LOL. Starting to coast better.

[Mike Ayling]

I always make sure the plug is up when parked, necessary or not. I have reused them too.

I have started doing that too.

Mike

[steve216c]

Mine has recently stopped leaking oil, but been marking its territory on my bike shed floor regularly which I later also identified as coming through the gear shift cabling area which is now 'well lubed' on the hub side. I had wondered if it were through the quick release, but after drying all with a rag and checking daily, the gear area seems to oil-up before the QR gets wet. My bike was purchased second hand a year ago, and where I did an oil change a month after purchase, which is when I first began to notice.

Initially I could not see where the drops were coming from, and put some masking tape over the oil change plug to see if that was the source. This proved to stay dry, and the drops continued to appear overnight but only if I had ridden the bike. If it had been standing, the drips either stopped or were less noticeable.


Having trawled the net for myself, I found several English and German sources saying that drips are not unusual not a huge concern and could be from the 'overfill' from the recommended oil change and partially due to air locks that might have got in when draining and refilling. As the hub can run 'dry' for up to 5000km I am not too concerned. It recently stopped dripping, and I will do the 5000km 1 year oil change in 2 weeks- and plan to change the paper seals on the internal gear element along with cabling when I do so. I am hoping I can establish if the seal is the source of the leak. The seals themselves come with the gear cable kit but can also be purchased seperately. What I can say is that my hub is running more smoothly than when I purchased the bike a year ago- and does not seem to have suffered as a result. When I drain the old oil in a couple of weeks, I'll try to estimate how much is remaining. I'd used one of the one time flush and oil kits on the change last year, so have a pretty good idea of how much went in initially.


Until I actually do the change, I cannot confirm 100% my theory of my oil 'leak' source- but it does seem to match other on subject posts I have found. I'll be a little wiser by mid November after a few km following my servicing.

[UKTony]

Rohloffs naturally sweat oil through the axle of the hub, this is actually OK and not a cause for concern provided that you are doing your re-oiling procedure in a timely manner. So, if it looks like your quick release got oily and some oil leaked out there to surrounding areas like the top of the cable box, just clean it off.

If you don’t already do so, Re- greasing  inside the ex box regularly (every 500k)  i,a,W Rohloff maintenance guide might help as  I believe is meant to act as a bit of a seal around the axle.

[steve216c]

As per my previous post, I mentioned I would check how much oil it looked like I'd lost when I did my change a couple of weeks back presumably through my leaky hub.
On last year's oil change I put the full 25ml from an oil change set in the hub. After adding 25ml flushing oil a couple of weeks back, I managed to drain just over 40ml back out. So I reckon I must have lost around 8ml over 11 months/5200km ridden. To be honest, the oil patch on the shed floor looked like more, I guess 8ml dripped the right (or wrong) way can look like more than it really was. Although there was oil all in the cable bellow and leaking from there, there was also oil in my QR hub too.

During my service, I also changed the internal hub gear cable which had become frayed. The Rohloff set included 2 paper gaskets. During the dismantling I initially thought that the larger paper must have disintegrated as I was convinced it wasn't there. Having everything opened up, I decided to give the inners a clean up before installing the new cable and gaskets. On installing the new gaskets and cable I made a mistake and needed to open it all up again to repeat the process correctly. Pulling out the new gasket I found the old gasket (the one I though was not there) had stuck to the new one. Basically the old one had become an oily colour and looked like oiled metal and not paper. So I removed and refitted just with new gaskets.

I'm coming up to 400km since the oil change, and no signs of dripping oil yet. It way well have been cured by gasket replacement. Having bought my bike second hand, I have no idea if the gaskets had ever been changed since leaving the factory several years ago. I suspect it might have cured my oil leak. If you still have an oil leak, you might want to try replacing the internal hub gear mech cables if that is the kind you have- just to see if new gaskets make a difference.

[Andre Jute]

That doesn't sound like a serious oil loss. In fact, no offence, but it doesn't sound like an oil loss at all, except to a relatively new Rohloff owner. I had an "Oh Christ!" reaction in my few months of Rohloff ownership when I found a pool of oil under the bike -- which turned out on tasting to be water from condensation. As much oil as you can't account for at the change probably just misted out, a normal, if unsettling to new owners, Rohloff operation.

[steve216c]

That doesn't sound like a serious oil loss. In fact, no offence, but it doesn't sound like an oil loss at all, except to a relatively new Rohloff owner. I had an "Oh Christ!" reaction in my few months of Rohloff ownership when I found a pool of oil under the bike -- which turned out on tasting to be water from condensation. As much oil as you can't account for at the change probably just misted out, a normal, if unsettling to new owners, Rohloff operation.

my loss based on patch size from the shed floor was far less than I expected in reality. Luckily my bike is still dry since the gasket change, suggesting this was how those meagre 8ml found their egress.


On another note, I mentioned to a colleague of mine about having bought the party pack size hub oil, who then mentioned he'd not had his Rohloff oil changed in way over 10,000km and at least 4 years and possibly as long as 6 years- since his daughter borrowed it for a university bike. I offered to do the oil change for him, and after putting in 25ml of flushing oil drew just under 30ml back out of pretty dirty and almost jet black looking oil. He'd not mentioned an oil leak- but had precious little in the hub given what we could drain. Even the drain plug was sticky rather than oily when I removed it.

Although he'd not noticed any drag in the hub riding 10km to my place, he did let me know that everything seemed much 'lighter' in operation after his return home ride.


Now he knows I bought the party pack oil size, he has dutifully promised to do this annually donating EUR 10 each time towards the costs I incurred going for the 1000ml bottle size rather than the one time sets or the EUR 25 he was charged by the bike shop for doing it for him. That suits me fine as a 40 year supply of oil changes for my single hub is probably a bit more than I will ever need- although I am tempted to keep my eyes open for future Rohloff powered bike(s) for when my wife turns 50 or kids come of age, which might use it up a tad quicker if I do.

[spoof]

Noticed the same collection of Rohloff oil seepage on the underside of the external shifter box here as result of noticing the small droplet pool of oil on the rubber mat underneath - this was roughly 6-8 weeks ago here in the UK. Probably the worst I have seen it since owning the bike as in the past was usually just isolated to needing a wipe of the ex-box with a rag. Definitely Rohloff oil by the distinct smell but as many experienced users here and elsewhere put to ease, nothing to worry about. My QR skewer is usually covered with a light coating of oil almost always whenever removed. No notice of oil leak since wiping stuff up and upon a short research I think I read someplace can be due to breathing during seasonal weather shifts, sort if ties into the timeline so might be true.

[il padrone]

I agree with all that Andre says. Too many people get far too much angst about a few drops of oil from the Rohloff. Usually it comes from the overfilling of putting a full 25mls in the hub.

Cheers, Pete

[Andre Jute]

I agree with all that Andre says. Too many people get far too much angst about a few drops of oil from the Rohloff. Usually it comes from the overfilling of putting a full 25mls in the hub.

I understand why it happens, Pete. The Rohloff is an expensive component, so newbies feel they should mind their p's and q's, whereas we've been hardened by years of experience of -- very little going wrong, and it always being fixable. But if you think back to when we were early adopters -- the makers of one of my bikes, Utopia, was the first adopter of the Rohloff for touring bikes, and Thorn was the first outside Germany -- you'll remember that there was a netsite for mud racers in Germany, which was conducted in German, useless to most of us, and nothing else. In fact, other cyclists thought Utopia and Thorn were crazy to offer the Rohloff on touring bikes of all things. To this day the Thorn netsite and  forum together still make up the most reliable source of information on the Rohloff as a touring gearbox, and in English too. The grass isn't greener on the other side of any fence we can reach. It doesn't surprise me at all that a worried newbie will find his way here.

Hey, when I first heard of paper seals and "misting out" in relation to the Rohloff, I had a sinking feeling...

[il padrone]

One day on tour in Tasmania after I had been using the Rohloff for just under 12 months, I suddenly had my attention drawn to several large drops of oil that had appeared under it one morning while we were stopped at a cafe having just returned on the ferry from Maria Island. I had that sinking feeling   . But, after consultation with this forum, my concerns were relieved.

Funny to hear of people measuring their oil clean volumes. I put in 25ml of cleaner oil and I am lucky if I get 30mls flushed out. I only fill with 15mls, so should never expect to get more than 45mls at max. Some always seeps out, that is how the Rohloff ensures that dirt does not get IN.
Cheers, Pete

[citruswinter]

Andy Blance addresses this topic in detail in his 'Living with a Rohloff Hub' document http://www.sjscycles.com/thornpdf/ThornLivingWithARohloff.pdf. Specifically the 'Oil leaks' section on page 32. It addresses most of the questions raised in this thread.