Yes, I stripped it, now I need some help please.

So.. Yeah, I stripped my oil drain bolt on my WR. It was an awful day. Anyway I took it to the Yamaha dealer and they put a helicoil in and told me i'd be fine. So the bike is home now and I ride it for an hour or so and put it away and 3 days later I have a oil stain on the floor the size of a quarter. Ride it again, same size stain a few days later. Repeat, repeat. The bolt is wet to the touch but If I wipe it clean it seems to take hours to get wet again so yes it's a very small leak but it's making me crazy, mainly cause I'm so pissed at myself. I have checked the torque (with my new torque wrench) and it's to spec, 20NM. Anybody have any possible suggestions as to my next move to solve this leak? I spoke to my auto mechanic and he suggested a little bit of teflon tape just around a few of the threads closest to the head of the bolt. Is this a good option? I thank you in advance for any help with this.

Best,

Jason

I don't think the teflon tape is necessarily a bad idea, but I would think the crush washer is kinda in charge of the oil being able to seep out and not the threads. Try to get a fresh crush washer on there, see how it does and then pull out the tape and silicone.

I bought a pack of oil drain washers from CycleGear a few years ago and use as needed, here is a link

+1 on a new crush washer ..if your oil plug bolt tightens to spec its not the bolt.
do not use teflon tape... the teflon could get caught on the heli coil end and lift it etc.. {it only a spring that is shaped like a thread}

Well still no luck resolving this leak. I've changed oil and replaced OEM crush washer twice, no luck. I've now tried installing a new bolt as well as a Permatex product which is specifically to stop Oil Drain Bolt leaks (seems to be a heavy grease with some infused teflon). This seemed to not be leaking at first but after my first hour plus ride where the bike got pretty hot the slow drip was back after the bike st a couple days! I had a different shop look at the helicoil install and they said it was done just right.

So am i doomed to just have a leaking bike for the rest of it's existence? I understand it's supposed to be the crush washers job to hold the oil, not the bolt. Maybe there is a crush washer material that could work better than the OEM copper? Any other thought?

Thanks!

You could give the crushwasher a small amount of liquid gasket, like high temp rtv on both sides. It fixed leaks on the oilpipes on my old xt350, when new crushwashers alone just wasnt up for it.

This probably isnt a correct fix in many peoples minds, but it works.

Go to a automotive parts store and get a plastic or fiber crush washer like they sell for car oil drain bolts, they seal up much better than the stock copper or alum ones.

If this doesnt work you must have a burr or low spot around the drain hole so the washer isnt sealing, file it flat.

+1 on using a smooth flat file to make sure the engine case surface is flat and burr-less.

The same happened to me in both the WR250 and the CX500. I suggest that you leave it alone and let it drip. It seems that you don't loose oil in a high flow rate…just refill once a while.

Ive had good success using timesert inserts... Might work better than a helicoil in this case?