Ok guys, I'm relatively new to motorcycles. Learned to ride on 250s and recently bought a 2002 f4i. Had it for a few weeks and the other night, after I was done riding, I gently set it on it's left side (accidentally of course). The engine was off and I was just trying to push it into my garage (pain in the **** to get it in the door) and I slipped. It was not a hard fall by any means, I don't think I got a single scratch on it, and my buddy ran over to help lift it up and the bike was vertical again in under 8 seconds. I got it in the garage, locked up for the night and that was that. Today I got it out to go for a ride and started it up to get it up to temp. About a minute later I came back to mount on and the indicator light was solid red and the oil light was blinking. I cut it off right away and now I'm not really sure what to do. I checked the oil level and it was within the parameters (no, I did not have it on it's side stand, it was upright) I can't imagine that such a light and brief fall would have done much if any damage mechanically, I mean I've heard of bikes taking much worse falls and not have any issues. Any help or suggestions? Would an oil change likely fix any issues? Please let me know. Any input or advice is helpful

 

The oil light is always on before start
IF it's still on after you start the engine then you have problem.

Funny, I also worried about same thing right after I bought the bike, luckily the previous owner told me not to worry

 

No, the oil light stays on when the engine is running. Is there an oil pressure sensor that could have been bumped or something? Just checked again, the oil levels are definitely good... The engine sounds like normal when running, but I still don't want to risk it.

 

Could've gotten an air bubble in the oil filter or something, you may have to "burp" it. As many times as my ninja has been on it's side I've never had this problem but it seems like something that happens fairly often when a bike is dropped. Never dropped the F4i (though the PO's have quite a few times :P) so not 100% sure.

 

Sorry for my lack of knowledge, what do you mean by "burp?" I just read a bit about it and there seems to be several different ways people suggest doing it.

I talked to the guy who used to own it and he said he usually only would put mobil 1 filters on it, but the last time he changed the oil he decided to put on a fram since (I'm assuming) he wanted to save money and knew he wanted to sell soon. I ordered a better filter and new oil and was just going to do a new oil change. Hopefully that will get the light to go off. He seemed to think that should get it to shut off as well. Otherwise I'm assuming the problem would either be a loose wire, the oil pressure sender switch, or a bad oil pump. Neither of the later 2 I am comfortable fixing myself. I really hope this oil change fixes the problem. I'll be doing the change tomorrow so I'll post back for better or worse. I guess if that doesn't work I'll try to "burp" it, lol.

Thanks for the help everybody. Btw kopi ko, when I first got the bike I was concerned about that same thing as well, and it seems like as soon as I figured out that the indicator light was supposed to do that with the ignition on, and I got that relief off of my chest, now I have to deal with this light for real. It's really starting to **** me off. All I want to do is ride, lol.

 

Hey everybody, I just changed the oil and filter, K&N filter with mobil 1 synthetic. The light went right out. I just thought I'd get back to let everyone know so that if they encounter the same problem, they may just need to change the oil and filter. Burping the oil filter may have worked fine also, but if worst comes to worst, an oil change worked for me.

 

Good deal! I actually don't know how to burp the filter off the top of my head since I've never had to do it, so glad ya got it fixed.

 

There is no such thing as burping a filter. Its a pressure fed housing, the oil forces any air out as soon as there is oil pressure.

 

Probably just set off the tip over switch or something and all is good now?? Maybe.