I was riding home from work tonight and when I came to a stop light I just happened to look down at the forks. I noticed some oil around the left hand fork's dust cover. After having a quick look I noticed its making its way down the back of the fork towards the brake caliper.

Does this mean I've blow a fork seal? Should I replace them anyways?

Here are some pictures to show the difference between the right and left forks.

Left Hand Fork


Right Hand Fork

 

dirty dirty.......looks like it might be a seal...

 

I am going to have to say um ya it is your seal unless the fork has gotten really damaged. From those pictures looks like they have been messed up for a while I would get it done or do it yourself ASAP. Have fun and good luck hope it gose easy for you.

 

Anybody know about how much the parts are going to cost to do this myself?

 

around 50 or 60 bucks give or take...ive been told to definatly get oem seal kits..the kits for my f3 were 39.99 and like 10 or 15 bucks worth of oil

 

Thanks everyone.

I know this is just recent because I gave it a quick wash on Sunday and never noticed the oil then.
Now I just have to find out how to change the seals myself. Anyone know of a how-to off hand?

 

uh yeah, its right in the How to section...

great right up, I used for when rebuilding my forks.

 

The seals are about $16 from the dealer....I strongly reccomend that you use OEM seals...I bought Leak Proof Brand Seals and they didnt fit as tight as the OEM ones and the oil seal was not as thick as OEM. I threw these away and went with OEM ones to be on the safe side. You will need 2 bottles of Honda ss810w fork oil. I noticed the amount the How-To says and the amount my shop manual says are about 100 mL difference. I used around 560 mL in each fork. The guide and slider bushings should not need replaced unless you beat your bike to death or it has extremely high miles. I just did the rebuild on mine and was scared that is would be hard to do...after seeing how easy forks are to service, I would consider servicing my forks a lot more often since it was so easy. you can get the job complete from stripping the bike down to putting it back together in an hour. Good Luck!