Oil light blinks when bike is on side stand?

[Favre]

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I dont know if it has anything to do with the fact I just took the Gas Tank, and airbox off to change the spark plugs today. When I went to go start the bike the bike idled for a few mins and the Oil Pressure light flicked on and off then on and off again. I turned the bike off waited a few mins and turned the bike on with me sitting on the bike, no issue when i sat on the bike. I also (not sure if it is the same) accouple days ago while I was riding down the escarpment and had to come to a fairly fast stop at a stop sign the oil light came on and then went back off again pretty instantly.

I checked the oil level and its on the low side of the glass, Im assuming I should top the oil off?. The reason Im hesitant is because recently iv been having a small bit of oil leaking out of the crankcase breather hose (known issue with the 650 ninjas). I guess my question is this anything to worry about? Should I top the oil up and see what happens from there?.

 

[turbodish]

I guess my question is this anything to worry about? Should I top the oil up and see what happens from there?.

If your oil pick-up is out of the oil enough to cause oil pressure issues when you are on the side stand, then yes, you should worry about it. The same oil starvation issue could also show up on long right hand sweepers at the least, and maybe the left hand ones too.

You say that the oil is at the low side of your sight glass. That to me sounds like a reasonable time to top up. How long had you intended to wait otherwise? Until no oil was showing at all in the sight glass?

 

[rsilk]

Just add a little oil to the top level mark on the glass (check it with bike on wheels and vertical).

/rs

 

[koalaKid]

If your oil level is on the low side, top it up, but not to the full line (since you mention the oil coming from the breather hose).

Does your bike burn oil at all (I wouldn't expect it).

In my opinion, this is how I think you should think about it:

- oil light comes on when pressure sensor sees pressure below set point.
- so, let us ask ourselves what can cause low pressure (at the sensor):
1) easiest guess: slightly low oil level. especially considering that it is at idle when the bike is on the side stand. At idle, your oil pump isn't operating at max head. with the bike on the side stand, you may not have enough pressure at the suction of the pump.

It sounds to me like you have just enough of a leak that over time your oil level drops a bit. How long since your last oil change? (in kms).

Now onto some less likely scenarios:
2) faulty pressure switch/wiring. I would be surprised if this was the case
3) the other possible scenario I foresee is if you have a blockage somewhere in the oil flow path. If you are neglecting your bike and using ****** oil (omg, not this topic again!) and are not doing your oil changes at the proper frequency and abuse your engine, your oil could be degrading. Degraded oil leads to crude in the oil. This crude can build up in the oil passageways and restrict flow. Restricted flow would result in oil starvation. If you do regular oil changes and use full synthetic
oil I would not expect this to be the case. You asked, so I'm just enjoying the thought experiment.

As other have said, I would top up oil and monitor.

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