My buddy has an '09 Road Glide with about 5,500 miles on it. The past few days he's having a problem with the bike. Oil pressure gauge drops dramatically, he's hearing a loud ticking noise, the oil light comes on, and then it goes away. Bike has plenty of oil and doesn't leak at all. Aside from his RSD air cleaner, the bike is stock.

Any idea what could be causing the sudden drops in oil pressure, and the noise coming from the motor? I figured I'd ask you guys since he won't be able to take the bike in under warranty for a couple days. I thought it was odd that it's intermittent.

 

If he keeps riding it like that, it won't be intermittent for long...

 

If he put an aftermarket air cleaner and did not install a fuel control module or get the stage 1 download, he is could be running the bike very lean. The lean condition will generate more heat than normal dropping the oil pressure. Just about all H-D drop oil pressure once they are hot (mainly at idle). The hotter they get the less oil pressure they have. Just an idea, at 5500 miles he should have it checked out at the dealer just to be on the safe side.

 

How far is it dropping? When mine is hot at idle, I have 6-7 pounds of pressure. Under load it climbs back up to 32 or so.

 

If the oil light is coming on then he needs to take it to the dealer ASAP!

 

 

The viscosity of the oil drops as it gets hotter, but that should only drop the pressure a little. Oil is forced thru the system by pressure, hence any opening in the system will result in loss of pressure. I would trailer it to the dealer.

 

As far as the air cleaner, I tried to tell him it would lean out the bike too much, but the dealer told him that the computer will adapt and richen the fuel mixture so he doesn't need a fuel processor and he won't listen to me. But, the air cleaner has been on the bike for a couple thousand miles, and this problem just started a couple days ago he said.

According to him the oil pressure gauge is nearly bottoming out... it's not a minor drop.

 

What's he waiting for, for it to seize the pistons and crank so he can justify an upgrade? He's got to do something before he's ordering an S&S for about $7K!

 

He was riding it last night knowing about these problems... not something I would do but it ain't my bike.