FZ1 front fork rattle

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hatfikyl

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Hello all,

So I have always been a silent stalker on the site reading posts and finally decided to register now that I have a question for ya'll. Purchased a '09 FZ1 left over last December and enjoyed it greatly last year. After taking it out this weekend, I noticed a rattle coming from up front at low speeds over bumps. I noticed it while idling through the parking lot. Thought it was the windscreen or something else with the plastics, but when I got home I shook the bike and think the sound is coming from the front forks. Anyone have an issue with this before and any suggestions on what to do to check (before taking it to the dealer). Warrantee just ended...of course...
 
I would check the steering stem bolt. It will rattle and you will feel it through the handle bars when applying the breaks

"I got home I shook the bike and think the sound is coming from the front forks."

Put it on the center stand have someone hold down on the rear of the bike lifting the front wheel off the ground and grab both forks and see if there is any forward or backward movement in them. I will try and see if I can find a diagram explaining this.
 
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When I first got my secondhand FZ1 2008 [ 19,000klms] I notice this also,I tried lightly applying the brakes,checked wheels, head bearings,forks etc,didn`t seem to make much difference.I screwed the preload down on the front to the next mark which seemed to help,now I never seem to notice it much, I think if I went really slow over a bumpy surface I most likely would hear it.But as my bike`s suspension seems to suit my weight [78kgs] and the bike handles great, I now don`t worry about it anymore
 
I have heard of this issue before. If you ruled out the brake pads, which many times it winds up being, I know that sometimes it's the fork spring inside the tube hitting the wall of the tube itself. It has happened on first gen bikes and can be remedied by rotating the fork spring inside the tube 180 degrees. Have your fork seals or oil been changed or replaced lately? Just a thought.
 
I heard the same noise today on mine. I've got a 2007 fz1 with 1,800 miles on it. The front end is all stock. I retorqued everything on the front end and nothing made it go away. I also had just set the suspension to stock settings so I plan to adjust that and see if anything helps. If nothing can be found loose I won't worry about it.
 
I fixed the rattle by taking the forks apart, cleaning the tubes and replacing the oil with the correct amount of 7 wt oil. The rattle drove me nuts... I tried all of the remedies on this thread but the thing that worked was having the right amount of oil in the forks. I used 7 wt oil to see if it would reduce the nose dive the bike did during hard braking... it seems to have worked.
 
How many miles has your bike??? I know that here in europe people change the oil in the forks after 30.000 km.......along with seals ect.....however this depends of how the bike was driven also....
 
I hear the same type of noise on my 2009 ( about 1 year old with 3800 miles ), only when I am going pretty slow over like a choppy/potholed parking lot etc.

Sounds kind of aluminum/heavy plastic type of "klunkity-klunk", and I have checked everything for looseness/play and found nothing, but the noise just drives me nuts!

Thought maybe it was the cluster or something similar to that, but nothing that I can do in the garage can reproduce the rattle..............could it really be the fork springs clunking against the inside of the tubes???
 
Oldschool said:
Check to be sure it isn't just front brake pads or other related parts first.
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BINGO...................Like you and Missy said my noise is the front brake pads rattling in the calipers. I came home from a ride last night and noticed the rattle as I was walking the bike ( was much easier to hear/pinpoint when engine is off ) into the garage and was lightly hitting the front brake to get it in its parking spot. So I started poking around and sure enough you can take your fingers and grab the brake pad assemblies and rattle them against the pins, which is what my noise is.

Dont think theres anything wrong, just the way it is, but at least now I know what the noise is so I can sleep at night ( LOL ).
 
Cobalt Coupe said:
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Dont think theres anything wrong, just the way it is, but at least now I know what the noise is so I can sleep at night ( LOL ).
Click to expand...

There's nothing wrong indeed. The noise just comes from the way the parts were designed. The rattling can be annoying at times, but no cause for concern once you know what's causing it and why..
 
Resolved the fork noise on my 2008 with 24000km by changing the oil. The first attempt I just measured the oil I removed and replaced it... that didn't fix the problem so I took the fork apart and drained all the oil put it back together and filled it with the specified amount... FIXED. No more fork rattle.
 
lookoutron said:
Resolved the fork noise on my 2008 with 24000km by changing the oil. The first attempt I just measured the oil I removed and replaced it... that didn't fix the problem so I took the fork apart and drained all the oil put it back together and filled it with the specified amount... FIXED. No more fork rattle.
Click to expand...
So how do they feel? How hard was it to disassemble?
 
Cobalt Coupe said:
BINGO...................Like you and Missy said my noise is the front brake pads rattling in the calipers. I came home from a ride last night and noticed the rattle as I was walking the bike ( was much easier to hear/pinpoint when engine is off ) into the garage and was lightly hitting the front brake to get it in its parking spot. So I started poking around and sure enough you can take your fingers and grab the brake pad assemblies and rattle them against the pins, which is what my noise is.

Dont think theres anything wrong, just the way it is, but at least now I know what the noise is so I can sleep at night ( LOL ).
Click to expand...

is there a anti rattle spring plate for this item? a lot of disk brakes have such to prevent this problem. (bikes and cages)
 
lookoutron said:
Resolved the fork noise on my 2008 with 24000km by changing the oil. The first attempt I just measured the oil I removed and replaced it... that didn't fix the problem so I took the fork apart and drained all the oil put it back together and filled it with the specified amount... FIXED. No more fork rattle.
Click to expand...
The oil level may not of made the difference, you may have rotated your springs when taking the forks apart, as this can help to stop the rattle
 
I believe the oil level han more to do with resolving the issue. The first attempt involved a quick oil change... measuring the amount that came out and replacing it with the same amount. The clunk sound that could be heard when pushing the fork down didn't go away until I drained all the oil and replaced it.

The noise was coming from the valve not the spring
 
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