Hi all, I bought this bike second-hand from a teen online, he told me it had a faulty fork.
Today I flipped my bike to replace the disc brake pads and this white fluid started flowing out of the fork. What is it and how cooked am I? 🥶
by Representative-Bed15
5 Comments
That’s your damper. Possibly contaminated oil. Time for a service.
Maybe it leaked air and they put tire sealant in it thinking it would do what it does in a tire? There’s white lithium grease but it’s too thick to drip out like that. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a white fork oil.
But, this also means you were riding around with that top cap loose?
The part with the red knob is called the compression damper. It is supposed to be threaded into the stanchion tube, and the fluid in that tube is NOT supposed to be that color. Has to be hydraulic oil normally.
Put on some rubber gloves and pull on the damper. It has to be extracted and examined. Also drain the fluid and shine a light into the tube. There has to be a piston that should move back and forth as the fork is compressed and extended. Some more of the fluid may come out from under the piston once you cycle the fork upside down.
Problems with the damping in that fork might be easy to solve, or they might require replacement parts to be machined (at the extreme, buying a different fork may be cheaper). Examine carefully everything inside, post photos. So far it looks like a ripped off Manitou Absolute+ or TPC damper. Obscure Chinese suspension fork manufacturers love to copy these two.
It’s a sign from the universe that you should have bought a better bicycle. You could replace the fork, but the cost, with labor, is more than that bike is worth. Save your money, accept it as a learning opportunity and buy a quality bike.
Thread that red lockout knob back in and see if it works if it does that’s great if it doesn’t I would just live with it in all honestly fixing that fork would probably cost more than it’s worth.