2004 KLV1000/VStrom 1000 - Exhaust melted underseat tray.

[FlyingPanMan]

I recently removed the side panels on my KLV 1000 to find the right hand silencer had melted the plastic just above it. The under seat tray has side extensions that go over the silencers and it had melted down onto the silencer. This could be a potential fire risk, so I urge you all to check the plastic above your standard silencers.

The left side was unaffected so why this happened and when, I don't know. Maybe the previous owner had run it on one cylinder and/or badly out of tune.

Anyway, it's worth checking while the silencers are cold or you could end up with a hot bot!

[FlyingPanMan]

Well, I thought one or two might have had the same problem, but it appears to be only my bike!

What I thought was strange is that the left exhaust tends to be hotter as it comes from the rear cylinder, but it was the right exhaust the plastic had melted on to.

The plastic had melted and fallen/dripped down onto the hot silencer. I cut away the molten plastic and replaced it with some 0.8mm sheet alloy I pop-riveted in place. Just to be sure, I stuck some metal foil tape to reflect the heat away over the whole area above both silencers on the seat undertray.

[hookie]

Something rings a bell here... I think it may be due to the catalyst getting blocked. Someone else may be able to confirm this. If it is then I don't think there's a fix as it's a sealed unit and it will need replacing or better still fitting a set of nice straight through cans....

[Rusty Nuts]

Was it Abercol?

[greywolf]

Hookie is right. It is typically a malfunctioning catalytic converter that creates that kind of heat. Replacement is the only fix. Typically, a misfire will put unburned fuel into the cat especially before it heats up enough to burn off the excess fuel. The left can heats up faster than the right one because of the way the pipes are interconnected so there can be more build up on the right side to cause a problem.

[FlyingPanMan]

Yes, I forgot about the catalytic converters although it's never misfired or run too badly in my ownership. Probably returned to normal temps after a good well-tuned run.

I took the originals off to put a pair of carbon fibre cans on, so it's academic now.

[Abercol]

Spot on Rusty...

I had this - a duff front spark plug caused a misfire on a run, I was somewhat inconvenienced by the exhaust/rear end catching fire - smelt the burning plastic and smoke at a junction and a kind donation of 500ml of lidl's finest spring water poured over it did the trick.

I replaced the plugs with iridiums & the undertray with a very lovely one from a low mile 2008 bike from e-bay for under £20 and replaced the exhausts with the Beowulfs I already had.

[sharealike]

I once came across a damaged repairable (or so they claimed) with burned rear end plastics below the seat and melted seat. At the time I put it down to some poor DIY wiring. Guess it could have been due to this same issue.
What would be wrong with cutting the pipe along its length and pulling the cat honeycomb out. Weld the cut up and back on the road. Cheap fix for those with an angle grinder and a friendly welder. Likely as reliable as risking a used one. Which might do the same. Do the other side to match if it behaves.

[Abercol]

Yep, could do that - would be a cheap solution to de-cat the pipes.

I was lucky in that the melted plastic had just caught fire, so it didn't damage the upper plastics at all. I had a friend who had his Vee go up in flames while he was filling it with petrol - he was lucky in that the station had sand and extinguishers to hand, unluckily the 3 yr old bike was a write off. It was a coil failure on his letting unburnt fuel into the RH catalyst.

Even knowing this I still didn't think the misfire I had would amount to anything nasty. The LH exhaust was cherry red right at its closest point to the plastic. After changing the plugs and fighting fitting the recalcitrant undertray I put the LH silencer back on, but it got very hot, much hotter than the RH side, I think the honeycomb had melted/blocked the pipe, so I fitted the Beowulfs and they barely get warm to the touch.

[Gert]

You should be able to find info wrt steering head bearings via the forum's search engine.
Good write-ups with pix can also be found on: https://blacklabadventures.com/2012/05/09/how-I-adjust-the-steering-stem-bearings/ plus https://blacklabadventures.com/2012/02/28/steering-stem-bearing-replacement-upgrade/