Topic: Are all fork seals created equal?

[1981cb650c]

As the title asks, are all fork seals created equal? I'm talking the $7 ones we have all seen on ebay, but are they worth the low price? Some are listed to fit almost every old Honda under the rising sun but is this true? Honda fiche lists different seals for those same bikes. Can NOS seals be trusted? I recently saw a bulk bag of Honda fork seals on ebay. Assuming they are what they said, could they still be good?

[ofreen]

I've had the best luck with the OEM seals.  "Leak Proof" seals and their ilk are not, in my experience.  I won't bother with them anymore.

[joeb]

I've used both and OEM is the way I go now .  Had a few after market fork seals go away prematurely.   

[MRieck]

 OEM with some SF3 grease.

[BobbyR]

I had to replace my seals after using "No leak" and they left rings on my forks from day one. They finally let go after three years. Go OEM and buy them from a dealer like I did. They were soft and they seat great. I polished my tubes while they off. Anything  you can feel will cause a leak.  If your dealer is unfriendly check out House of Honda in NY. He got me new seals and dustcaps.

[bryanj]

In all honesty i can say that, when in the trade, i fitted many aftermarket seals with no problems at all.

The normal reason for a quick re-leak is pitting on the steel tubes whilst I have seen oil leaking around the outside of a new seal via a deep "gouge" in the alloy slider caused by using a big screwdriver to pry out the old seals.

Now there are many different suppliers of seals and like everything else the quality will vary, whilst Honda's QC regime is supossed to be second to none (even then i have had bad genuine parts!).
Honda do use different numbers for different bikes but several have the same diameters and so will fit.

Basically if your time is cheap fit aftermarket and save some money, if you value your time fit OEM parts BUT either way make sure the tubes are good.