Coolant leak now - I blame Seadog

[willtill]

J/K :icon_lol:

Crap... now I have antifreeze clearly imprinting itself on the left side cylinder head/engine guard under the left side fairing. Just smelled coolant this afternoon and thought nothing of it... until I saw this:

http://i64.tinypic.com/335ches.jpg

Am torn between fixing it myself (hopefully a loose clamp) or if it's a bad hose... Honda should pay for it.

I absolutely hate taking my bike to the dealer to be mistreated :banghead: ....under warranty

[Dirtstiff's F6B]

Over filled?

[stroguy]

Does look similar to the pinhole leak I had fixed. Make them do a pressure test vs an assumption. I had to make two trips, but they did fix it good. I had the bike repaired just before AreKansas and never and have still not had an issue. Good luck.

If you can have them put helicopter coolant in vs motorcycle coolant. It works better....wopwopwopwopwopwop.

[willtill]

Over filled?

Not likely and impossible. It would just blow out of the coolant reservoir tank.


Does look similar to the pinhole leak I had fixed. Make them do a pressure test vs an assumption. I had to make two trips, but they did fix it good. I had the bike repaired just before AreKansas and never and have still not had an issue. Good luck.

If you can have them put helicopter coolant in vs motorcycle coolant. It works better....wopwopwopwopwopwop.

I was revving it pretty hard today (actually the first time of REALLY getting on it - approaching redline on the tach) and then this happened. A high pressure pinhole leak of the hose perhaps?

I do have the repair manual and been looking at it all this afternoon. So much crap ya gotta remove to get to the hoses under the the left radiator. :icon_rolleyes:

[seadog]

J/K :icon_lol:

Crap... now I have antifreeze clearly imprinting itself on the left side cylinder head/engine guard under the left side fairing. Just smelled coolant this afternoon and thought nothing of it... until I saw this:

http://i64.tinypic.com/335ches.jpg

Am torn between fixing it myself (hopefully a loose clamp) or if it's a bad hose... Honda should pay for it.

I absolutely hate taking my bike to the dealer to be mistreated :banghead: ....under warranty

Causing your antifreeze to leak. lol

[jm21ddd15]

I had that same "pic", with the anti-freeze spattered on my lower left engine side. I traced the leak to the hose that connects to the top/front of the left side radiator. The cheap little hose clamp that Honda put on, was junk. I went to the auto parts store, and got a "real" hose clamp, put that on, and have ridden another 12000 miles without any leaks. Can't say that this is your issue, but I would check it out. And you are correct, it is a royal pain in the a--, to get the Tupperware off, just to check the hose clamp. Good luck, hopefully you have a service manual.

[willtill]

It's just that heavy oil your using

Causing your antifreeze to leak. lol

You are quite a card :icon_lol:


I had that same "pic", with the anti-freeze spattered on my lower left engine side. I traced the leak to the hose that connects to the top/front of the left side radiator. The cheap little hose clamp that Honda put on, was junk. I went to the auto parts store, and got a "real" hose clamp, put that on, and have ridden another 12000 miles without any leaks. Can't say that this is your issue, but I would check it out. And you are correct, it is a royal pain in the a--, to get the Tupperware off, just to check the hose clamp. Good luck, hopefully you have a service manual.

Thanks, yes I have a service manual. :yes:

[Vondawg]

Causing your antifreeze to leak. lol

:crackup::lolup:

[willtill]

Just got done reviewing the repair manual in more depth; to get at those radiator coolant hoses under the left side fairing... :shock:

...basically I will have to disassemble the ENTIRE front end of the bike :shhh: Everything except the front wheel/forks/fender

This is way more involved than an air filter replacement. :banghead:

[Wing'n it]

I agree with the post above,.... it's a loose clamp. Looks like the coolant is seeping under the hose guard and running down. If you go in check them ALL as it would be a mistake to just look at the one clamp.

[willtill]

I agree with the post above,.... it's a loose clamp. Looks like the coolant is seeping under the hose guard and running down. If you go in check them ALL as it would be a mistake to just look at the one clamp.

Yes, I will check them all (the ones I can get to). There are other clamps as well (like under the fuel tank - which I am not pulling at this time)

This is the most technical bike I have ever worked on. :shock: I thought my Victory Vision was difficult.... not. :nono:

[willtill]

Got my Whistler remote camera into that area of the left radiator top hose and clamp; here it is:

http://i66.tinypic.com/o0nnyu.jpg

So close and so far away... I really am hoping I can figure out a way to get to it; without disassembling the entire front end. Do you REALLY have to pull the whole front fairing to get to this top left radiator hose clamp? :kap: Or is there an easier way :shhh:

[willtill]

..to fix a leaking radiator hose clamp :banghead:

Still so close... and yet so far:

http://i68.tinypic.com/2jb34u8.jpg

I am starting to understand the absolute madness of the Honda motorcycle engineer/designer. This machine was born in the pits of hell.

I am cautiously expectant that I will be able to loosen the left side fairing enough now, to somehow get my hands in there to adjust/tighten that hose clamp. And this is good practice for the air filter change out later on....

[BIGLRY]

..to fix a leaking radiator hose clamp :banghead:

Still so close... and yet so far:

http://i68.tinypic.com/2jb34u8.jpg

I am starting to understand the absolute madness of the Honda motorcycle engineer/designer. This machine was born in the pits of hell.

https://catmacros.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/welcome_to_hell.jpg?w=720

[willtill]

...so I took my bike apart IAW the repair manual. But to get to the top left radiator hose; you only need to remove the upper cowl and the inner fairing area after all. :icon_doh:

There are some really difficult pins to coax out of those inner panels though.... pain in the azz...

I now can easily get to the leaking radiator hose clamp:

http://i66.tinypic.com/2nhiwc4.jpg

A lesson to be learned... so you'all don't make the same mistake.... :shhh:

At any rate, now I know how to get into the innards of everything... and I needed to pop some panels anyway to get my Gerbing power connection installed....

[unsub]

and I needed to pop some panels anyway to get my Gerbing power connection installed....

Ah, there ya go. The silver lining!:yes:

[stroguy]

GeeSus H Krist mister. Just wait till your father gets home! Who's gonna put that thing back together?

[shortleg0521]

...so I took my bike apart IAW the repair manual. But to get to the top left radiator hose; you only need to remove the upper cowl and the inner fairing area after all. :icon_doh:

There are some really difficult pins to coax out of those inner panels though.... pain in the azz...

I now can easily get to the leaking radiator hose clamp:

http://i66.tinypic.com/2nhiwc4.jpg

A lesson to be learned... so you'all don't make the same mistake.... :shhh:

At any rate, now I know how to get into the innards of everything... and I needed to pop some panels anyway to get my Gerbing power connection installed....
GOOD JOB MY BROTHER!,,,,

[willtill]

GeeSus H Krist mister. Just wait till your father gets home! Who's gonna put that thing back together?

:icon_lol:

Hey! At least nothing broke. Or snapped. Yet. :shhh:

[willtill]

GOOD JOB MY BROTHER!,,,,

Thanks! Still got to put her back together.... but that will be in a couple of days.

She will "rest in pieces" for a bit....

It's nice to have a place to work on it.

[stroguy]

What speakers do you have their Will? Do you like em over stock? Direct fit or a lil modding?

Good job by the way. Look eeeerily familiar to when I dropped the H7 adapter in the light lense. Lots and lots of little pieces. Good luck.

[BIGLRY]

And to think when you get done you'll have all them spare parts left over in case you need them later....................................NOT:icon_ lol:

Good job!:yes:

[willtill]

What speakers do you have their Will? Do you like em over stock? Direct fit or a lil modding?

Good job by the way. Look eerily familiar to when I dropped the H7 adapter in the light lense. Lots and lots of little pieces. Good luck.

Those are the JBL's from Dirtstiff's speaker thread. Yes.. I had to mod them to get them to fit. They have fuller, deeper sound than the OEM speakers.


And to think when you get done you'll have all them spare parts left over in case you need them later....................................NOT:icon_ lol:

Good job!:yes:

Hopefully no spare parts. But I did find a grommet that fell into the dark interior long ago... and was replaced. So now I have a spare grommet.

I did carefully catalogue and arrange all of the parts; to prevent confusion upon reassembly. From the last picture I posted, you can see a cardboard screw holder in the background, that will help me reorient the screws. :yes: A helpful hint gleaned from others on this board.

[bob109]

Good job Will! Thanks for sharing the photos which paint a thousand words:039:

[Dirtstiff's F6B]

Nice work, Will. HOPE it comes back together well.
If I could use your plight for a quick story I'm proud to tell..
I had a little brother who was always described as off or had problems or just wasn't or going to be very brite....
When I was a kid, maybe 10, Dad started me racing minibikes. I wasn't very good but burned through several bikes that ended up going to my little brother as hand me downs. When I was done with em they were pretty well thrashed. Ok, to the point and Will's plight; my little bros, 6 or 7 year old at the time, who had the nickname of Mr. Destructo, given him by my dad.. We came home one afternoon only to find one of the discarded minibikes in a million pieces in the back yard, with Dads best tools scattered from he'll to breakfast. Oh shit, Dad was pissed, little bros got a wippin and it was a bad deal all around..
Next day though, we came home and Mr. Destruto had the mini back together and running better than it ever had...
The tools were put away and nothing to clean up. I saw my Dad cry over that deal and even heard him tell off the the psychiatric doctor who told my folks your son was slow and would never amount to much.
Before I lost him, he was designing natural gas, v12 compressor stations with only a hard fought high school education. Today was his birthday.
Thanks for the reminder.
J

[53driver]

Happy birthday to J's little brother.
God works in mysterious ways....

[Wing'n it]

In the service industry we call that "Trial by fire" your learning by doing and thats a skill you'll never loose, good job!

[willtill]

...the belly of the beast :shock:

Since I was already 3/4's of the way there, I decided to change out the air filter. Bike only has 7300 miles on it; so the OEM filter was not very dirty:

http://i67.tinypic.com/34ozgw6.jpg

Very little oil in the airbox:

http://i63.tinypic.com/6ftemx.jpg

The only difficulty I have encountered so far, was trying to release that third electrical connection (called a joint connector" in the repair manual). Ended up having to leave it connected and suspending the glove box assembly upside down; with a bungee cord attached to the windshield. The third connector is what I've pointed to with the blue arrow below:

http://i63.tinypic.com/176b9d.jpg

I'd be real appreciative if someone could tell me how to disconnect that sucker next time.... :039:

Now for some beer, and I will start putting her back together tomorrow.

[lloydmoore1]

thanks for sharing but sweet geesus she looks pretty bare with all the make up off...great patience on seeing it through

[willtill]

Just got done putting her all back together :icon_cool: No "leftover parts" :icon_cool: No "broken parts" :icon_cool: And she actually starts and everything seems to be functional :yes:

http://i67.tinypic.com/2ibnw5y.jpg

....just have to do something about that "hole" I drilled under the fuel tank cap cover :icon_doh:

[Old Ryder]

Nice work, Will. HOPE it comes back together well.
If I could use your plight for a quick story I'm proud to tell..
I had a little brother who was always described as off or had problems or just wasn't or going to be very brite....
When I was a kid, maybe 10, Dad started me racing minibikes. I wasn't very good but burned through several bikes that ended up going to my little brother as hand me downs. When I was done with em they were pretty well thrashed. Ok, to the point and Will's plight; my little bros, 6 or 7 year old at the time, who had the nickname of Mr. Destructo, given him by my dad.. We came home one afternoon only to find one of the discarded minibikes in a million pieces in the back yard, with Dads best tools scattered from he'll to breakfast. Oh shit, Dad was pissed, little bros got a wippin and it was a bad deal all around..
Next day though, we came home and Mr. Destruto had the mini back together and running better than it ever had...
The tools were put away and nothing to clean up. I saw my Dad cry over that deal and even heard him tell off the the psychiatric doctor who told my folks your son was slow and would never amount to much.
Before I lost him, he was designing natural gas, v12 compressor stations with only a hard fought high school education. Today was his birthday.
Thanks for the reminder.
J

Awesome story---thanks a ton for sharing. :icon_cool:

[willtill]

:banghead:

Gawddammit it to hell. It's still leaking... after I tore it all down, tightened the clamp and put it back together.... :shock:

Am so pissed off right now. Maybe it is a pin hole leak in the hose like Stroguy had with his machine.

Stroguy, did they tell you where the pinhole was? Was it around the clamp area? I ran my motor with all of that shit off of it, brought it up to operating temperature and saw NO LEAKS while she was naked.

I'm too disgusted at the moment to investigate further... if that hose needs to be replaced... I'm going to take it to the dealer to fix under warranty.

I may as well put a pistol to my chest and enjoy a sucking chest wound after that

[stroguy]

No sir they did not tell me. As I told you they let her cool down from my ride to the dealer and ran a pressure test on the system to locate the hole.

I was at the dealer a few days later while they had her apart and took a look in the OR while she was apart. It was quite frightful to see how disassembled she was to accomplish the fix. I went to church that evening and prayed my girl would pull through the operation. She did.

I think the pressure test is in your future, my dealer tried the simple clamp fix first as well.

Good luck.......I'll pray for your bike.

[willtill]

I'm going back into the front of the radiator again this morning (pull off the center front cowl and right side radiator plastic panel) and try to see what's going on again with it. My fear is that the clamp has probably cut into the hose and the leak is still pronounced under pressure.

I do have some of the self adhering emergency Nitro Tape that I am thinking of temporarily applying to the area; where that clamp fastens on the hose. I may use that for now... Of course if the hose does have a leak, the best thing is to replace the hose and I sure would like to do that myself... though it would definitely involve removing the front fairing; in order to access the right side of the engine where that hose ties into the thermostat. And that's a job that I could do... but I think I should invoke my warranty coverage and have Honda warranty R&R the failed component and do the work.

I just have such a fear of the Honda service departments around here... from the way the bikes are mistreated/stored/cared for by the techs, the nonchalant attitudes of the service departments in general, and the flawed attempts I've experienced with attempted repairs; necessitating bring the bike back again to address them.

It is a huge logistical feat for me just to get the bike to and from the dealer as well.

[Dirtstiff's F6B]

If your warranty is still good, let the dealer fix it, Will.
Save yourself that anguish.

If they f something up, it's still on them.
Try another dealer than the one you've been at odds with.

Don't try patching the hose; it won't hold unless you can cut and reattach down stream of the leak.

Does your insurance cover towing?
There is a retired couple around here that own a MC towing company call EMR bike transport or some similar. Their rates are fair, great bike owning people who know how to transport bikes and care about customer service.

Before this economy, the dealer would likely pick it up and deliver back to you.

JMO
Good luck

[willtill]

...it's NOT leaking now. :shhh:

Went to another dealer this mid-morning and spoke with the service department, made an appointment to drop it off next Wednesday and they would look at it Thursday.

But coming back out to my bike and looking at the same spot I saw the coolant leaking before... it was no longer visible :shock: And I ran the bike HARD to the Stealership this morning.... they're about 15 miles away from me.

So... with guarded optimism I think that re-tightening the clamp a day ago HAS sealed the upper radiator hose on the left radiator. Maybe it was residual coolant still trapped in the protective covering of the hose... though I would have thought that it would have long dried up by now...

http://i67.tinypic.com/2rd96co.jpg

I'll continue to monitor it tomorrow and still hold my appointment with the Stealership until the very last day of cancelling it.

[seadog]

Thanks! Still got to put her back together.... but that will be in a couple of days.

She will "rest in pieces" for a bit....

It's nice to have a place to work on it.

I deny everything!

[stroguy]

...it's NOT leaking now. :shhh:


But coming back out to my bike and looking at the same spot I saw the coolant leaking before... it was no longer visible :shock: And I ran the bike HARD to the Stealership this morning.... they're about 15 miles away from me.

So... with guarded optimism I think that re-tightening the clamp a day ago HAS sealed the upper radiator hose on the left radiator. Maybe it was residual coolant still trapped in the protective covering of the hose... though I would have thought that it would have long dried up by now...
.

Take it in and ask for the compression test. Mine did the same. I would clean the spew and it would go days without a sign, then bloopers, there it was again. Clean it, no sign of leakage and then blop, again. Take it in.

[willtill]

Take it in and ask for the compression test. Mine did the same. I would clean the spew and it would go days without a sign, then bloopers, there it was again. Clean it, no sign of leakage and then blop, again. Take it in.

I hear ya Stro... I'm going to watch it for a couple of days though... if she vomits, it's off to the Stealership. Time is on my side at this point, I have over 5 years left on a 7 year warranty for this puppy now. :icon_cool:

[stroguy]

Very good. I let mine be ill for about two months. It would lose what looked like a tablespoon here and there. But when I was heading to AreKansas I had to be sure the hose wouldn't split while in the middle of somewhere.