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major coolant leak


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So I'm riding my 05 f4i today and smell something burning after about 2 miles and notice that my bike is at 217 degrees and I wasn't running it very hard. I was close enough to home so I figured I would just take it home and check it out. Well I make a u-turn and notice that my back tire was slipping pretty bad, so I decided to just pull off the side of the road. The firt thing I check is the oil and it's just fine, I then check my front tire and it's good(ish) then I check my back tire and notice it's a tad low, but not much. Then I noticed the left side of my back tire was very wet and I noticed there was also fresh untouched coolant splatter spots on the tire. I then checked the coolant resivore(I know spelling) and it was completely empty and I had just replaced my coolant last week. I then check under the bike and there are 2 tubes covered in fresh coolant and a metal oval thing covered in coolant. I will take pictures here in a minute and post them so you can see what I'm talking about.

Any ideas on why I'm leaking and how much repairs could cost? I haven't put the bike on my rear stand yet, but I am about to so I can do a further inspection and take the pictures.

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The tubes in the last pic are the normal drain tubes - that's where coolant will drain if the system is over pressure. You need to figure out if that's where the coolant is coming from - if so, there's an issue in the system - water pump, thermostat, etc.

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You need to put new coolant run the bike sitting and determine where the leak is coming from.

And look to see if a "regular" coolant tube is linked or otherwise obstructed. That could force coolant out the overflow.

Spewing coolant is no good, but its better than a radiator exploding between your knees.

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Is the fan working??

The fan works just fine cuz I can hear it running after I turn the bike off. I put in some fresh coolant and started up the bike. Hopefully I will be able to find the leak. I can't get a good enough angle to see all the hoses though.

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The bike is about 10 minutes from Kettering. I will be at work all day tomorrow though. I am wondering if I caused the issue though, I did overfill my coolant on accident, so I am wondering if the pressure could have caused the drain valve to act like a siphon and just drained all the coolant. I filled it to the proper levels and rode it kind of hard after letting it idle to 225 degrees(fan kicks in at 223) I couldn't get it to leak again and the coolant levels remained the same the entire ride.

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The bike is about 10 minutes from Kettering. I will be at work all day tomorrow though. I am wondering if I caused the issue though, I did overfill my coolant on accident, so I am wondering if the pressure could have caused the drain valve to act like a siphon and just drained all the coolant. I filled it to the proper levels and rode it kind of hard after letting it idle to 225 degrees(fan kicks in at 223) I couldn't get it to leak again and the coolant levels remained the same the entire ride.

You're probably good then as it probably burped the cooling system on you, but watch the weep hole on your water pump to see if any water is coming out of it. If there is then the water pump seals are bad.

Edited by 2fat2fly
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Your fan coming on at 223 degrees is not the way it should go...

Also, how do you overfill the coolant? Do you mean the overflow tank? There is a minimum line...

If you changed coolant and dropped it completely, you probably have an air bubble and needs burped.

You should not get into the habit of running the bike over 220 while moving... I am concerned about the thermostat. You need to run it until it gets over 180 and watch the gauge. The temp should rise and then fall a couple of degrees at some point. That means the Thermostat is working. If it climbs over 200 and not decrease at all, I say a thermostat is needed. Hard to tell without looking.

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Your fan coming on at 223 degrees is not the way it should go...

Also, how do you overfill the coolant? Do you mean the overflow tank? There is a minimum line...

If you changed coolant and dropped it completely, you probably have an air bubble and needs burped.

You should not get into the habit of running the bike over 220 while moving... I am concerned about the thermostat. You need to run it until it gets over 180 and watch the gauge. The temp should rise and then fall a couple of degrees at some point. That means the Thermostat is working. If it climbs over 200 and not decrease at all, I say a thermostat is needed. Hard to tell without looking.

223 is correct for the F4i as I looked into that yesterday.

I filled it to the tipy top because I was talking and wasn't paying attention to what I was doing. It is now at the top fill line instead of up to the cap... I just added coolant, I didn't flush it.

after my bike got up to 225 I got on it and tested the temp. it dropped to 189 degrees in a matter of seconds, 225 was just because I let it idle for quite some time.

once I actually get a chance to ride it again I will see what happens. Best case scenario is that I caused the problem by adding way too much coolant. I didn't even think about that until someone mentioned the overflow hoses I had pictured.

If it leaks again I will take off the plastics and do a thorough inspection.

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When you added coolant, did you add it to the overflow tank that you pictured? Or directly into the radiator?

If you filled up the overflow tank then chances are you overfilled it and once the bike was hot, the coolant expanded and came out the overflow hoses. Not a big deal, siphon some out and get it back somewhere between the min-max lines.

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I added it to the tank that I pictured directly. my tank was completely drained as shown in the picture, right now it's at the proper level after I filled it up yesterday. I need to be a little more careful next time I am doing something to the bike. Hopefully that was the problem, thanks for the help y'all. I'll post up again if it turns out to be a different problem.

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You need to put it directly into the radiator first till full, then run the bike and burp the system, top off radiator, then add to overflow tank to the min line.

How did you think it was going work? Magical coolant defies gravity, flows uphill into radiator?

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Am I the only one that found the process of finding the problem a bit humorous? What could be causing the high temp of 217°? Oil level? Nope. Front tire? Nope. Back tire? Low. Only a little low so you had to have a checked out with a gauge. If you eyeballed it and it looked low, it's more than just a tad low. Only then did you notice wetness on the tire.

Just messing with ya.

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