Doing some winter maintenance, a couple of questionsTo drain

This is a 2010 RT SE5. Plan was to do the first (for me) oil change. Picked up the motorcycle jack from Harbor Freight this afternoon and the bike is now jacked up, sitting on jack stands under the front A arms and the rear tire is sitting on a cinder block.

Ended up removing all the left side panels. The previous owner had some highway pegs on it that I didn't care for, so I decided to remove the main support bars. While I was underneath removing the bolts that held the supports on, I noticed some antifreeze about a foot forward. I could also see a drop hanging off the one of the forward splash panels. I had thought about doing a coolant change as well but now its not just a thought. I need to get in there and see where the leak may be. I did look at the coolant reservoir and I don't see the level from the top, so its obviously down a bit, how much down I don't know yet as I haven't gotten the right side panels off. The smallish middle side panel is being stubborn, doesn't want to pull out and I'm not trying to use too much force on it, bit as far as I know, its just held in by the rubber grommets as is the left side one.

So here are the questions:

I've read the post about draining the system by removing the lower radiator hose, but when its filled, is there any procedure other than fill it from the top through the recovery tank? Anything special about purging any air out of the system? Or do you just fill it up, run it a bit till it comes up to temp and then shut it down and check the level again?

Any good sources for a service manual? I've seen some on Ebay and they look a bit dicey to me. But if there is one that someone ordered from successfully, I guess that's one I could go with. I gotta wonder if they are selling a PDF version of the manual for 20 bucks or so, if that is fully legit?

Anything else to be on the lookout for?

Thanks in advance.

Bob

"draining the system by removing the lower radiator hose, but when its filled, is there any procedure other than fill it from the top through the recovery tank?"

This is the best way to do it! Your 2010 has a drain plug, but Do Not Touch That. It was discovered that the plug just about welds it self in and you will end up with replacement.

Yes run it to operating temp and top off if needed (do not over fill as it will dump the excess out the overflow tube and onto your floor.

That black plastic cover can be a pain. I remove the pop rivet and than pull up from the bottom wigging the cover off.

Finding the leak can be very hard as the air flow tends to get everything wet making it harder to find the leak point. Hopefully it's one of the clamps.

Good hunting!!

Thanks for the reply. Since it is so warm here, I got to working on it when I got home. So far I have gotten the majority of the R side panels off. You really can't see anything unless you do. In particular there is the black plastic deflector that sits inside the "cage" of plastic that was quite perplexing. I ended up removing the "cage" and then the 4 bolts that hold the deflector on to the fan assembly going into the radiator.

I could see some drops of coolant on the hoses going into the thermostat, but still not sure if the leak is there or coming from up higher. The recovery tank is empty and it is wet all around, but since its so warm and humid right now, just about every part of the motor is wet as well. If the recovery tank is the culprit, I will still have more tupperware to remove in order to access that. Stopping for dinner, will try and take some photos to document the process. Searching online I found very few pictures of what the RT looks like vs one video that showed somebody draining the fluid out of an RS. Didn't look like there was nearly as much plastic in the way, but who knows. I know putting that deflector back in will be fun, you cant see anything and getting those bolts to align and go in blind will be really hard.:banghead::banghead::banghead:

Here are some pics of the progress so far. First shows the "cage" that has to be removed. Second shows the thermostat. You can see a small drop of green coolant on it still. Plan now is to fill the recovery tank with water and start the motor up and then watch for leaks. Once I find the leak, I'll dump the coolant and refill with the proper mix.

I had the same symptoms and after much disassembly discovered that the water pump was leaking. This is a major repair. It requires a manual, a lot of tools, and special press adapters to press the new water pump back in. For me personally the really difficult part of the repair was getting the side cover back on with the very thin gasket in the correct place. I finally had to glue the new gasket on to the side cover prior to assembly. Then there is the correct order to torque the 14 bolts that hold the side cover back on.

A mechanic at my dealer tried to hand me the BS that the pump could be changed without removing the engine side cover. BS pure BS.

If any of this sounds like more than you feel comfortable with doing, it's time to consider involving your dealer.

Been here. Done this. No leaks.:riding:

Here's an update. Ran the bike up to temp where the fan comes on twice last night. Originally thought the recovery tank was empty but was not, only about half full. Cleaned up everything so I could see any new leaks, but after two times, once last night and once this morning, no leaks. Can't explain where it came from, and I poked and prodded the hoses and connections all around both times and still nothing. Thought maybe I didn't have the cap on the recovery tank on tight last night, so I took it off and put it back on again this morning before the second go around. Still no leaks. Not sure about the water pump. No traces of leakage anywhere around the pump or the block.

Current plan is to change out the coolant by removing the lower hose off the radiator. I'll also change the clamp on the hose right above the thermostat since that is right above where I saw the previous drop of coolant. I've got some mods I want to make to it, so it will be staying on the jackstands for a week or two with the panels off and in the interim I'll run it and keep looking for any leaks. Not really sure what is going on with it. I've had the bike for about 4 months and have never seen any evidence of leaks before. We did have some really cold weather last week, down into the teens and 20's, but the bike has been in the garage all that time.

Did get the oil changed today. at least I'm making some progress. :thumbup:

Make sure you replace all of the Oetiker type clamps with good quality screw clamps. Those things are known to loosen up ever so slightly and causing mystery leaks.

http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/s...ntifreeze-Leak

Following up to this thread, looking at the water pump more closely, I could see that the bottom screw was rusty and you could see a slight trace of where fluid had traveled down. Then I noticed that not all the clamps were original, one had been replaced with a screw clamp. I checked the clamp and the screw was very loose. So I tightened that one up and proceeded to change the coolant. Ran the bike on the stands after and no leaks that I can see. It's off the stands and so far so good. Will keep an eye on it for a while to see if this was the issue.