Tense ride this evening....... Coolant Leak!

[ARNIE R]

Decided to take an evening ride today as the humidity had dropped and it felt rather nice. I got about 15 miles from the house and came to a stop at a traffic lite. Thought I caught a slight whiff of engine coolant, but didn't think much of it as I had always detected such an odor from other nearby vehicles.

Glanced down at my gauge cluster and observed the temperature bars showing 8 instead of the normal 4, then had an orange engine symbol start to flash. Not good.

I pulled into the nearby gas station and shut everything down. Waited about 5 minutes and re-started the engine and everything looked normal again. headed back home anyway. As long as I kept moving, the temperature bars showed the normal 4.

Half mile from the house, another traffic lite and the temperature bars started climbing again. This time, I got a "Limp Home" on the cluster, which disappeared as soon as the bike started moving, and the temp bars went back down.

Finally got home and pulled in the garage and let it idle for a few minutes and watched the bars start to rise again. Shut it down.

I pulled the cover off the coolant overflow tank and could not see any coolant thru the side indicator marks. Popped the cap slowly, which only slightly hissed and literally could see nothing inside the tank with a flashlite. Started adding some coolant slowly and after about a pint, could barely see any coolant at the bottom of the tank. Also, about then, there appeared a very small spot of coolant under the bike.

A quick check underneath the bike showed coolant drips collecting along the tubular frame piece and the plastic under panel.

Guess I'll be jacking it up and pulling panels tomorrow to see what's going on inside. Praying it is something minor that I can correct and not have to make a dreaded dealer visit........

[safecracker]

Hope you find the leak and it is something simple to repair. Bruce

[Bfromla]

had similar issues on mine back in ‘15 found loose hose clamp was a Otecker clamp Not regular screw type that it got replaced with. Spider plumbing has some funny bends that will hold air bubbles tech said at the time.

[Mikey]

I hope for you it's a clamp and not your pump, like mine!!! If it is, your in for a wait on parts, called the shop and they said they got mine yesterday, thank god!!!This virus crap has every thing mucked up!!! Look way under there and find the water pump, it has a small weep hole in the housing, I hope you don't have water dripping from it!!! If you do I would do the seal and shaft! Good luck!!

[ARNIE R]

I hope for you it's a clamp and not your pump, like mine!!! If it is, your in for a wait on parts, called the shop and they said they got mine yesterday, thank god!!!This virus crap has every thing mucked up!!! Look way under there and find the water pump, it has a small weep hole in the housing, I hope you don't have water dripping from it!!! If you do I would do the seal and shaft! Good luck!!

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing about the water pump and praying that it will not be it. Hoping for a bad clamp somewhere as those oetiker clamps have been nothing but trouble for me. Getting ready to start pulling panels in about an hour or so.......

[Saluda]

Good luck.

[Big F]

Yep, I had a coolant hose leak on my 2014 RTL and the mechanic fixed it and worked fine thereafter.. Now have a 2018 RTL and have never had any kind of issues!! good luck.
BIG F

[ARNIE R]

Pulled panels off today and wiped everything clean. The bottom engine cover was a mess. Started the engine with the radiator cap off until it started to warm up.

Put the cap back on and almost immediately, coolant started flowing from the top part of the engine behind the parking brake unit. I could see it was coming from the hose fitting on the left that feeds from the engine to the thermostat housing. I wiggled the hose and it literally pulled right off the fitting.

Dang oetiker clamps again. Third one on this engine that has caused coolant leak problems.

Cleaned up everything again and replaced the clamp with a standard worm screw type. Pain in the butt to get to it behind the parking brake unit, but I finally got it tightened up. Put everything back together and went out for a long test ride.

Happy to say I experienced no apparent observable issues. No coolant smell, no temperature gauge bars jumping up and no engine warning lites.

Hopefully, I got this taken care of.

I hate those oetiker clamps............

[Bfromla]

Pulled panels off today and wiped everything clean. The bottom engine cover was a mess. Started the engine with the radiator cap off until it started to warm up.

Put the cap back on and almost immediately, coolant started flowing from the top part of the engine behind the parking brake unit. I could see it was coming from the hose fitting on the left that feeds from the engine to the thermostat housing. I wiggled the hose and it literally pulled right off the fitting.

Dang oetiker clamps again. Third one on this engine that has caused coolant leak problems.

Cleaned up everything again and replaced the clamp with a standard worm screw type. Pain in the butt to get to it behind the parking brake unit, but I finally got it tightened up. Put everything back together and went out for a long test ride.

Happy to say I experienced no apparent observable issues. No coolant smell, no temperature gauge bars jumping up and no engine warning lites.

Hopefully, I got this taken care of.
I hate those oetiker clamps............

Did you loose & replace enough fluid to count as a timely “flush” hope so, that’s way mine worked out at least & was still under warranty

[ARNIE R]

Yes, pretty much had to replace most of what dumped out on the garage floor and catch container when I pulled off that hose - probably about 75% of it. I had already done a flush and replace a few months earlier, so, everything is definitely clean again.