Went for a ride last night and had a bit of an issue with my ZX-14. When I stopped for a coffee I noticed coolant leaking.
Temperature at the mid point (3 bars) when riding, climbing one bar (4 bars) when slowed down and finally parked. This is what I would call norm for the bike. Noticed coolant dripping from the bottom mid point of the bike after I had shut the bike off. I left the bike to cool down and had coffee. With the bike cooled down I managed to reach up and remove the rad cap. I stuck my finger into the rad opening and could not feel any coolant. I observed that the coolant reservoir was full to the brim. So my thoughts are that I have a bad rad cap that is releasing coolant to the reservoir, and the reservoir is overflowing as a result, hence the puddle.
I had a 500ml bottle of water with me. I removed the right hand dash side panel (note to others buy Allen keys and put in tool pouch for fairing removal purposes)and was able to pour the water directly into the rad. It took all 500ml. I figure the coolant leak was about 150ml (I filled my water bottle from the restaurant, poured out some water onto the ground to form the exact same size puddle and observed that it took about 1/4 of the bottle. So I believe that the water missing from the rad (roughly 500ml) was all accounted for (150ml puddle on the ground and the rest in the coolant reservoir).
The coolant leaked out immediately after I shut off the bike, all with 2 min, then stopped. The fact that I could account for the liquid makes me believe that I was not losing any while riding (plus their was not signs of coolant sprayed up on the bike anywhere. I started back home, watching the temp gauge like a hawk. Mid point (3 bars) while riding, climb to one bar when I pulled into the little town and slowed to 50km (30 miles). Parked and observed the same leak. This time the rad only took 250ml to top it up.
Has any body else had this problem? I read through some threads here and see that coolant expelling was discussed a couple of times but never really concluded (one member Peter seemed to have had a problem). I going to stop in at local rad shop and see if they can test my rad cap. I also called up a buddy to see if he has a pressure tester that I can place on my rad and observe the pressure being created. This should hopefully allow me to determine if the rad cap is faulty or was it doing its job.
As far as coolant goes I changed the coolant at the start of this riding season. I have put on 2500km on some pretty hot days and not had a single issue. I use Motul Motocool Expert (high boiling point 133°C/271°F) it is a straight non mixing coolant product.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Spyglass
* Last updated by: spyglass on 7/26/2012 @ 12:24 PM *