My ZZR1400 has this annoying habit of getting remarkably hot very quickly, and if I’ve just topped up the coolant on it and stop the engine while it’s hot, I get this lovely puddle of ethylene glycol coloured water pouring out from somewhere. I’m assuming it’s from an overflow valve or something (I hope!), but I’m not exactly sure where to look. I’d take it to my mechanic, but I’ve just racked up about £800 on getting a new fuel pump, head gasket, spark plugs, and an ignition coil after it started riding really rough and misfiring shortly after I got back from France and Belgium. So, I’m feeling remarkably broke this month and can’t afford to drop any more coin on it.
Does anyone know what/where I should look? Alternately, does anyone near Battersea want to pop around and have a look with/teach me in exchange for a homecooked meal and beers? :P
In this weather STOP riding it until you know the cause ! If its happened after its been in for work return to the place of work in case it is their error and they rectify it . You have just had head gasket replaced. why ? It could be simple as airlock or the fan not working ( blown fuse/dodgy sensor) ranging to Thermostat blocked , water pump fault , warped cylinder head , cylinder liner cracked/ distorted …
1. In this weather STOP riding it until you know the cause !
If its happened after its been in for work return to the place of work in case it is their error and they rectify it .
You have just had head gasket replaced. why ?
It could be simple as airlock or the fan not working ( blown fuse) ranging to Thermostat blocked , water pump fault , warped cylinder head , cylinder liner cracked/ distorted .....
TimR
There was an oil leak from the engine (the bike has done quite a few miles - c~67,000 to be precise, so I'm not expecting it to be without wear and tear). I've also noticed a different engine note at low revs (below about 3000 rpm) when in gear that wasn't there before. I originally took my bike in for the misfiring cylinder, and it looks like something gunked up the filter in the fuel pump. Everything else was incidental/discovered while they were trying to identify the underlying problem.
Been having similar issues myself with my Fazer, where it would occasionally dump a bunch of coolant out of the overflow. So, based on what I’ve deduced from my bike, if the coolant is boiling and coming out it can be a number of things:
You've overfilled it, too much coolant above high mark of overflow tank so when it expands, excess is dumped out.
Coolant is too dilute - coolant boils at higher temp, so more concentrated raises boiling point.
System isn't pressurising - most bikes usually at 1.1bar (13-18psi on Fazer), which raises boiling point. If not pressurising the coolant will boil at a lower temp (maybe below point fan kicks in - Fazer fan cuts in at 102-108C) and will just dump itself out when bike isn't really that hot. This can be a leak (rad, hose, jubilee clip etc), a duff seal on radiator cap or at worst a head gasket or cracked engine block. Is the oil 'milky' looking (first sign of water/coolant leaking in)? Any signs of leaks (puddles etc)? I picked up a pressure test kit (£40 off ebay), which let me test the pressure the system held (can possibly highlight any leaks too). If it still holds pressures with spark plugs out, it means head/engine block is probably fine too.
Thermostat is bad (so not sending coolant to rad). Bit of faff, but you can take it out and test it in pan of boiling water...
Fan thermostatic switch is bad, so it's not kicking in. Is you fan running when it boils? Test fan connections, short it to check it spins etc, then considering check thermostat.
Water pump duff and coolant not circulating. Pop rad cap off, and blip throttle to see if you can see coolant being pumped. Was quite obvious on my Fazer with filler cap at top of system.
Big air gap, hindering circulation etc. Certainly possible if it was low, and you've filled it up recently. Rock the bike, blip the throttle, squeeze the hose, to see if level will drop. I assume you are filling from top of system, not just the overflow tank???
Crap, rust and/or limescale in system hindering flow. Flush it through with some Holts Radflush type stuff and refill with fresh coolant.
Was working through these on my Fazer this weekend: have ruled out pressure leakage and head gasket issues. Have flushed, cleaned out system and renewed coolant. Fan appears to behave, but not tested thermostat in pan yet... Ordered new rad cap - that'll be next to try. Though it did behave today!
I’m no expert, it’s all standard stuff from the Haynes book and a Google about, but I hope that gives you some leads.
Been having similar issues myself with my Fazer, where it would occasionally dump a bunch of coolant out of the overflow. So, based on what I've deduced from my bike, if the coolant is boiling and coming out it can be a number of things:
You've overfilled it, too much coolant above high mark of overflow tank so when it expands, excess is dumped out.
Coolant is too dilute - coolant boils at higher temp, so more concentrated raises boiling point.
System isn't pressurising - most bikes usually at 1.1bar (13-18psi on Fazer), which raises boiling point. If not pressurising the coolant will boil at a lower temp (maybe below point fan kicks in - Fazer fan cuts in at 102-108C) and will just dump itself out when bike isn't really that hot. This can be a leak (rad, hose, jubilee clip etc), a duff seal on radiator cap or at worst a head gasket or cracked engine block. Is the oil 'milky' looking (first sign of water/coolant leaking in)? Any signs of leaks (puddles etc)? I picked up a pressure test kit (£40 off ebay), which let me test the pressure the system held (can possibly highlight any leaks too). If it still holds pressures with spark plugs out, it means head/engine block is probably fine too.
Thermostat is bad (so not sending coolant to rad). Bit of faff, but you can take it out and test it in pan of boiling water...
Fan thermostatic switch is bad, so it's not kicking in. Is you fan running when it boils? Test fan connections, short it to check it spins etc, then considering check thermostat.
Water pump duff and coolant not circulating. Pop rad cap off, and blip throttle to see if you can see coolant being pumped. Was quite obvious on my Fazer with filler cap at top of system.
Big air gap, hindering circulation etc. Certainly possible if it was low, and you've filled it up recently. Rock the bike, blip the throttle, squeeze the hose, to see if level will drop. I assume you are filling from top of system, not just the overflow tank???
Crap, rust and/or limescale in system hindering flow. Flush it through with some Holts Radflush type stuff and refill with fresh coolant.
Was working through these on my Fazer this weekend: have ruled out pressure leakage and head gasket issues. Have flushed, cleaned out system and renewed coolant. Fan appears to behave, but not tested thermostat in pan yet... Ordered new rad cap - that'll be next to try. Though it did behave today! I'm no expert, it's all standard stuff from the Haynes book and a Google about, but I hope that gives you some leads.
Arfa
my triumph used to dump some water on hot days stuck in London traffic after years of trying all solutions I gave up & just topped it up every now & again
my GSXR dumps water where it reaches fan cutting in speed i have never bothered to find out why as im lazy & its similar symptoms to the Triumph
i did fit a fan override switch to the GSXR because it couldn’t cool itself if i got stuck in realy heavy traffic on a hot day & it doesn’t like Rotherine tunnel on hot days
i just hit the switch before it reaches fan cut in temp
Been having similar issues myself with my Fazer, where it would occasionally dump a bunch of coolant out of the overflow. So, based on what I've deduced from my bike, if the coolant is boiling and coming out it can be a number of things:
You've overfilled it, too much coolant above high mark of overflow tank so when it expands, excess is dumped out.
Coolant is too dilute - coolant boils at higher temp, so more concentrated raises boiling point.
System isn't pressurising - most bikes usually at 1.1bar (13-18psi on Fazer), which raises boiling point. If not pressurising the coolant will boil at a lower temp (maybe below point fan kicks in - Fazer fan cuts in at 102-108C) and will just dump itself out when bike isn't really that hot. This can be a leak (rad, hose, jubilee clip etc), a duff seal on radiator cap or at worst a head gasket or cracked engine block. Is the oil 'milky' looking (first sign of water/coolant leaking in)? Any signs of leaks (puddles etc)? I picked up a pressure test kit (£40 off ebay), which let me test the pressure the system held (can possibly highlight any leaks too). If it still holds pressures with spark plugs out, it means head/engine block is probably fine too.
Thermostat is bad (so not sending coolant to rad). Bit of faff, but you can take it out and test it in pan of boiling water...
Fan thermostatic switch is bad, so it's not kicking in. Is you fan running when it boils? Test fan connections, short it to check it spins etc, then considering check thermostat.
Water pump duff and coolant not circulating. Pop rad cap off, and blip throttle to see if you can see coolant being pumped. Was quite obvious on my Fazer with filler cap at top of system.
Big air gap, hindering circulation etc. Certainly possible if it was low, and you've filled it up recently. Rock the bike, blip the throttle, squeeze the hose, to see if level will drop. I assume you are filling from top of system, not just the overflow tank???
Crap, rust and/or limescale in system hindering flow. Flush it through with some Holts Radflush type stuff and refill with fresh coolant.
Was working through these on my Fazer this weekend: have ruled out pressure leakage and head gasket issues. Have flushed, cleaned out system and renewed coolant. Fan appears to behave, but not tested thermostat in pan yet... Ordered new rad cap - that'll be next to try. Though it did behave today!
I'm no expert, it's all standard stuff from the Haynes book and a Google about, but I hope that gives you some leads.
Arfa
I've never seen my Fazer fan running.
AlexT
Are you sure the fan works? My fazer's fan would run fairly regularly in traffic.
Are you sure the fan works? My fazer's fan would run fairly regularly in traffic.
nivag
Nope not sure at all. I've not got a temp gauge either so I don't even know if it's getting hot enough to warrant fanning. I don't have the bubbling coolant issues described on here so I'm sure it's all fine.
My fan definitely works, it sounds like a jet turbine when the damned thing starts up. But the engine temperature still gets very hot, very quickly. So, based on what you guys have been saying, it definitely sounds like there’s an issue with the coolant getting circulated or something similar, rather than an issue with the fan itself
TBH my Fazer fan only cuts in on hots days like this when going slowly weaving through traffic, often only for last 5 minutes of my commute. It was also cutting in a lot more when low on coolant. Probably worth a test, so you know it’ll kick in when you need it and not leave you stuck somewhere.
Had a similar problem on my Ducati recently and that was the radiator cap. If you squeeze a radiator hose can you hear water squirting into the header tank?
