Riding through town last Friday on my 99 R1, engine overheating (not unusual when stuck in traffic) fan is working though. Started to leave puddles on floor at the lights and find a leaking pipe (half inch pipe runs from top left of rad and back into bottom of engine behind the front sprocket cover. Got it home and fixed the pipe but yesterday took it out and the temp read lo for a lot longer than normal and then rocketed to 116 in a matter of 200 yards. Stopped the bike and pushed it back home. Any ideas? I’m thinking head gasket?:sick:
I would check the thermostat first it may have cooked.
Don’t see why it would be a head gasket unless you are seeing white gunge in the oil.
Or you have an air lock in the cooling system.
Just a dumb question, you did top up the coolant after you fixed the leak?
And if you did top it up, where did you put it ?
You should top up at the rad cap and run the engine up to temp with the rad cap off to get rid of any air in the system (of course, never having owned an R1, this may be totally wrong, but it’s pretty normal for bikes)
Like PJ say, also check the stat - could well be buggered.
Thanks gurninman, been on holiday for the last week but did what you said yesterday and temp guage behaving now, just have to buy a new pipe to replace the split one I bodged! Thanks again for the info, saved me a lot of hassle. Cheers