topping up coolant is easy right?

well the coolant needs topping up. i havent done this before and seems easy i.e.: i assume i get some coolant and distilled water, mix 50/50 and poor pour in

but want to check that im not missing anything obvious.
can i use any type or are there bike specific coolant
cant i just top up, and mix coolants or should i flush the system and add new? id rather be able to top up.

anything else?

First of all you want to pour it in not poor it

Halfords do a coolant/antifreeze ready mix that I use which is fine for topping up… The flush (should) be done at service time :slight_smile:

lol… :rolleyes:

so i can mix that with what was already in there? cool!

Haha someone will be along in a minute to shout at me and say don’t mix it!?!?

It’s fine though, I do it on mine. It’s the same as oil, brake fluid etc - you can top it up so long as it gets changed during servicing…

I bought a bottle of pre-mix for £5’ish I think from OMC and topped it up. Be aware though - a fresh bottle of coolant is difficult to pour accurately (read: I sloshed more on the floor/myself than I got in the resevoir :rolleyes: )

just took a look into my rad and i think i see green antifreeze. i shouldnt mix it with pink antifreeze should i? :blink:

Doesn’t matter…but…why have you lost any?

so i can just pour it in.?

to be honest i have never checked coolant level… on friday i thought bike was getting warm quick so i checked for the first time and it is so far below ‘low’ that i cant even see what color it is

When was the last time it was changed?

If you don’t know, I’d say you’d be best draining off whatever is in there & refilling it with fresh coolant.

^^^ yep

i ‘think’ it was a year ago? but as i didnt do it* im not sure. im gonna do just that… it doesnt seem difficult or time consuming.

*i now do most of the servicing so i know exactly when and how things are done.

coolant change every 2 years. top up if neccessary. I’d change it every year due to the mileage. your bike will thank you:)

Why will the bike thank you if you change the coolant? Is there a noticeable change in performance?

no, defo no performance difference. I do loadsa mileage and rag the bike but it’s been 100% perfect but I service to the book and then some. A healthy bike is a happy bike :slight_smile:

the only thing ive been told is that you cant mix different colours (red/blue) but it doesn’t matter which you have.

I was looking at some in halfrauds today, it said to flush the system through before refilling

I did a little research into antifreeze last year, here are the salient points …

A 50:50 Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:“Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:“Times New Roman”; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} mixture of mono ethylene glycol (MEG) based antifreeze and deionisedwater typically offers protection down to minus 35°C with a boiling point inexcess of 130°C. Because different antifreeze brands use different combinationsof additives and inhibitors with a given coloured dye. However, it’s not just a questionof renewing or topping up antifreeze by colour.

Generally, but not to be taken for granted:Green/Blue/Purple/Yellow antifreeze containing silicates, nitrates, nitrites,borates, phosphates etc. (known as MEG) change every two years.Red/Orange/Pink/Yellow/Blue/ silicate free antifreeze containing Hybrid Organic Acid Technology (known as MEG HOAT, or long life) change every 5 years.Red/Orange silicate free antifreeze containing organic acid technology. (known as MEG OAT or long life) change every five years.
Do not mix MEG, MEG HOAT and MEG OAT antifreezes. Since you cannot determinethe type of antifreeze by colour alone, if you don’t know exactly what 's inyour cooling system it is recommended to flush thoroughly before renewing the antifreeze.

The pipe on the left (as you sit on it) from the radiator could be weeping a bit without you realizing it - I have always though Hornets ran hot and that temp gauge is scary :crazy:

Change it for the winter? Is an easy job on the Hornet

went down the play it safe route and changed the coolant. what come out looked turquoise (so i guess it was green?), poured water through the rad till it come out clear and refilled with new coolant

will see how it rides tomorrow

Yeah after all this talk about coolant I decided to change mine today!

Just as well because the stuff that came out was well grubby… I hosed it out, put fresh stuff in, ran the engine for a few minutes then repeated the flush and refill process…

No noticeable difference but as Jaime says it can only do the bike good!