Coolant Leak

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That's some timely tough love there. Making an appointment for flush and fill at the indy shop/Yamaha mechanic I use for routine maintenance that's beyond what I want do or what I can do.

 
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That ship is sinking fast. You need to get in your lifeboat and get the hell away from it before it sucks you down with it.
Yeah, perhaps Bill you should don a lifevest, take a long ride off a short pier, blame the gps, collect the insurance and start over. Sheesh! What a frikkin nightmare.

 
They may have removed the coolant when they swapped throttle body assemblies. It wasn't necessary but they may have done it in error.

The service manuals for earlier FJRs (before '13) include "drain the coolant" when removing the throttle body assembly.

Engine coolant was an input for the wax motor high idle "cold start" mechanism before 2013..

Maybe this shop didn't have a manual for a '14 but did have an earlier manual.

Stranger things have happened.

 
As usual, much good advice in this thread. Cross your fingers for me.

To recap- got bike back- throttle problem gone. Overheat at long stops appeared. Overflow jug full to the brim with crystal clear liquid. Shop swore never touched coolant in any way. Only part failure could cause symptom. Makes it hard to help diagnose a new problem when the shop lies.

They are not used to dealing with an OCD bike geek advised by a huge band of hoons. I averaged well over 300 days of riding a year with my last bike, checked the oil every day. Just that way. A geek who records temps and levels every day when he gets home (in my current situation) and pulls panels to see what color and how much junk he sees in the radiator. And who has done a stationary temp test, to include rate of rise, for a few days now. I ran it with the radiator open. I rocked it. Leaned it. Rode in a right hand circle dragging a peg for a whole song. I believe the advice I get from certain folks. Tech wise and shop wise.

**what follows has not been repeat tested**

Got home today, let it cool. Started it to do the temp test. It rose slowly to 219 and the fans kicked on. It rose another 4 degrees and slowly started back down. And stayed down. Remember, yesterday the overflow level fell and turned coolant-colored. But it failed the overheat test. Today it passed. I'm going to let it cool down. And try it again. Maybe we passed a bubble. Even if it repeats as good, I have a flush and fill scheduled by a shop I trust, who has changed my coolant before with zero problems. As a couple of smart dudes have suggested, cut my losses and move on, and get the coolant replaced. No telling what the ass clowns put in the bike.

 
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No telling what the ass clowns put in...
Could be coolant...

could be water...

could be piss...

could be beer...

could be ...........
Sorry, definitely NOT beer, it was clear. Oh, hang on a mo, it's in the USA. It could be your "beer"
drinks.gif
.
You haven't been here in a while, now admit it.

 
It could be your beer, certainly not my beer. Leastwhile not until after I've drinked drank drunk consumed it. Then it's pretty clear on the way out since I take pride in my excellent kidney functions..

Everyday beer here in the US is steadily becoming far more colo(u)rful and flavo(u)rful every day. BudMillerCoors is losing market share as fast as the WWII generation is dying off. Young(er) people will not settle for bland beer or food anymore, even here on this side of the pond.

Then again, we never much cared for the gustatory delights of haggis or "Stargazey Pie" here either. :rolleyes:

 
No telling what the ass clowns put in...
Could be coolant...could be water...could be piss...could be beer... could be ...........
Sorry, definitely NOT beer, it was clear. Oh, hang on a mo, it's in the USA. It could be your "beer" :drinks: .
You haven't been here in a while, now admit it.
Not for a while, but when I was the "beer" looked more like a cross between numbers 2 and 3 in rodger's list than anything I'd call beer. It was also so cold it numbed the taste buds, ensuring no noticeable flavour. Or even flavor ;) .
Didn't have time to seek out any better drinking establishments, it's always been one of those "airport - office - hotel - office -.... - airport" events. 'Cept when we visited Epcot and Disney World. Didn't find any beer there, either.

 
No telling what the ass clowns put in...
Could be coolant...

could be water...

could be piss...

could be beer...

could be ...........
Sorry, definitely NOT beer, it was clear. Oh, hang on a mo, it's in the USA. It could be your "beer"
drinks.gif
.

Lookie here young fella, we have some very good craft brewed beer in the U.S. At present we have over 4000 breweries. The vast majority of them ere craft brewers. Perhaps the goons put Bub light in the bike.

I have been to England and the U.K. many times and I give you credit for CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) which started the movement to make real beer again. I suggest the Brits try putting some hops in their IPA's. Love the Brits non the less!!!

 
Still smelling coolant. Still overheats occasionally. Had to top off once, but no discernible level change over a week of riding. I'm going to replace the radiator cap. I don't think it's maintaining pressure.

 
I haven't replaced the cap, or smelled coolant, in a week. It overheated a couple of more times, but hasn't done so in a while, despite several extended commutes sitting in traffic for long periods. I'm not sure what it was/is. A bad cap seal, perhaps. Fits with others description of the system not holding pressure.

 
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