Leaking water/coolant from breather?

[fazer390]

Hi Guys...
I was on a rideout with the London foccers the other week at the Ace Cafe. It was pointed out to me half way through the ride that I was leaking water/coolant from the breather pipe (near my right foot peg)! I lost about 300ml. 
The general conclusion from the group was there was probably an air pocket in the system.
I squeezed and poked the coolant pipes as suggested the other day. I don't know, if this was the problem, if this has worked as the water leak happened after 100mile +/- run; however we were in traffic when it happened. I've had my 02 gen1 thou about 8yrs now, 50k miles in with a FSH and this has never happend before? 
 
I plan to do the BRUM on Sunday, so any theories and/or advice would be much appreciated...   
 
 
 
 

[kebab19]

I'm hoping others will chime in with alternative suggestions before I recount my own experience, which started in a similar way. Mine turned out to be waterpump & head gasket failure, but you'd be desperately unlucky to share the same fate as it's such a rare occurrence without inflicting serious neglect on the bike.

[Ebme Geek]

Not familiare with the thou but some general thoughts
 
How has the tempature been running
 
What is the level like in the pressure cap on the thermostat housing when the bike is cold, if the seal is not good in the cap it will draw air in instead of sucking coolant back up from the resevoir as it cools down. Next time warms up pumps a bit more coolant out but draws air again on cooling, so on, - then resevoir overflows
 
Any sign of water in the oil (starts to go milky in apearance)
or oil in the water (blobs) - head gasket - water pump seal - oil cooler
 
Check spark plugs, make sure none are taking on a rusty apearance around the electode area - head ghasket

[fazer390]

Hi Ebme Geek, Cheers for your reply.
 
My Engine temp I believe is fine. The fan kicks in normally as required.
My radiator cap looks ok. I may change it anyway as they're not expensive.
I did an oil change the other month and there's no signs that the head Gasket has gone.
 

[kebab19]

Put the cooling system under pressure - if you cane her from 6000 to 10000rpm, is there anything coming from under the rad cap? You will need to take the inner panel away to see if anything is going on while riding.

Park her up afterwards, get down underneath & look in the nooks & crannies for any signs of dried coolant between the engine sump and exhaust collector box - in the form of white stains. If so, that'll be the waterpump & is not something you want to see.

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee91/kebab19/CollectorBox.jpg


It's the loss of quite a bit of coolant that makes me suspicious, but there's hopefully another simpler / cheaper explanation.....