Overheating / New Radiator

[stet]

would be great if it is just a bit of rain in the sensor...


I saw loads of little tiny bubbles in the top of the rad when I started it, I only left it on for a few seconds as i didn't want it to spray out.  When I've had a blown HG on a car in the past, it's been a bugger to start and drive.  Also you can see the oil and coolant have mixed when you check the reservoir. Haven't got any of those symptoms so far, so fingers crossed for it being OK.  I wouldn't do a head gasket replacement myself, I've never opened an engine.

It was just a thought about the head gasket. You can have a slightly leaking head gasket with only minor symptoms, but a gross leak, as you say, would cause havoc.

I once drove a Granada with a leaking head gasket for a year with no symptoms, apart from a little water loss and a slight gurgling noise from the heater. But one day it let go: the engine conked and steam billowed out from under the engine bay.

You don't seem to have a gross head gasket leak and a minor leak should not cause the engine to overheat. But hot gas entering the cooling system may trigger the warning light temperature sensor.

Of course, this is all speculation and I hope it is not the head gasket!

[Jules-C]

The sensor is the other possibility! I can test that at the same time as the fan switch. It was very heavy rain Saturday with a lot of spray.


The only symptom over heating was a load of steam when I parked up, the bike was riding fine. Not sure when I will get to work on it, but I will give an update!

Steam from where?  Just generally from engine because of last puddle you drove through?  With no coolant loss it's not coolant escaping.

Dodgy sensor or water getting into connection is sounding quite likely since no other problems found.  My temperature warning light has never come on despite many very wet journeys.  Is the rubber boot still on the connector on the sensor?

[unfazed]

[quote author=unfazed link=topic=23734.msg275165#msg275165 date=1517915356]
As a precaution I would change the thermostat, they are easy enough to fit and rules out one possible source of your problem.

Sh*t i forgot to write that
[/quote]
Sorry Punk, I should have written "Disorderlypunk forgot to say: as a precaution I would change the thermostat, they are easy enough to fit and rules out one possible source of your problem"  :lol :lol :lol

[daviee]

 





Oil looks clean in the sight glass.  Coolant is bright green (was [size=1em]p[/size]remix when I last changed it and haven't topped up with water since). [size=1em]I did put a few mills more of coolant in the reservoir earlier (until it poured out the funnel), and when I've opened the rad cap just now, it did piss some out of the overflow pipe, which I imagine was just because it was overly full[/size]

this worries me the until it poured out the funnel the reservoir should only have a little in it between the marks at the bottom of it not full to the top can you elaborate on how full the reservoir is ?

[Adam2201]

It seems to takes very little to go from the min line to pouring out on mine (especially if you've got a funnel in there, it's hard to judge). you can't see very well into my reservoir with it being old, so I tried adding a few ml just to be sure that what I thought was the coolant level was indeed the level.  It ended up with a bit too much in, which came out of the overflow pipe.

I didn't want to keep saying that the level was correct in the reservoir then find that I was looking at a line of old coolant dried on the inside!

Hopefully will get chance to have a good look at everything later, thanks again for all the suggestions,

[Adam2201]

Finally had chance to have a look at it tonight.  Before I did anything else I pulled the water temperature warning light sensor off and was greeted with this picture (which will hopefully attach). Green with corrosion.  Don't know why I didn't look at this when I first had the problem (I had the tank off anyway to check the levels in the rad), but I just trusted the red light. 


I've looked at my maintenance records and I took the sensor off in June to check the fan was working, so maybe it didn't quite go back on properly and it allowed water to get in - it didn't look like that in June, let's put it that way!


I've cleaned the connector (and the sensor end) and WD40'd it and it looks like new.  Pushed it back on until it clicked and put a blob of grease around to try and keep it sealed.  There's no play in it, it seems like a good connection, and the wires look fine on both this and the fan sensor.


It would be daft not to check everything else you've all suggested  (and flush the rad and change the coolant, which my records say was last done July 15, so it's overdue), but I'm hoping the wire will be the solution- it was biblical rain on Saturday and with the speed/wind on the motorway it was horizontal, so it wouldn't surprise me if water got in that way.  Will try riding to work tomorrow and see what happens.

The only sign I had of overheating at the time was the steam coming from the engine, but as it was p*ssing rain it's not surprising really.  I'm not the brightest spark!  I did see a drop of coolant, but that was likely from taking the rad cap off to check the level. 


So I imagine this will either go one of two ways now. I'll either test everything and it will all be OK so I'll never post about it again. Or alternatively I'll be posting from the back of an RAC lorry in a few weeks' time when I've forgotten all about it!


At some stage I will do the mod someone posted on here and fit a proper analogue temperature gauge to the bike.  I've had overheating problems with a couple of old cars in the past and it does bother me not having a gauge on the bike (even though the Fazers seem to run cool and I've never had a problem with it before).  If I'd seen swinging readings on the gauge, rather than just a red light I would probably have done a bit more testing.

[/size]Thanks for all the suggestions, and hopefully this will be the last update.
[size=small]

[Disorderlypunk]

if this turns out to be the fault (and as the only sign of ever heating was the dreaded red light)
this is a perfect example of how hard it can be to diagnose a problem only over the internet/phone/email etc


but like you say its best to do some of those jobs and check them over - at least you have a service book
all i got with my fazer was a cuppa and some questions on how to lower his trike
(just found out he might not have even sent the registration paperwork lol)

[Adam2201]

Agreed! I hadnt checked anything when I first posted to be fair, it's been a busy week and just haven't had chance until now. It's easy to think the worst, I wanted to try and make sure I was on the right track before I started and work through methodically. The things I've learned from here in the past have been great, as when something goes wrong you remember someone else having the same problem.


I got a fair bit of old history with mine, but i try to keep a note of everything I do on a spreadsheet as it helps when you do have a problem like this. I knew I'd had that connector off but couldnt have told you when. Same with changing the coolant.