Overheat, coolant and a dead fan? HELP!?

[Tom1528]

I hav an l1, had it about a week and i've only ever ridden it on open/faster roads. yesterday i went through town in the sun and traffic. It's never overheated before and the temp guage is usually bang in the middle where it should be or below. So, i was sat in traffic, thought i saw abit of smoke/steam arround me, looked at the guage and it was wayy off the scale. so i pulled over and wached the bike empty all of the green coolant over the exhaust from the reservoir. I took the bike apart when recovery had taken me home and found it'd just been chucking it outta the breathe pipe because it'd got so hot. Then realised that the fan on the left side of the raiator doesnt move at all. So surely this is why it overheated as there was no movement of air around the radiator to cool it down when sitting in traffic?

I topped the coolant back up and the bike's fine but if you sit still on it and rev the bike when it's been run around abit the temp gradually keeps going up, but then as soon as i pull away again and air starts getting to the radiator it goes straight down really fast to where it should be.

When should the fan be running? What could be wrong with it? ( I found the fan disconected above the radiator and re-connected it but this has made no difference! )

Is it bad to mix two colours of coolant together? Or is that just a selling con? haha I had a litre of green left in the bike and i stuck another litre of red in there to fill it back up! Both coolants were the same strength/ratio so surly it shouldnt matter?.. coolant is coolant..

Thanks!, Tom.

[RedexRobB]

sound sliek the fan is the reason it overheated. Not sure why its not working, it could be your thermostat. With the wires connected to the rad short across the terminals and it should spin the fan, if not then theres something wrong somewhere. That should at least tell tell you if the fans working or not.

The temp will naturally rise anyway in traffic but the fan should come on about 3/4 of the way up, its if it rises very very quickly, especially from cold, that there could be a head gasket problem.

[lewisdale]

i agree with rob, however the next thing i would do is replace the fan, because you should be able to turn it easily by hand, it mush have seized up, and hopefully this will solve youre problem

[arkell]

have you checked you ahve the right mix of antifreeze-water? 50:50 mix it should be, antifreezze has a really high boiling point so should help prevent it boiling over i think than just water alone

[lewisdale]

dunno about a higher boiling point but it is supposed to keep the engine temperature cool and more stable than just water,hence the name coolant lol, however it sounds more like the fan to me, but i would also replace all the coolant together with the fan and hope i havent warped or even worse cracked the head, my bike done the same thing once and was luckily ok

[arkell]

antifreeze has a boiling point of about 250 degrees C rather than water at just 100, so unless you have the right ratio it will boil and perhaps bubble out of the expansion tank?

Just a thought



oh and as for mixing antifreeze 'coulours', I wouldnt have thought it would matter as antifreeze is essentially the same 'ingredients' for each brand!

[lewisdale]

but youre engine shouldnt be getting to 100 degrees in the first place

[arkell]

but youre engine shouldnt be getting to 100 degrees in the first place

Why do they sell engine paints which can go up to 600degrees then? I would have thought an engine gets a lot hotter than 100degrees? I could be wrong, not arguin, just interested to hear why?

[lewisdale]

generally they shouldnt, im just going on cars and motorbikes etc, i think they generally run at about 75-85 degress, however other engines im not sure of but i cannot see anything getting as hot as 600 degrees, surely the engine would be at melting point, not to mention hoses etc

[Jeppo]

I'm pretty sure lewis is right, obviously the combustion chamber gets hotter than that, but the parts the coolant runs through shoudn't

If you think about it, racers are only allowed to use pure water in there cooling systems and there engines will be running much hotter than normal road use.

Also i dunno if this is normal, but on my bike if there isn't enough coolant in the rad then the fan won't work at all. When my pump pissed water everywhere and the radiator was near empty the bike went right to the top of the scale and the fan never came on at all!!

Also you have filled up the radiator havent you? not just filled up the resovoir.....Someone made that mistake once....it may have been me

[lewisdale]

[quote="Jeppo"]I'm pretty sure lewis is right, obviously the combustion chamber gets hotter than that, but the parts the coolant runs through shoudn't

If you think about it, racers are only allowed to use pure water in there cooling systems and there engines will be running much hotter than normal road use.

Also i dunno if this is normal, but on my bike if there isn't enough coolant in the rad then the fan won't work at all. When my pump pissed water everywhere and the radiator was near empty the bike went right to the top of the scale and the fan never came on at all!!

Also you have filled up the radiator havent you? not just filled up the resovoir.....Someone made that mistake once....it may have been me [/quote
probably because the temperature sensor is at a lower point than the fan switch, hence youre rad being empty and no hot water touching it to switch it on, but youre temp gauge worked because its at a lower point and water was touching it

[arkell]

yeah true, i just had a feeling that 75-80 degrees wasnt very hot, i mean you can shower in nearly 50 degrees water!

[Jeppo]

yeah true, i just had a feeling that 75-80 degrees wasnt very hot, i mean you can shower in nearly 50 degrees water!

Probably to do with the pressure of the system, i.e. at a higher pressure the higher the boiling point. Taking the rad cap off a hot bike lets steam pour out as pressure is relieved.....

[lewisdale]

thats true, water doesnt boil so easy at higher pressure, 75-80 degrees aint very hot?, go put some water in a saucepan till it gets to that temp and dip ya hand in then tell me what you think

[arkell]

75-80 degrees aint very hot?, go put some water in a saucepan till it gets to that temp and dip ya hand in then tell me what you think

haha okayyy