Heat And Ticking

[roadrash]

I was emailed this message from a member from another fjr forum. Could this be the begining of the ticking problem?

I just tried to post a message, but I don't think it went through,

so I am doing it again. If it did, I apologize for the

duplication. This is an update on the overheating problem I

mentioned here about a month ago. I took my '04 FJR with about

8,000 on the clock to my mechanic to look at the overheating issue.

After a couple of days of checking (he said something about he

couldn't figure out where the coolant was going), he determined that

it was just too little coolant in the radiator to keep the heat in

check. He added some, and after riding around for the past few

weeks, it seemed like everything was okay. I took it back to him a

couple of days ago to have new tires installed, spline lubed as

recommended (he confirmed that it was dry from the factory), and to

look at the plugs to see about changing them. He found some kind of

fouling when he pulled a plug (not the plug itself), so, as I

understand it from him, he pulled the head. He found a cylinderical

metal tube that circulates coolant through there had a shot O-ring

that was leaking coolant into the cylinder, where it was getting

vaporized and leaving behind some kind of gunky stuff. This solved

the missing coolant problem. I have no idea why such a relatively

new bike should have such a problem, and I have not heard or read

about this problem before, so I am posting this for general

knowledge. If you are experiencing an overheating problem or low on

coolant that can't be explained otherwise, you might look into this.

goldenlaw

 

[smthng]

Another place to look for missing coolant is on the bottom of the water pump. It's hard to spot, but keeping your bike reasonably clean will make it show. A leak in the o-ring on the bottom of the water pump will drop coolant onto the exhaust sensor. It burns off nearly instantly, but leaves a pretty nasty whitish residue behind. That's the only way I spotted mine.

Unfortunately, when they pulled the pump apart, they also found that the impellor had rusted. No one can figure out why, as the bike has had nothing but Yamacool, other than three days in Florida with Prestone premixed. Niether should have caused it.

Anyway, just another item to check on if you're paranoid.