Leaving Tomorrow & leaking Antifreeze

[craigatcsi]

Help!!!

I am supposed to be taking a long trip starting tomorrow and my 07 is leaking Antifreeze.

There are a couple small drips coming from the rear finned cylinder cover on the left side. I removed the cover and found where it appears to be coming from. But I have no clue what it is. It appears to be a 4th screw hole towards the bottom of the cylinder. I guess it could've blown from somewhere else, but it sure doesn't look like it. - There are no other Antifreeze trails except below it.

Have any of you seen this before or have any ideas what is going on?

Craigr

[M61A1MECH]

That sounds like the tradition leak from the rubber plugs. Each cylinder has a rubber plug in it , the rubber plug has a threaded metal insert in the center, They leak a lot. Easy fix is to tape a dime to the pad on the inside of the fin cover that is supposed to press n the seal, some times the seals shrink with age, so putting the dime in the cover gets you a little more squeeze on the seal and stops the leak.

 

It you ever want to remove the seal take an old spark plug and screw it into the threaded hole and pull it out, but make sure you have something to catch all of the coolant that will come flooding out.

 

Good luck.

[craigatcsi]

Done and Done.

I can't hardly believe they should shrink shrink on an 07!! But, apparently they have. Warranty will be fixing that this winter!

 

Now that I know what the heck that thing is, (I suspect a Frost plug, right?), I plan to take the bike on the trip after all. Even if it does start seeping again, I can't believe it's going to lose much. I'll just check the bottle each morning. I couldn't find that darn thing in the service manual.

 

Thanks for the quick answer and Peace of Mind.

 

Craigr

[allwx]

It doesn't take 'em long to start leaking. My 07 started weeping from the left rear cyl after about a year. Now, I replace them whenever I do a coolant change. I'm pretty sure they shrink down over time. I don't think they'll ever do more than weep a few drops out, like overnight.

[bobcat]

I had a leak in my 86 VR that I just couldn't find. It was driving me crazy..(short drive)

 

Anyway, in desperation I put about a cup or two of radiator stop leak in and VIOLA, it worked..That was about 3-4 years ago and it still doesn't lose coolant or have I had any negative effects...

[BradT]

Now, I replace them whenever I do a coolant change.

 

For the price of the plugs I agree on above.

 

These plugs are used to drain all the antifreeze from the engine. I would change the antifreeze on a four year bike, not hard to do, just remember to check it after a short ride.

 

Enjoy your trip !

 

Brad

[allwx]

The plugs are about $5 U.S. apiece, so replacing them adds $20 to a coolant change. I never did replace the ones on my RSTD, and they dribbled coolant for years. Never more than a few drops, and usually it would happen as the bike cooled down. I never saw any leakage when the motor was hot. So I didn't really worry all that much about it on that bike. The water pump weeped on that bike also, from day-one. Never more than a drop or two, and always during cool-down. I had them replace the wp under warranty, and the new one weeped, too.

[Freebird]

It's strange but it's not a problem on all the bikes. My '99 has the original plugs and I have never seen any leaking.