Help (PLEASE) leak ?

[Gilly57]

I have ridden my 07 st1300 all season (13K+ miles) and no issues. Due to weather I've not ridden in 1 week. It's inside an attached garage. My question(s)...since I don't own a manual (yet) :

Small amount of greenish liquid on floor right behind front wheel....is that anti-freeze ?
Dripping from the 2 pins that keep plastic cowling together.... is that my radiator up under there?

Has not (until now) leaked 1 drop of anything from anywhere....strange (to me) that it shows up after a full week of being idle.

Any help shared would be appreciated!

 

[st1300r]

Yeah the green pee is antifreeze.
Typically the hose clamps loosen over time and the hose takes a compression set.
It tends to be worse as the weather cools. For now make sure the resevoire is at the full line it's probably not leaking as much as you think. It might even stop when the weather warms up.

I'd get myself a eom shop manual when you get a chance. Christmas is just around the corner

Those hose clamps tend to come loose again.
There's a thread on replacing them with constant tension hose clamps for a more permanent fix. Mine's going to get that treatment.

More than likely it's not the hoses to the radiator but one of the smaller ones.
Possibly under the throttle body.

There a work sheet for keeping track of the clips and screws when pulling the tupperware.
It's not as hard as you think to do.

Also a thread on dealing with the cheesey JAS (not phillips) that will be over torqued holding the throttle body down. And a cheap mod so you don't have to deal with cross point screws.

 

[Mellow]

strange (to me) that it shows up after a full week of being idle.

The onset of cold weather is typically when we start to see this. Sometimes, it's just the need to tighten the hose clamps and then it goes away. Mine didn't do it 'til the 2nd year and I just had a couple clamps I tightened and it went away but you have no way of easily telling which clamps they are without pulling the plastic and maybe loosening the radiator. You can get to some of the smaller ones that way but you might have to lift the tank and pull the air box to get to the others.

Sometimes, it will leak and then just stop..

 

[Gilly57]

TKS Mello ! Is a good starting point to take lower plastic off and wipe down the metal fins and all around the bottom front of the cycle? Then take inventory of how everything looks ? Also, is that the radiator ? There is a bolt... like the oil pan one...facing the ground.

 

[Firstpeke]

When you say smallish amount, do you mean, just a few drips?

If so I would probably ignore them for a while unless you are intending some over winter maintenance.......

If on the other hand it's a spreading puddle.......

 

[st1300r]

Here's a diagram of the cooling system.
+1 on ignoring it if it's a few drips until you're pulling the plastic off for general maintence or you have down time in the winter and a heated garage to work in.

 

[Blrfl]

I can save you some plastic removal: You have one or more hose clamps leaking around the thermostat housing and/or the joints where the coolant exits the engine. The leaked coolant is running into the bottom of the "vee" in the engine and out through a drain channel which exits on the right side of the bike just above the clutch housing. From there, it runs down the front of the crankcase and pools in the bottom of the fairing. (See Carl's diagram.)

This isn't a critical failure; it's just a minor inconvenience. If your bike is like most others, it only happens briefly while the engine is cold and the cooling system is in bypass. You have to remove all of the plastic and raise the fuel tank to determine where the leak is and correct it, so you might as well not bother trying to clean anything up until you get the clamps tightened or replaced.

(Here, by the way, is the aforementioned thread about replacing the clamps: CLICKY) If you're still under warranty, you can have a dealer do the work, but all they're going to do is tighten the clamps down and you'll go through this again next winter.

The finned surface on the bottom with the bolt in it is the oil pan. The radiator is the big, curved surface what you see if you look above the front fender between the fork tubes.

--Mark

 

[Tom Mac 04a]

+1 with Mark's ( and others ).... don't worry, common issue.
Just check the overflow and wait till maintance requires pulling plastic and then tighten clamps around the thermostat housing.

Mine dribbled when it was below 50f and put a little on the floor for the first year... total loss was about 3+ oz of fluid as per the overflow. When I did my first brake/clutch bleed which requires plastic off I found 3 of the clamps about finger tight... tightened up well and never leaked since

 

[Gilly57]

AWSOME is what describes all the people that come to my (our) side to render aide. Everyone helps everyone else...kind of like family. I'll review all the above (again) and take a look. I'd say it's likely about 3oz., but never have put liquid from floor into a shot glass to measure... it's typically been the other direction (if at all). I'm glad I have 4 days off to spend some time checking this out while also having family time.

I wish you ALL... a wonderful THANKSGIVING to folks on BOTH sides of the Atlantic

 

[EASt]

I can save you some plastic removal: You have one or more hose clamps leaking around the thermostat housing and/or the joints where the coolant exits the engine. The leaked coolant is running into the bottom of the "vee" in the engine and out through a drain channel which exits on the right side of the bike just above the clutch housing. From there, it runs down the front of the crankcase and pools in the bottom of the fairing. (See Carl's diagram.)

This isn't a critical failure; it's just a minor inconvenience. If your bike is like most others, it only happens briefly while the engine is cold and the cooling system is in bypass. You have to remove all of the plastic and raise the fuel tank to determine where the leak is and correct it, so you might as well not bother trying to clean anything up until you get the clamps tightened or replaced.

(Here, by the way, is the aforementioned thread about replacing the clamps: CLICKY) If you're still under warranty, you can have a dealer do the work, but all they're going to do is tighten the clamps down and you'll go through this again next winter.

The finned surface on the bottom with the bolt in it is the oil pan. The radiator is the big, curved surface what you see if you look above the front fender between the fork tubes.

--Mark

Mark's thread and solution, in my opinion, should have been noted, and paid for by Honda. It seems that most of us have encountered this leak at one point or another, and Mark's clamp has solved mine for good.

 

[STPaulK]

I guess I'll be the first to add the possibility of that green pee coming out of the weep hole, next to the channel that drains from the vee. My 2007 started dribbling from this hole (confirmed by careful application of talcum powder) and I already have the water pump seal in my possession. I'll be looking to have Dave Sennister use his press and careful measurement tools to replace this seal FIRST THING NEXT SPRING (Dave, you listening?)

 

[sennister]

I guess I'll be the first to add the possibility of that green pee coming out of the weep hole, next to the channel that drains from the vee. My 2007 started dribbling from this hole (confirmed by careful application of talcum powder) and I already have the water pump seal in my possession. I'll be looking to have Dave Sennister use his press and careful measurement tools to replace this seal FIRST THING NEXT SPRING (Dave, you listening?)

Yep, lurking as usual.... Hey my other project will be in full operation by then....

 

[SupraSabre]

With 133K on mine, I didn't have any leaks until about 13K after fixing my frozen thermostat. Since then it has been a royal pain for smelling coolant leaks. I just pulled mine apart and had four different leaks. Two hoses at the thermostat housing, the thermostat cover and one hose from the right side of the radiator. I replaced the housing cover o-ring and tightened up the hose clamps on the others. I have yet seen a drop on the floor, but the cases were pretty much covered in it. I cleaned up everything and it's all back together. I'll know next week if I did a good job after my commute on Monday! 4:

 

[STPaulK]

Yep, lurking as usual.... Hey my other project will be in full operation by then....

Oh, well of course, let's get that one working first.

 

[Ken Valkyrie]

I found some dried green runs down the left side of my front crankcase cover ( the round hub over the clutch), looks like its been coming from the right seam of the water pump cover where it meets the crankcase cover.
Could this seeping be coming from the Tstat housing/hose connections like a lot of you have had ?

 

[BakerBoy]

I found some dried green runs down the left side of my front crankcase cover ( the round hub over the clutch), looks like its been coming from the right seam of the water pump cover where it meets the crankcase cover.
Could this seeping be coming from the Tstat housing/hose connections like a lot of you have had ?

Yes, that is where it drains. Looked like this on mine (blue Honda coolant):

And here are a couple typical sources of the leak (on each cylinder bank return connection, rearward from radiator and thermostat, under the throttle bodies):

 

[JoeP]

This will help you with the tupperware removal/installation:

https://www.st-owners.com/forums/showthread.php?73238-ST1300-TupperWare-Worksheet (<<<<<<dang fine work here!)

 

[Ken Valkyrie]

Thanks BakerBoy - the pictures are worth 1000 words
Thanks to JoeP too for tupperware charts

 

[Ken Valkyrie]

After some disassembly & inspection I could find no sign of any leaks around or under the thermostat housing or on top of the engine.
I did pull the tupperware, radiator bolts and pulled the radiator away to access the t-stat area. Thanks to the Honda techs for positioning the 4 t-stat housing hose clamps facing straight out so I could easily snug them up. The 2 hose clamps at the water joints were facing straight up, I was able to snug only the right head one with a 6mm open end wrench that I clamped an extention rod onto to make it about 9” long. My jerry-rigged 6mm wrench could actually reach the other left head water joint hose clamp but I there was not enough room to swing the wrench. Plus I snugged up all the upper & lower clamps that I could reach.
I wonder if Craftsman has a 6mm ratcheting wrench that would probably help.
In the end I really don’t know what the cause was of the original “drool” down the left side of my crankcase cover. I’m color blind (teased by my wife & friends – all the time) so the drool may not have been antifreeze, may have been some slop thrown up from the road. Everything is snugged up now, topped off and dry.