Intermittent Coolant Leak

peterK

Joined
Jan 22, 2014
Messages
7
Location
Shetland, Scotland
Bike
2004 ST1300 ABS
Hello everyone. A few weeks my 2004 35,0000 mile bike started to drip coolant, sometimes quite a lot, sometimes just a drip. Last week I did 1100 high speed miles in a couple of days and lost not a drop. Took the plastic off today, started it and nothing leaked. Went out again later, started it and it dripped a good bit right away. It appears to be coming from around the water pump cover - both drain holes on the side look dry as you can see from the pix.

I haven't looked at the thermostat hoses yet - it's 2130 here now so I'll do that in the morn - but if it's not coming from there, is it possible that it might just be the water pump cover O ring, or is this likely to be a complete dismantling/impeller out/new seals job?

Any opinions very welcome - many thanks
 

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Very unlikely the water pump, more likely hose clamps that leak at startup when the engine is cold. The weather where you are has been cold enough lately that this will happen. The known leakers can be seen in a picture in the first post of this thread.

--Mark
 
Thanks for that Mark. I'm hoping that it'll be a clamp around there. I'll entertain myself with that tomorrow.

Peter
 
Leaking at the top of the engine into the valley area. From there it is coming out the valley drain hole and between the water pump housing and the front engine/clutch cover.
 
Just did the water pump on mine. I had coolant coming out breather hole on pump, but have oil coming down where you have coolant now, don't think it's your pump. There is a breather hole behind water pump cover that you can't see until you pull the warmer pump cover off. When I had the radiator off I could see some oil at the base of the v. Have to pull the tank off when I get a chance. Don't know what's involved but if I get started before you I'll let you know what I find.
 
Having had the radiator off and had a proper look it does seem as though it was coming from the t'stat hose so I tightened it a tad then ran the engine until the fans came on , took it out for a couple of short blasts and all seems well so far. Thanks for your comments guys.
 
2 weeks and nearly 1.000 miles later I've had no further leaks from it. Instead of nearly ?300 in parts, hours of work and probably some bad words, a new jubilee clip at ?3.80 solved the problem.

I've seen similar stories on other posts so it's definetely worth investigating the thing properly and not just assuming the worst. Because of where mine was leaking from and flowing to, it did look very much as though it was the pump seal.
 
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