What did you do in your garage today..? | Page 168 | GTAMotorcycle.com

What did you do in your garage today..?

Spent an hour trying to track down what my bike dropped from the skidplate. Oil and coolant both on full marks and I haven’t added any since I picked it up from dealer. Did 300km two days ago in the dry so it isn’t water from washing. Nothing on garage floor. Pushed it out into driveway, idled until warm (not hot) then pulled away. Saw this slick when I got home a couple hours later. Camera shows it came out from skidplate area as I pulled away and it falls and splashed in a way it looks too thin to be oil. Tried to soak some up into paper towel to smell but couldn’t as it’s too late. No signs of leaks anywhere under motor and no oil slick on top of skidplate. Some coolant spurt marks on top of skidplate from coolant overflow.
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Spent an hour trying to track down what my bike dropped from the skidplate. Oil and coolant both on full marks and I haven’t added any since I picked it up from dealer. Did 300km two days ago in the dry so it isn’t water from washing. Nothing on garage floor. Pushed it out into driveway, idled until warm (not hot) then pulled away. Saw this slick when I got home a couple hours later. Camera shows it came out from skidplate area as I pulled away and it falls and splashed in a way it looks too thin to be oil. Tried to soak some up into paper towel to smell but couldn’t as it’s too late. No signs of leaks anywhere under motor and no oil slick on top of skidplate. Some coolant spurt marks on top of skidplate from coolant overflow.
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Have you contacted the dealer to ask?
What work did they perform anything involving liquid?
That must have freaked you out for sure...
 
Spent an hour trying to track down what my bike dropped from the skidplate. Oil and coolant both on full marks and I haven’t added any since I picked it up from dealer. Did 300km two days ago in the dry so it isn’t water from washing. Nothing on garage floor. Pushed it out into driveway, idled until warm (not hot) then pulled away. Saw this slick when I got home a couple hours later. Camera shows it came out from skidplate area as I pulled away and it falls and splashed in a way it looks too thin to be oil. Tried to soak some up into paper towel to smell but couldn’t as it’s too late. No signs of leaks anywhere under motor and no oil slick on top of skidplate. Some coolant spurt marks on top of skidplate from coolant overflow.
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On the 890/901 there's a hose clamp.at the front of the bike that sometimes isn't tightened at the factory or at PDI which results in a coolant leak. The clamp and pipe is just behind the skid plate at the front of the bike.

Not sure if the 1290 has the same problem, but something you might want to check.
 
Have you contacted the dealer to ask?
What work did they perform anything involving liquid?
That must have freaked you out for sure...
New bike, was thinking maybe they put too much oil/coolant in at pdi.
On the 1290 the loose hose clamp from the water pump is behind the right fairing:

Thanks I’ll take a look at those. Thing is, they all mention seeing a leak/puddle or coolant in bottle dropping and I don’t have that. Mine’s at full mark which makes me wonder if it just puked out a bunch from the overflow and it sat in the pan until forward motion flowed it out. Unless rad is low and it hasn’t pulled it from the tank but that’s pulling some plastic to find out. I’ll inspect hoses first.
 
New bike, was thinking maybe they put too much oil/coolant in at pdi.

Thanks I’ll take a look at those. Thing is, they all mention seeing a leak/puddle or coolant in bottle dropping and I don’t have that. Mine’s at full mark which makes me wonder if it just puked out a bunch from the overflow and it sat in the pan until forward motion flowed it out. Unless rad is low and it hasn’t pulled it from the tank but that’s pulling some plastic to find out. I’ll inspect hoses first.
Stick your finger into the spillage.

Coolant will be sweet smelling, oil will not. Both will be slippery if you rub between your fingers.

If you still can’t figure it out, run a little water over your finger, if it gets completely clean it’s coolant.

Keep tools mobile.
 
Carbs synced on the VFR, had some wiring to fix in the tail light from some mice over the winter. Few new cracks in the fairings I did my best to fix, and reassemble everything. Bike just needs an oil change and it’s ready to rideIMG_2548.jpeg
Drained and flushed the coolant to replace with water on the CBR, finally got around to replacing the brake hoses with braided ones. Bleeding is 95% done, can’t seem to get rid of that lack of initial bite but waiting on more fluid in the mail before I tackle that again. Oil change and figuring out where to safety wire the plug to is next. I have new tires for both bikes that I have to get swapped at some point too
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Stick your finger into the spillage.

Coolant will be sweet smelling, oil will not. Both will be slippery if you rub between your fingers.

If you still can’t figure it out, run a little water over your finger, if it gets completely clean it’s coolant.

Keep tools mobile.
Started raining before I could try the clean test. I put some paper towel on it but couldn’t get enough on it to get a smell. Would rain clean it from the driveway if it’s coolant?
 
Started raining before I could try the clean test. I put some paper towel on it but couldn’t get enough on it to get a smell. Would rain clean it from the driveway if it’s coolant?
Rain should wash away most of the coolant.

The other thing you can try is to push some clean paper towel down into the belly pan with a stick. Pull it out and hopefully it has the offending goo on it.
 
Started raining before I could try the clean test. I put some paper towel on it but couldn’t get enough on it to get a smell. Would rain clean it from the driveway if it’s coolant?
If it’s on your driveway, water will wash coolant clear. Water will create a reflective metallic sheen on oil, rain won’t wash oil away
 
Well rain washed it away and after letting the bike sit overnight there’s a small puddle of coolant forming in the pan so that answers that question. I’ll pull some panels and see if it’s just a clamp that requires tightening or if it’s more serious and needs a warranty repair.
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A story from Jonathan Rea about how to check mystery fluids under your bike:
“Do you want me to tell you a really funny story? I hadn’t gone to pee enough. I was sat on the grid and I was absolutely bursting, so I started to go in my leathers; so much so that it dripped down and there was a small puddle under my bike. They showed the three-minute board, when you have to unplug your tyre warmers, and my chief mechanic Uri [Pallarès] spotted the puddle. He gently tapped my other chassis mechanic: what’s that? He was thinking it’s water or oil, or something else from the bike.”

Rea now mimes Pallarès testing the fluid, by dipping his finger and tasting it.

“Poor old Uri dip-tested it! I won the race, and in parc fermé Uri asked me, ‘you peed on the grid, didn’t you?’, and slapped me! I said, ‘yeah, sorry mate’. It was the first and only time I’ve done that.”
 
I fiberglassed up some damage in my track fairings last fall and then put everything away for the winter, intending to finish them when things got warm in the spring. Of course I procrastinated on that, so now I'm rushing to get things ready. Trying my hand at Bondo for the first time:

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I fiberglassed up some damage in my track fairings last fall and then put everything away for the winter, intending to finish them when things got warm in the spring. Of course I procrastinated on that, so now I'm rushing to get things ready. Trying my hand at Bondo for the first time:
E1waNB1XsAQcvYV
Bodyfill isn't hard but getting the colour right for appropriate working time takes some feel. I've never used blue, just red. I stick with red as I'm used to it.
 
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Lightcycle and google advise there’s a common occurrence with the water pump hose clamp not tightened enough from factory and causing leaks. Unfortunately to get to it you really need to pull the tank. Well at least now I know how to do that (coles notes: lotsa screws). That clamp got tightened 1.5 turns so we’ll see if that fixes it. Couldn’t locate an obvious leak anywhere unfortunately and everything else including all 8mm bolts were tight. Going to leave it partially apart to see if leak still happens and also going to do an oil change as well.
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Lightcycle and google advise there’s a common occurrence with the water pump hose clamp not tightened enough from factory and causing leaks. Unfortunately to get to it you really need to pull the tank. Well at least now I know how to do that (coles notes: lotsa screws). That clamp got tightened 1.5 turns so we’ll see if that fixes it. Couldn’t locate an obvious leak anywhere unfortunately and everything else including all 8mm bolts were tight. Going to leave it partially apart to see if leak still happens and also going to do an oil change as well.
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Your bike is too clean. I keep mine a little bit dirty so that fluid leaks show up better in the dust :p
 

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