Topping up coolant level
Discussion
The manual says use distilled water? Only ever used tap water and Anti-freeze with my kit car. Will it make a diffarence?
long story short, noticed the triple's rad fan coming on more than I would say was normal. considering I got a oil cooler as well as a rad. Checked the coolent lever and its at min. So must not have enough water in the system to cool it enough??
does the lever need to be checked when its cold/warm or HOT???
long story short, noticed the triple's rad fan coming on more than I would say was normal. considering I got a oil cooler as well as a rad. Checked the coolent lever and its at min. So must not have enough water in the system to cool it enough??
does the lever need to be checked when its cold/warm or HOT???
check it cold, as if you remove the cap when warm/hot it WILL explode allover you & that hurts. a bloody coach did it to me once, i rattled the expansion tank to check the level (dirty plastic) and got covered in 3 gallon of boiling anti-freeze as the cap wasnt on properly.
i'd assume tapwater is fine, they say distilled to cover themselves incase you fill it from your pond. i know quite a few people who use their garden waterbutt as its normally got less crap in it than tap water.
i'd assume tapwater is fine, they say distilled to cover themselves incase you fill it from your pond. i know quite a few people who use their garden waterbutt as its normally got less crap in it than tap water.
RemaL said:
The manual says use distilled water? Only ever used tap water and Anti-freeze with my kit car. Will it make a diffarence?
That's all I've ever used.RemaL said:
long story short, noticed the triple's rad fan coming on more than I would say was normal. considering I got a oil cooler as well as a rad. Checked the coolent lever and its at min. So must not have enough water in the system to cool it enough??
If it's measured at the rad then you may not have enough water in the system but generally bikes will have an expansion tank where the min/max marks are. If it's there then you've got plenty of water in the system to cool the engine. The coolant isn't circulated through the expansion tank so as long as you're between min/max then you should be fine.I'd let it go cold, fill it to max and go from there. If you lose some water you need to find out where it's going just in case you've got a small leak and you don't want it to become a big leak.
Your bike will get very warm at this time of year and the fan will cut in loads while you are stationary. Mine regularly hits 105 degrees while sitting at the lights. It's perfectly normal, don't worry about it.
It all depends on how hard your water is.
Have a look inside your kettle and see if the element is covered in greyish deposits.
If thats what a kettle does to it, think what it's doing inside your waterways and radiator; best use distilled.
If you live somewhere beautiful like Scotland and your water is softer then a virgins breasts then you can get away with tap water. Otherwise err on the sie of caution and buy distilled; it's not that expensive really!
Have a look inside your kettle and see if the element is covered in greyish deposits.
If thats what a kettle does to it, think what it's doing inside your waterways and radiator; best use distilled.
If you live somewhere beautiful like Scotland and your water is softer then a virgins breasts then you can get away with tap water. Otherwise err on the sie of caution and buy distilled; it's not that expensive really!
Rubin215 said:
It all depends on how hard your water is.
Have a look inside your kettle and see if the element is covered in greyish deposits.
If thats what a kettle does to it, think what it's doing inside your waterways and radiator; best use distilled.
That's a fair point which I hadn't considered. Easy to be dismissive if you can't be arsed yourself but distilled is probably best in the long runHave a look inside your kettle and see if the element is covered in greyish deposits.
If thats what a kettle does to it, think what it's doing inside your waterways and radiator; best use distilled.
.Leccy said:
Hooli said:
i know quite a few people who use their garden waterbutt as its normally got less crap in it than tap water.
No it doesn't unless your tap water is from a pond in your garden.black-k1 said:
Leccy said:
Hooli said:
i know quite a few people who use their garden waterbutt as its normally got less crap in it than tap water.
No it doesn't unless your tap water is from a pond in your garden.
I would only ever use distilled water as coolant. I live in a hard water area and wouldn't want to get that s
te in my car or bike TBH. Distilled water ain't expensive if you buy it in 25L containers, but that's probably too much just for a bike - take 'kin years to use it 
I'm going to do a fluids/filters service on my bikes in the next month or so and I was planning to use the premixed coolant available from the likes of Silkolene. Might rethink that though and just buy a load of really good antifreeze as I need to do the car too
te in my car or bike TBH. Distilled water ain't expensive if you buy it in 25L containers, but that's probably too much just for a bike - take 'kin years to use it I'm going to do a fluids/filters service on my bikes in the next month or so and I was planning to use the premixed coolant available from the likes of Silkolene. Might rethink that though and just buy a load of really good antifreeze as I need to do the car too
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