DIY: How To Change/Replace Your Coolant w/ Pictures

[gilmorec61]

So guys, just did a few things to my bike, and one of them was a coolant change so I'm going to do a write up on it, as it doesnt seem as if there are any.

So, to start things off, make sure your bike is cold. You dont want to do it when its hot for risk of burning yourself.

Step 1: Take off your lower fairing's and put on rear stand.

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Step 2: Remove radiator cap.

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Step 3: Place containers to drain old coolant into under circled bolts. Remove circled bolts with a 10mm and 8mm socket. There are 2 bolts, one right under the headers, one right on the end of a tube like thing.

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Step 4: Remove coolant resevoir to drain all coolant out of it. To do this you will want to cut this plastic loop so you can remove the resevoir (unless you would rather remove the whole clutch cable). Here is a picture of it circled:

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Remove the cables from the loop.

After you have done that, remove two bolts that hold the resevoir tank to the bike. They should be two 8mm bolts. Remove the circled bolts.

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As soon as you remove these bolts, the resevoir should drop right on out. Carefully open and pour the old coolant into a contatiner.

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Step 5: Place resevoir back in place by putting the (2) 8mm bolts back in the resevoir bolt holes. Place cables back in plastic loop. Screw in both coolant drain bolts you removed earlier. Make sure to torque them to spec according to the owners manual.

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Step 6: Fill up the coolant resevoir to the full line with coolant. I used Honda HP Coolant. Make sure you purchase prediluted 50/50 blend coolant. Mixing coolant yourself is harsher on the engine; not good for it. I got two quarts of it at my local motorcycle stealership for around $13.00.

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Fill up the radiator up to the top of the radiator fill neck with coolant. Make sure you do this As Slow As Possible!

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Tap all hoses, and give the bike a little shake to remove some airbubbles from the system. Top off as needed.

Step 7: Start the engine with the radiator cap off. Again, tap and shake the bike and all coolant lines, radiator, anything related to coolant with a screw driver or anything, to get all airbubbles out of coolant. Turn off the engine and top off the coolant to the top of the radiator fill neck. Repeat this last step (step 7) a couple more times until you are almost sure you have all airbubbles out.

Step 8: Start the engine again, with the radiator cap on and warm it up all the way until the radiator fan turns on then shut off the enigne. Check the coolant level in the coolant resevoir tank. If it is lower than the low level line, add coolant to the full level line.

Step 9: Wait until the engine cools, and remove radiator cap and top off to top of radiator filler neck if needed.

Step 10: Make sure you have no leaks and reinstall fairings.

Hope you guys were able to learn something out of this! If there is anything that seems wrong, or any questions, let me know!

[Slono]

I was just looking for a DIY coolant thread a week ago and couldn't find it. Thanks for this!

[gilmorec61]

I was just looking for a DIY coolant threat a week ago and couldn't find it. Thanks for this!

No problem, glad i could make it available for you!

[MikeBudd]

Nice DIY! I'll probably need this eventually

[gilmorec61]

Just trying to return the favor with all the help this forum's given me!

[Alex]

/linked from main DIY thread

[CZroe]

Originally Posted by gilmorec61

...Make sure you purchase prediluted 50/50 blend coolant. Mixing coolant yourself is harsher on the engine;...

What if you mix outside the engine?

[gilmorec61]

What if you mix outside the engine?

Well then your whole engine WILL blow up! Duhh, its common sense!

Nah, its just better for the engine to have it already mixed before you pour it into the engine.

[ScorpionNinja]

Cool write up, but I was looking for and wondering... what to do to "FLUSH" the coolant system to get all the old coolant and crap out, Using Home made items or stuff found around the house?

Im thinking of running up to STG and getting 1/2 gallon of this to use for my 250R:
http://stores.sportbiketrackgear.com/Detail.bok?no=3380

[Boom King]

Originally Posted by ScorpionNinja

Cool write up, but I was looking for and wondering... what to do to "FLUSH" the coolant system to get all the old coolant and crap out, Using Home made items or stuff found around the house?

I don't think a flush is entirely necessary but if you want to go that route, you fill it up with distilled water and run the engine for a bit and drain it out. Remember, use DISTILLED water only.

Another note on the using premixed 50/50 blend coolant; I've heard that you should use one that is silicate free only as silicates can damage the seals. Again, just what I've heard. I know there are coolants out there that specifically advertise "silicate free" on their labels.

[CZroe]

How did the coolant look? At ~8,686 miles, mine was full of "floaters" and gunk.

[whomikedao]

For some reason my radiator fan doesn't move. Is there a way to fix it?

I'm assuming it turns on during warm up based on this DIY but mine has been on for a while and still doesn't turn on. I live in Texas where it's like 87 degrees here right now

*EDIT*

Actually it turns on. Now the only thing I'm worried about is my engine cover or my exhaust pipes, there are like little bits and pieces of smoke coming out from that area, is that normal?

[gilmorec61]

How did the coolant look? At ~8,686 miles, mine was full of "floaters" and gunk.

Honestly it looked pretty good, but then agian, ive never seen 'bad' coolant.

Cool write up, but I was looking for and wondering... what to do to "FLUSH" the coolant system to get all the old coolant and crap out, Using Home made items or stuff found around the house?

Yeah, i dont think a flush is completly necessary. Most of the crap should come out when you drain it.

Actually it turns on. Now the only thing I'm worried about is my engine cover or my exhaust pipes, there are like little bits and pieces of smoke coming out from that area, is that normal?

For the first few miles of riding, yeah it will be. Whenever you drained the coolant, it dripped onto your exhaust pipe, and other things that get hot, so what your seeing now, is it just burning/evaporating off. It should stop soon.

[choneofakind]

The flush is to get the old coolant out that isn't good for the track. Engine Ice is acceptable at many tracks.

at least, I assume that's why Max wants to flush it

[Boom King]

Good write up . I did this yesterday. The only thing I did differently is at step 4; there is no need to remove the reservoir in order to drain the coolant. Instead, there is a hose that is clamped onto the top and bottom of the reservoir tank. Gently loosen the clamps just a bit and slide them up the tube and you can then pull the top end of the tube off. If you wet the ends of that tube a little, the clamps will slide more easily. Then do the same to the bottom end with a bucket ready underneath. The coolant will then drain out. Connect and clamp the tube down again when you are ready to refill with new coolant.

Actually, now that I think about it, you can probably just pull out the bottom end of that hose and then remove the cap to the reservoir in order to get the old coolant to drain.

[menikmati]

Thanks for the DIY, I used this procedure a couple of weeks ago to flush and fill with Engine Ice.

What I did differently was that I didn't remove the radiator cap until I had my funnel/pan positioned correctly at the bottom drain bolt, and then I used the radiator cap to modulate how much coolant came out, as fully removing the cap would've shot the coolant out sideways.

I also used some foil on the second drain bolt near the head to avoid any drippage on the engine/exhaust header.

All in all it was pretty simple and less of a pain in the ass compared to having oil all over my hands from an oil change.

[sharky nrk]

I drained mine for a track day this weekend and swapped it with distilled water. Had a hell of time getting all the bubbles out. Ran it with the cap off for a long time and still had bubbles, long enough that the water started boiling and I had to kinda start over on the level.

[Alex]

Distilled water + water wetter, or the maxima stuff, right?

[sharky nrk]

Distilled water yes.

[Alex]

Right - but only distilled water, or did you add either of those additives? Water wetter is the most common, but Maxima and perhaps other make a similar product. Distilled water on its own is OK, but it is greatly improved by adding just a few capfuls of either product. Significantly lowers the running temp of the bike by improving the heat transfer capability of the mixture, and also adds a little added lubrication for the water pump.

[sharky nrk]

Yeah I know, and have used water wetter for years in the subaru. Water alone has better heat transfer properties than the normal gycol based coolants alone so I am already one set up. I will be putting in engine ice in a week or two (allowed on track and I need some freeze protection for the winter but couldn't get any before this flush) and don't really feel like dumping in another additive and then ditching it again in a few months.

[jhunter]

So I'm going to assume from reading this thread that using water from the water hose is not recommended, and generally not a good idea at all.lol

[cuz]

1Q


So do I just dump the WW bottle in to the radiator then top it of w/Distilled water???

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by jhunter

So I'm going to assume from reading this thread that using water from the water hose is not recommended, and generally not a good idea at all.lol

Tap water contains dissolved solid salts, oxides and hydroxides that suffer crystallization over cooling surfaces of the system (mainly radiator), producing scaling or precipitation fouling.

Just a thin layer of that scaling impairs the heat transfer (cooling fluid-metal) greatly.

Read more about fouling:
http://www.hcheattransfer.com/fouling1.html

Also, city water may be treated with chlorine which is corrosive.

I am not sure about trying to avoid anti-freeze containing silicates, since those are used to protect aluminum engine parts.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by cuz

So do I just dump the WW bottle in to the radiator then top it of w/Distilled water???

No. Read the WW bottle for the appropriate amount, IIRC it's closer to a few capfuls rather than the whole bottle.

[coelgrim]

Hello everyone, I am newbie here and I own an ninja 250R yr2010, I just changing my coolant here (following your and standar procedure in service manual).
I drain the old coolant,
Drain the coolant from reservoir tank, then
I put a new coolant in till the filler neck and full line in reservoir tank!
then I purging the air using normal procedure (running the engine with radiator cap OFF).

After that, I put the radiator cap ON, and then running the engine till the radiator FAN swings!

voila, that should be done, then I open the radiator cap, check the coolant level,and found the coolant level is dropped a bit, then I add a small amount of coolant to get to full of filler neck.

and then again I warm up the engine (this time by riding it around my neighbourhood), stop and wait till cold, then open the radiator cap again, check the coolant level, I just shocked, AGAIN, why the coolant level is again, dropped a bit??

Here is the picture of the level where coolant dropped a bit :


more close up pict :


..

Even so , the level of coolant in reservoir tank is just fine !

the view when reservoir cap off :


Please help me, is the level of coolant normal? Does this happen to everybody? Thanks btw

[CZroe]

You typically have to do it several times.

[SafetyPaws]

Originally Posted by gilmorec61

Step 3: Place containers to drain old coolant into under circled bolts. Remove circled bolts with a 10mm and 8mm socket. There are 2 bolts, one right under the headers, one right on the end of a tube like thing.

For step 3, which drain bolt should I un-tighten/undo first? The one at the header or the one at the bottom? Will the coolant shoot out from the header area? I want to say that 1 take care of reservoir as in steps, then do the bottom drain bolt per gravity, then touch the top one near the header for anything that is left? Am I correct?

[kremtok]

So I just gave this a try. I got to the part where we let the bike warm up to operating temperature, but the fan didn't come on at any point. It started making boiling noises and then the high temp light came on, so I shut off the bike.

I'm going to let it sit and cool for a couple of hours before doing anything else, so are there any ideas as to what I might have done wrong?

[SafetyPaws]

Originally Posted by kremtok

So I just gave this a try. I got to the part where we let the bike warm up to operating temperature, but the fan didn't come on at any point. It started making boiling noises and then the high temp light came on, so I shut off the bike.

I'm going to let it sit and cool for a couple of hours before doing anything else, so are there any ideas as to what I might have done wrong?

Did you fill it and wait for it to drop down with the bike vertical and then continue to pour coolant in? Also I tapped the pipes along the way and it helped drop the coolant and I saw air bubbles rise from the cap. While the engine was running and it was vertical (had dad hold it - don't have stand) and cap removed I topped off the radiator and then revved and it dropped drastically. So I did that a few times until I revved and it was at the recommended point. Did you also fill the reservoir?

I started a thread and you may want to go over it I received some excellent help there. http://www.ninjette.org/forums/showthread.php?t=132646

[kremtok]

Originally Posted by SafetyPaws

Did you fill it and wait for it to drop down with the bike vertical and then continue to pour coolant in? Also I tapped the pipes along the way and it helped drop the coolant and I saw air bubbles rise from the cap. While the engine was running and it was vertical (had dad hold it - don't have stand) and cap removed I topped off the radiator and then revved and it dropped drastically. So I did that a few times until I revved and it was at the recommended point. Did you also fill the reservoir?

I started a thread and you may want to go over it I received some excellent help there. http://www.ninjette.org/forums/showthread.php?t=132646

Yes, I did. I used a small deadblow hammer on all of the coolant lines as well as the radiator. I kept at that, adding coolant every time I walked around the bike, while my wife watched for bubbles. Once we saw no more bubbles, I moved on to the running / cap off, then the running / cap on as described in the OP.

I just went back out to the bike, and the reservoir was down to the L line, so I filled that. The system seemed cool, so I opened up the radiator cap and was surprised to find that it took a lot more coolant to top off and I also got quite a bit more air out of the system. I'm going to go try running it again...wish me luck!

[SafetyPaws]

Originally Posted by kremtok

Yes, I did. I used a small deadblow hammer on all of the coolant lines as well as the radiator. I kept at that, adding coolant every time I walked around the bike, while my wife watched for bubbles. Once we saw no more bubbles, I moved on to the running / cap off, then the running / cap on as described in the OP.

I just went back out to the bike, and the reservoir was down to the L line, so I filled that. The system seemed cool, so I opened up the radiator cap and was surprised to find that it took a lot more coolant to top off and I also got quite a bit more air out of the system. I'm going to go try running it again...wish me luck!

i did 3 times with distilled water to flush (most likely overkill). It was crystal clear right before the end of the first pass. Then i added the coolant i used engine ice. I only noticed the fan on one day when it shot up to like 90 and another time in grid lock escaping the redwings game.

Another note - are you sure its not the oil light that went on? I don't remember seeing a engine temp light on the bike, although i could be mistaken.

Edit: see page 24 of manual.

The coolant temperature warning indicator light goes on whenever the ignition key is turned to "ON" or the coolant temperature is higher when the motorcycle is in operation. If the warning indicator light does not go off, have the warning indicator light or cooling system checked by an authorized Kawasaki dealer.

That was confusing to me, so at a stop it should be on but when you are in operation it should go off and then light up if its too hot?

Edit 2: yar so i just had a brain fart moment, when bike is on all lights are up for check, when ignition is turned mine turned off. Is yours with ignition started?

[kremtok]

Originally Posted by SafetyPaws

i did 3 times with distilled water to flush (most likely overkill). It was crystal clear right before the end of the first pass. Then i added the coolant i used engine ice. I only noticed the fan on one day when it shot up to like 90 and another time in grid lock escaping the redwings game.

Another note - are you sure its not the oil light that went on? I don't remember seeing a engine temp light on the bike, although i could be mistaken.

Edit: see page 24 of manual.



That was confusing to me, so at a stop it should be on but when you are in operation it should go off and then light up if its too hot?

I also did a distilled water flush, but with gravity only, then switched to Engine Ice. And I'm quite sure it was the high temp light that came on. If that or the oil light comes on while your engine is running, it means that there is a problem with either the cooling or lubrication system, respectively. If the engine is not running, then the lights should be on just to show you that they work.

Looks like this time around everything went better. The fan came on after about 5 minutes, so I shut down the bike. There were no angry sounds and no high temp light. It's cooling now, and I'll check in an hour or so to make sure the levels are correct then call this project done.

[SafetyPaws]

Originally Posted by kremtok

I also did a distilled water flush, but with gravity only, then switched to Engine Ice. And I'm quite sure it was the high temp light that came on. If that or the oil light comes on while your engine is running, it means that there is a problem with either the cooling or lubrication system, respectively. If the engine is not running, then the lights should be on just to show you that they work.

Looks like this time around everything went better. The fan came on after about 5 minutes, so I shut down the bike. There were no angry sounds and no high temp light. It's cooling now, and I'll check in an hour or so to make sure the levels are correct then call this project done.

yar see my addition above. What was also recommended to me was to ride it around and wait for fan to turn on instead of letting it sit. Maybe try that in an hour. After it cools make sure to top if off from cap if needed and top off the reservoir. I had to top off reservoir on my last go around.

[AZRider]

I am new to Kawasakis, but Hondas are VERY susceptible to water pump failure if you use automotive coolant that contains silicates.

Basically, cars use silicates because car owners often go 100,000 miles without thinking about their radiator. The silicates are abrasive particles in the coolant that scrub the cooling passages and radiator as the liquid flows. Bike parts are engineered to be smaller and lighter, and the cooling systems are so much smaller in volume, that the clearances are tighter, etc. Motorcycles also accumulate fewer miles and are typically owned by more-attentive people. Bottom line is that Honda motorcycle water pumps won't survive long with coolant containing silicates. Unless Kawasaki specifies otherwise, I would recommend silicate-free coolant.

[jkv45]

Originally Posted by sharky nrk

Distilled water yes.

I used to use distilled water also, but have recently heard from a trusted source in the industry that regular filtered drinking water is better. Filtered drinking water is available in grocery stores in gallons or bottles.

Distilled and deionized water are aggressive on aluminum. Filtered drinking water doesn't contain a significant amount of minerals like most tap water, doesn't have sodium like soft water, and isn't as aggressive as distilled or deionized water.

[gantt]

I flushed my coolant a few days ago. I used the service manual, and this thread also. when it came time to purge the air, I slowly added coolant until it was full. then I tapped all the pipes, and bounced the bike on the forks. that seemed to help a lot. I had no issues with air getting trapped in the system. thanks for the write-up. I love this forum, thanks for the assistance!

[N-m]

Originally Posted by jkv45

I used to use distilled water also, but have recently heard from a trusted source in the industry that regular filtered drinking water is better. Filtered drinking water is available in grocery stores in gallons or bottles.

Distilled and deionized water are aggressive on aluminum. Filtered drinking water doesn't contain a significant amount of minerals like most tap water, doesn't have sodium like soft water, and isn't as aggressive as distilled or deionized water.

Old thread bump.

Distilled water, when fully distilled contains nothing but water. It isn't even conductive of electricity. How would it be aggressive on aluminum?

[crazymadbastard]

Originally Posted by N-m

Old thread bump.

Distilled water, when fully distilled contains nothing but water. It isn't even conductive of electricity. How would it be aggressive on aluminum?

I think that distilled water will try to absorb minerals and will attack the metal. Now if you use distilled water plus antifreeze or water wetter, then there should be no issue. Perhaps a chemist will give a better explanation of wth Im talking about- perhaps osmosis?