Just bought the bike and put maybe 400 miles on it riding it back and around town. Going through the owner's manual checking fluid levels, setting suspension, etc. Coolant level looks extremely low and it is according to owners manual. Any chance I'm wrong? <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/GeMb82rn3GJtVNwls7LSIYORcZPw8gtfxvpSSWJb2_g?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-uxtCj4RbF-E/UWiPigyr4SI/AAAAAAAAAks/isXjR-xzYcM/s640/IMG_1420.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a> <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/swUHbAUplz70r8g5DjacAYORcZPw8gtfxvpSSWJb2_g?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-ZzG_vvBm87Q/UWiPihehuHI/AAAAAAAAAkw/Smp6O_FC-4I/s400/IMG_1422.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a>
When cold or hot, cooling level fluctuates. Seems somehow low to me as well, but if the bike is hot, coolant goes down I think. How many miles? Do you suspect wp seal? Cheers.
When my 950 was new I added almost a pint of "water wetter" to keep the overflow tank from being too low in the first few thousand miles. It was "burping" a few of the air bubbles out of the system the factory burp didn't get ! I can't see the MIN line on your pic, but it should be on the Min line when the ENGINE is cold and will usually go up near the MAX line when the ENGINE is hot. My water pump seal lasted about 17K miles before replacement. Enjoy your new ride..
Just keep an eye on your temperature. I seldom look the overflow tank but I've never overheated and I ride in seriously hot climates...right now my coolant level is identical to yours...you'll get over the first anxiety attacks of owning a new bike soon by riding it...
When cold my is on minimum if it gets hot in traffic it will be somewhere near maximum but if it runs on highway about halfway between min and max. The thing to do is when cold take off radiator cap and see if it is full, if so then at minimum is fine when cold. I got a black marker and highlighted min and max marks so I could easily check any time. Best thing I did was put the second fan on keeps everything no more than five bars out of seven. It is important after changing the radiator fluid to have a little bit more in coolant tank, from cold to hot the coolant will expand in the radiator so after changing there may be air bubbles so having a little bit makes sure that upon cooling there is ample spare coolant to be sucked back into radiator.
Pull off that front cover and see how the system works. The cooling system is designed to hold 1.5 bars of pressure. As the system heats up, it can push water out into the overflow tank through the tube that goes into the bottom of the tank. As the system cools, it can suck water back in through the same tube. If you get too much water in the system, if flows out onto the ground through the other tube in the tank. With only 400 miles on the bike, it is very likely that the mechanic didn't get all of the air out of the system when putting the bike together, and some air got pushed out into the overflow tank, and then the bike sucked back in water. No problems. Put more coolant in the tank. Water Wetter is good stuff. Pour some of that in. My bike's tank water level goes up and down A LOT. Don't worry about it UNLESS the bike is pushing a lot of water out of the tank, or you have high mileage on your water pump and are seeing the water level consistently going low. Water pump shafts wear out and leak water into the oil, but it's very unlikely that you are having this kind of problem. That takes miles and miles of wear. I think my shaft, which was absolutely toast had 34,000 miles on it. If your bike is blowing water out of the tank, you could have a head gasket leak (very rare) or the radiator cap is not putting adequate pressure on the radiator to hold 1.5 bars (far more common). That can happen with age on the radiator cap or because of crap building up under the rubber seal on the radiator cap. Yours is not pushing water because your tank is just consistently low, so you do not have these problems. If the water consistently is going low, you could have a leaking water pump or other rare issue. To avoid the water pump failure concerns, put a Scotts oil filter in that thing and forget about having a water pump failure that could take out your engine. Also a good idea to check out CJ Designs clutch cover solution that will show you when you have a waterpump failure. Well, only true if you clean them. At the end of the day, you need to add some liquid to your tank and ride that thing.
