Coolant Top up

Was mucking about under the seat today and couldn't see any coolant in the expansion bottle. Was a bit worried as when it fell over recently on a wet, muddy road it knocked the radiator about. If I'd lost coolant I wouldn't have been able to see it in the mud so the fact that I couldn't see any in the overflow bottle had me a bit concerned that i had a leak and had lost coolant.

So I undid the cap (or more correctly - pulled out the plug) and started to trickle in some new coolant. Before i know it, it's overflowing green coolant over the back of the bike! But I still couldn't see any through the plastic expansion bottle! I reckon the "low" and "full" markings are useless as you can't see the coolant anyway. And this stuff was very green so I'd have expected to see something before it started to overflow.

Be warned.

Told you coolant was evil .I hated changing mine .

If you shine a torch into the bottle opening (it's bloody hard but can be done) at the right angle you can see the coolant level. Or a torch at just the right angle shone at the side of the expansion tank will let you see the level also.

A trick I have been using since day one on all expansion bottles that are white plastic is to mark the low and high levels with black texta. Makes it a slight bit easier to see and work out the level