R&G crash Knobs cause radiator failure?

Last week I found a small puddle of coolant under my bike, today I had the time to check it out.

Was hoping for some good news, hose, hose clamp etc.

Unfortunately the only evidence of a leak was on the radiator. Unfortunately even at temp the leak is so small it can't be clearly seen where it is coming from


Looking at the back of the guard it has a small thin piece of rubber in the centre, supposedly to space the guard from the core, it's all but worn away.


The radiator is now at Race Radiators in Dandenong. The guys first reaction was that it might have a damaged tube in the centre front, and the coolant is just pooling in the bottom left corner. They are going to flush it and clean it and have a proper look at it

If its terminal it's $685 for a new one, Suzuki Australia are showing only one in stock.

If my suspicions are correct make sure you have a good deal of space between the guard and the radiator

Will find out more next week

I wonder whether a water or oil cooler from a truck would be suitable as a replacement. I can't imagine it costing what Suzuki are charging.

My last two radiator guards were made of mesh from a Caterpillar dump truck air cleaner which is steel and quite a good open mesh.

In each one I encased the perimeter with "pinchweld" which has about 5mm of rubber on the radiator side.
I also put a piece of rubber tubing in the centre between the radiator and the mesh.
The guard is attached with cable ties so is easy to remove and check for problems. 
It is not possible for the mesh to make contact with the radiator by pushing it so I guess it should be quite safe.

A similar mesh though slightly lighter duty is available from your local recycle centre, the top of an ironing board

Hi MM, I bought a radiator off EBAY for $110 thinking I would need it after my radiator was blocked from mixing coolant types, I had the new radiator pressure tested and checked out by a radiator mob and they said it was fine to use well made and should give you no trouble, radiator was from china, I fitted it and have had no problems since, it actually has 2 extra cooling tubes from the standard radiator

Damned if you do ..............and damned if you don't have one . Mine too is a mesh home made jobbie ...............still might check it out though .
(Looks like small stones can get through and rub anyway by that picture   )

talon440 wrote:Hi MM, I bought a radiator off EBAY for $110 thinking I would need it after my radiator was blocked from mixing coolant types, I had the new radiator pressure tested and checked out by a radiator mob and they said it was fine to use well made and should give you no trouble, radiator was from china, I fitted it and have had no problems since, it actually has 2 extra cooling tubes from the standard radiator

GSX is different to the standard GSF radiator, it is larger
I can't find a non-genuine one on ebay

I'd epoxy the hole before shelling or that money mate. Hard luck, the warpspeed guard hasn't done that to mine.

reddog wrote:I'd epoxy the hole before shelling or that money mate. Hard luck, the warpspeed guard hasn't done that to mine.

Mine was good too and still going strong when I sold the bike after 45,000km.

A good radiator repair shop should be able to fix the tube on the radiator even if the tube is completely stuffed they should be able to blank it off and seal it up i used to do it all the time

meggens85 wrote:A good radiator repair shop should be able to fix the tube on the radiator even if the tube is completely stuffed they should be able to blank it off and seal it up i used to do it all the time

reddog wrote:I'd epoxy the hole before shelling or that money mate. Hard luck, the warpspeed guard hasn't done that to mine.

It's at Race Radiators, hopefully they can repair it.

We can only hope mad max

For alloy radiators a good radiator shop will use "Sticktite" a radiator specific product. 
Melts like solder and gets sucked into damaged tube while rad is under vacuum. It's a plastic style product. 
Be sure to get bike checked for stray current in cooling system. Major cause of ally rad leaks. 
Rad shop can test it in minutes.

So it turns out it wasn't the radiator guard at all.

This is the culprit


This is the left hand mounting block for the R&G crash knobs. You can see where the radiator has been sitting against the block. Now this crash knob kit it purposely made for this bike, it is not a universal kit.
To solve this problem I have installed a spacer between the lower radiator bracket and the bike frame. This brings the bottom of the radiator out about 6mm, giving more than enough clearance to prevent it from happening again. I also add a piece of self adhesive felt to the offending mounting block as a contingency.

The guys at Race Radiators also pointed out that something was rubbing on the front of the radiator. I have added some of this felt around the perimeter and centre of the radiator guard, to prevent further rubbing.

Good you got to the bottom of it , but a bad design for it to happen ...............are you going to let R&G know ?

paul wrote:Good you got to the bottom of it , but a bad design for it to happen ...............are you going to let R&G know ?

Yeah I'm going to send them an email. I'll keep it polite, not trying to make a claim or anything

madmax wrote:

paul wrote:Good you got to the bottom of it , but a bad design for it to happen ...............are you going to let R&G know ?

Yeah I'm going to send them an email. I'll keep it polite, not trying to make a claim or anything

Good on you, Brian. Keep it polite and highlight much you value their product. That you have promoted it on this forum and that you are interested only in helping with product development. You might be surprised at their response. 
Any company worth their salt would offer some form of assistance to you. 
Glad you found the problem.

Checked mine all good, thanks for the heads up

Jimcoleman wrote:Checked mine all good, thanks for the heads up

How much clearance do you have Jim?

about 3 or 4 mm

Jimcoleman wrote:about 3 or 4 mm

So not much then.
The radiator, being only mounted at one point at the bottom can move quite a bit on its rubber mounts. Might be a good Idea to put some rubber on the front of that mounting block.

madmax wrote:

paul wrote:Good you got to the bottom of it , but a bad design for it to happen ...............are you going to let R&G know ?

Yeah I'm going to send them an email. I'll keep it polite, not trying to make a claim or anything

I can probably dig up a personal email address from the head guru in the UK after I complained about the rad guard ill fit I fitted to the MV.
They were very good about it and after a few emails back and forth sent me a Shock Sock as compensation.

Let me know if you want it Bryan.

2wheelsagain wrote:

madmax wrote:

paul wrote:Good you got to the bottom of it , but a bad design for it to happen ...............are you going to let R&G know ?

Yeah I'm going to send them an email. I'll keep it polite, not trying to make a claim or anything

I can probably dig up a personal email address from the head guru in the UK after I complained about the rad guard ill fit I fitted to the MV.
They were very good about it and after a few emails back and forth sent me a Shock Sock as compensation.

Let me know if you want it Bryan.

Yeah Cheers Chris that would be great.
Haven't had time to even think about it at the moment but I get around to writing that email soon

madmax wrote:

2wheelsagain wrote:

madmax wrote:

paul wrote:Good you got to the bottom of it , but a bad design for it to happen ...............are you going to let R&G know ?

Yeah I'm going to send them an email. I'll keep it polite, not trying to make a claim or anything

I can probably dig up a personal email address from the head guru in the UK after I complained about the rad guard ill fit I fitted to the MV.
They were very good about it and after a few emails back and forth sent me a Shock Sock as compensation.

Let me know if you want it Bryan.

Yeah Cheers Chris that would be great.
Haven't had time to even think about it at the moment but I get around to writing that email soon

No worries mate. I'll txt you tonight.