2002 Coolant Questions

Hello I'm gooing to do maintenance before a long trip, going to change oil and coolant.

Is automotive type ok to use?

I have the manual but folks always have tips and procedures that work better than those on the book.

Bike works ok, never goes past 220 on the temp gauge, couple of weeks ago when removes left side fairing to install oxygen sensor plugs noticed reservoir was very low almost empty, refilled it with left over bottle from my car. No leaks or funny smoke. Never changed it though but looks pretty dark.

Or i should not mess with that and deal with this when I get back?

Automotive coolant is fine to use, just make sure it's silicate-free. It should say on the bottle.

There is a second drain screw on the front cylinders, above the oil filter. 10mm head. The other one is on the water pump at the lowest point.

Flush it with some distilled water after draining, and run the bike up to FULL operating temp to get all the old coolant out, then drain and refill it with 60/40 coolant water mix (because there will always be a little pure water left in the engine from the flushing). Use distilled water only.

When refilling, put the bike on the sidestand and fill it slowly, and wait for all the air to come out, and keep filling it.

Run the bike on the sidestand until the engine gets warm, rev the throttle a bit to "burp" the cooling system, and add as necessary.

Before I fill with coolant, I always remove the plastic coolant bottle and clean it out, then reinstall it. Lastly, top off the coolant bottle.

I remember from my old goldwing also needed sillicate free coolant, i never found one that said so so I never changes the coolant on the old beast. Most labels are in Spanish but none of them mention sillicate free.

For the radiator cap, is there an automotive replacement that will fit,

Yes there is, I got mine from Canadian Tire, although you won't have that in Mexico.

The one I used fits some Toyotas and Isuzus, and has the exact same pressure rating.

If you take your cap in, and find an identical looking one with the same pressure rating, you're good.

That's exactly what I did.

Prestone GM Dex-Cool Extended Life antifreeze, the orange stuff, is ok. Don't use the typical green Prestone. The orange mix should be available in Mexico.

Ive got a 100,000 mile vfr waterpump, only prestone mixes with anything has been used, no thermo issues like those with Honda's coolant. I dumped the honda stuff when the bike was new, changed it to prestone and have changed it maybe twice in that time.

Ive not ran the GM orange in the vfr, but have ran it in other bikes, and it does fine in aluminum engines. I have seen with gm engines, that are cast iron blocks and plastic intake manifolds, the orange seems to like to find leaks. My 110,000 mile colorado(aluminum motor), still has original gm orange and doing fine. all in all though prestone mixes with anything is pretty simplistic and it works with no hint of potential detrimental effects.

Hello, i found the orange prestone gm coolant. First i flushed with purified drinking water and ran it until the fan kicked in, then drained and added the coolant.

I got a question for all of you. It may be my imagination or something else but I want to make sure. I don't remember seeing my bike going past 220f on the dash, the fan would kick in and lower it to 210 but that was most of the time in city driving... I am not sure but i think it was the same at idle.

After I added the coolant and reved up the engine to get the air out then installed the cap and let it idle. It went up to 220 fan kicked and went down to 215 then started climbing again, to 225 then went down and then up again to 230. That was after about 15 mins idling. Is that ok?? Or this may be caused by the new coolant?

I have no clue what coolant was on it before and how old it was but i think it was orange.

I thought all coolants were gren/yellowish and this one looked darkish on the reservoir that i though it was very dirty and old and had to be flushed. But I was thinking that its likely that the coolant was the orange and was not so old.

Sorry to be asking newbie questions but I want to make sure everything is ok or find out if there is something wrong and fix it before i go on a 2400 km trip

was it premixed 50/50 coolant, or did you fill the bike with 100% straight coolant?

and when you filled the bike, was it on the sidestand? it needs to be on the sidestand so that the radiator cap is the highest point, so air can escape.

center stand, and added 100% coolant since the bottle specified not to add any water

should i ignore this label and remove some coolant and add some water?

if its already mixed 50/50 in the jug, you are fine.

try setting the bike on the sidestand, open the rad cap (when the engine is cold), start the bike, and rev it up a bit, and add coolant as much as possible until it's completely full.

cap the rad and take it for a ride and see how it works. Might have to top it up a second time after the bike cools down, always on the sidestand.

was this the stuff?

[image: prestone_dex_cool_50_50_antifreeze_coola]

Yes that's exactly what I got
I'll try to get air out on the side stand and go for a short ride tomorrow and see what happens, would riding without fairing panels affect the collining?

the fairings are supposed to help with the airflow through the radiators, but I'm not sure how much.

I've ridden mine before without the fairings, and it never overheated, but it wasn't 100 degrees F out either.

What I do is lay the bike as far to the left as possible, much farther over than the side stand, and you'll hear gulp gulp, as air pops out from the open rad cap. Course I generally just drain the rads, and not the block, being that I change it frequent enough not to go full bad.

Off course using the gm orange requires a full flush out cause they arent mixable with standard green, although the prestone mixes with anything, mixes with anything.

Probably your temp sensors are surrounded by air cause you didnt lay the bike over far enough, this is in the off condition too. once youve layed it over and hear the gulp, just top the right rad put the cap on and go ride.

This going to sound crazy but after I change anti freeze to help get the air out, with the bike on the center stand, I shake the sh!t out of it by locking the handle bars and using them to move the bike side to side. Re check the anti freeze level and re fill if necessary. Start it and watch the temp gauge it should  start to  increase. Let it warm up and re check anti-freeze. The shaking helps move the air bubbles up the filler cap.