Coolant boiling out?
 

When I got home from my ride today I noticed that my bike had boiled some coolant out onto the garage floor. I am pretty sure this happened shortly after I backed the bike into the garage and shut it off.

While riding the temperature had been at a perfect 180 and I never had any problems with the temperature at stop lights.

What could be causing this to occur?

My bike did not come with an owners manual so there may be a little bit of riding ignorance on my part. The fan came on while I was off the bike opening the garage door, so when I got back on the bike I just turned it off and backed it in.

Was I wrong in doing this? Should I leave the engine on until the fan finishes cooling the bike down?

Thanks

your fan should continue to run after the bike is off if the motor is too hot. It could be that your coolant was filled too much to begin with. when you came home how long was it running? was your last stretch of road before your house a hard riding one? next time try shutting the bike down then backing it in... no need to let it idle and build up more heat. (and your just pump'n CO2 into your garage)

check your coolant level... make sure it's still full... check the overflow bottle make sure it's not full of coolant... (mines usually empty until the bike warms up)

Did you see the bike boil it on to the floor? if so did you check to see what the temp said? if you just turn your key to on the temp should still come up. I doubt it... but if your boiling over and your temp still says 180 you could have bigger problems... but like I said... I seriously doubt it.

The fan will stay on if I have the ignition on when the engine is not running. Although I was wondering why it didn't say on after I turned it off.

The last stretch of road is mostly my neighborhood, so its very slow speed. The fan kicked on at 220, which is when I turned the bike off. I suppose that this is more or less my error, but without a owner's manual its hard for me to know if there is a proper procedure.

Think I might wonder out into the garage and investigate.

It would helpful if you could find where it came out at. Too many possibilities ...over-filled, loose hose clamp , overflow bottle cracked ....list goes on & on.

I mean before your neighborhood... (obviously I don't imagine your riding mach 1 through there)

sounds odd about your fan... if your ignition is off but the bike is that hot the fan should continue to run... (at least it does on my bike and every car I've ever owned)

I'd look into that. if your fan isn't running after your bikes off... that's your issue... and potentially a big one... Heat soak is on joke... just becaue the motor is off doesn't mean the bike isn't still heating up... after a good high speed run if you stop you bike and let it sit with the motor off the heat will continue to rise for a couple minutes... same in cars.

Ebbs ...both my Suzukis, the fan shuts off when you kill the ignition ....I guess it depends on the bike.

really... huh... that's odd to me...


well then I'd say invest in a battery tender and when you get home... let your bike sit with ignition on till the fan shuts off itself (indicating the bike is cool enough)

Weeeeeeeell, technically, the heat will not rise after the engine is off, but the coolant temperature will rise as it absorbs the energy from the metal, which can cause a boil over. The purpose of the catch tank is to prevent spillage in the exact case described. A spill over could occur if the engine was extremely hot (doesn't sound like this was the case), or if there was too much coolant in the system (don't know if this was the case). I would look for leaks, check the level in the overflow tank, and go from there. I doubt you have a serious issue, but better safe than sorry.

well in HIS case heat will rise because air is no longer moving over the motor and cooling it... once the air stops... so does most of the heat dissipation. granted no extra heat is being produced... it's just not being dissipated

Thanks for everyone's replies, I think I can help clear up some of the uncertainty here. It is good to know that the fan shutting off it normal.

I had been on the road into town going about 60 mph most of the way. From there is was about 1/2 of a mile to my house where the speeds were bellow 30 the rest of the way. Because it was wet I was very gentle to the throttle and the engine didn't see over 6k rpm.

I am 99% sure the coolant boiled over from the reservoir through the line that runs down to the ground from the tank. I am also sure that the coolant reservoir was not full because I noticed that it was at about half 1 week ago when I was putting the fairings on it.

On a different note, if I did set up a timing system which allowed the bike fan to run when the engine was off, would it help much?

Obviously the fan would cool down the coolant in the radiator, but with the engine off I would assume coolant would stop flowing and therefore the fan is only cooling down the radiator versus the engine. Or would the minimal air being blown on the motor combined with the cooling radiator make a difference?