coolant leak -- Replace thermostat and hoses?

[Brett unsupervised]

Hi all. I'm getting a repeating but intermittent coolant leak from the thermostat housing, pretty good little puddle. Usually happens after a short ride, -- like 5 to 15 minute ride, and starts a few minutes after turning the bike off. Have not had it happen after a longer ride. Once I did notice the big hose going into the top of the thermostat housing seemed "inflated" a bit.

also wondering if it could be caused by not warming the bike up enough. I do let it run for a minute and the temp starts to come up but don't wait for it to get fully into the operating range.

Once riding the temp all seems fine. was considering just replacing the thermostat and all the hoses since silicon hoses are relatively cheap for a whole set and I don't know how old they are.

I'm a better safe than sorry guy when it comes to possibly getting stranded. Replace it when its due rather than wait to break. Advice or insite appreciated.

 

[maleko89]

There are 3 spots that it could be coming from. Drain pipe (bottom), the hose, or the coolant elboy. I'd replace all the rubbers in the area. The elbow has 2 o-rings, and one o-ring on the drain output pipe. There's also an o-ring on the drain cock assembly.

Mark

 

[Brett unsupervised]

thanks mark, the leak is coming from housing, where the two parts go together. so I could just replace take it apart and reseal it (I assume there is an O-ring and some gasket sealant. but my concern is why it is building up the pressure to push through the housing seam intermittently, and not do it all the time.

 

[maleko89]

There's an o-ring and seal.

Mark