Paging thems wot knows radiators

So, when I took the Tigger back to the shop re the head bearings (now
sorted), they spotted a water leak from the corner of the rad.

Having booked it in for a look see, they reckon there's no impact damage
so it should be replaced. However as it's less than 2 years' old,
advised that I take it back to the Triumph dealer for them to sort it
out under the proper Triumph warranty.

Triumph now have it booked in for next Monday for a look and hopefully
to sort it.

whilst waiting for the bike to go in, I've had a closer look at the rad
and in addition to the conspicuous leak in the corner, I've counted 6
further small leaks across the face of it. None of them have any dents
or scratches.

One hole I'm surprised by, but 7..?

Any thoughts as to what might have caused it?

When I got it it did have a Beowulf rad cover and oil cooler cover on
it, and while they aren't as perfectly smooth on the inside as they are
on the out, there's no evidence that that has punctured the rad.

I'm at a bit of a loss at the moment.

 

Frost damage? Vibration damage?

 

Anti freeze is fine and it's all rubber mounted. It's peppered across
the rad too, rather than just at the mounts

 

Has it corroded from the inside, if so the most common cause is that
the coolant has become acidic due to a head gasket leaking into a
water way.

 

Radiation. Yes almost certainly radiation damage.

 

Christ, you're a cheerful fucker

No sign of corrosion, water in the oil or whatever. Either way, I'd be
surprised if it would rot through in 14 months/5,000 miles.

 

Shoddy manufacturing?

 

That's my guess

 

Do you think it's fallout from Krusty's Nuclear Pink one?

 

If the bores were leaking into the coolant then you wouldn't see cross-
contamination of water and oil (I don't believe it would be this BTW).

You *would* see other symptoms like odd fluctuations in the expansion
tank levels though, also unexpected highsides... oops, that's FZR600s,
which have the expansion tank overflow routed in front of the fucking
rear wheel.

 

Mine too. Is it definitely original?

 

My big bore Nordwest leaked both ways. Small quantities of water in the
oil *and* pressurisation of the cooling system. It did this for years
(admittedly mainly only hill climb use) without causing any corrosion of
the radiator.

Fortunately the overflow on that could dribble incontinently without
getting near the tyres. I seldom let it get that bad anyway by regularly
using a bicycle pump to force the contents of the expansion tank back
wher they belonged.


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Well, I have no reason to believe that it isn't. The bike's like new, no
sign of repair. And if it had failed this young I'm sure it would be
replaced with new.

I'm also thinking if the dealer I bought it from had either fixed it up on
the cheap or knew it had a colourful past, they wouldn't have directed me
to the main dealer to sort out as a warranty job as any pattern part was
sure to come to light.

Roll on next Monday.

 

British engineering?

Anyway, I'd take the opportunity to take some REALLY good pictures of the
rad so you can show the dealers that you know its not due to stone damage.
If you don't, don't be surprised if what they do is possibly remove a little
paint/add a ding at the leak points to demonstrate it isn't a manufacturing
fault.

And I wouldn't tell them I'd already taken the photo's.

Either that, or dump some RadWeld in.