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Changing the engine coolant

63K views 38 replies 29 participants last post by  lykdhat  
#1 ·
I just replaced the coolant in mine. The manual says to remove all sorts of body work, but it can be done much simpler. Pics at the bottom! (boy is my bike dirty...)

There are four locations you need to know about:
1) The radiator cap which is located under a removeable bottom in the right-hand glovebox. Remove the screw at the back and then slide it forward a bit before trying to lift/twist it out. Don't drop the screw in the hole, or you will never find it again. I learned this the hard way, twice.
2) The overflow resevoir under the right footboard. Just pull away the rubber tread and then remove one screw to access the cap and resevoir. This is explained in the owner's manual.
3) The coolant drain bolt. This is a small bolt that can be accessed from below the bike. From the right side of the bike, find the pivot for the centerstand. Go up and slightly left about two inches and there is a row of three bolts in the casing. The middle, non-recessed one is the drain bolt. It's about an 8mm head with a copper washer. If you pull out the wrong one, no problem, just put it back.
4) The air bleed screw. This is accessed in the same way as the spark plug (look in the owner's manual). If you look up and a bit to the left of the cylinder head, you will see an allen bolt. You can reach it with an allen key, preferably ball-end. The bolt is about two inches long, not completely threaded, so you can back it out a ways without it falling. Be carefull though, since who knows where it'll end up if you drop it!

Tools you will need:
-funnel to fill coolant through the glovebox.
-short hose (1ft or so) to syphon coolant out of the overflow tank.
-container to catch the old stuff, and of course fresh coolant

1) First syphon out all the coolant in the overflow tank.
2) Open the radiator cap
3) Remove drain bolt
4) Back out and remove air bleed screw to let any coolant in the head drain.
5) Put drain plug back in
6) Pour coolant into radiator cap until it comes out of the air bleed hole (about 1.8L)
7) Put air bleed screw back in
8 ) Fill overflow tank to full mark
9) Replace the radiator cap
10) Run the bike for a bit to warm it up, then check the overflow tank level (should be full)

Then put all the pieces back together.

Hope that helps.
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#2 ·
Thank you! Thank you!! Thanks for the pictures on how to find the air bleeder screw. I looked and looked but couldn't find anywhere on the scooter to match up to the picture in the service manual. I was at the end of my rope and then I remembered someone had posted something on changing the coolant. I did a search and found your post. It will take me the rest of the afternoon to put all the tupperware back on but that's ok. The coolant has been changed! Thanks again. Thomas
 
#4 ·
Thanks for the great instructions and pictures! I just changed my engine coolant and this "How To" post was invaluable. Once again thanks.
 
#8 ·
Just did mine. Piece of cake with your instructions. I found that if I rocked the bike back and forth on the center stand and held it in that one position for a few seconds, I was able to drain just a bit more coolant.

Thanks for the instructions.
 
#10 ·
Oh wow. My 2006 has never had its coolant changed (bad, bad I know...) and I was reluctant to do it myself but hell with everything spelled out here I might give it a shot. Probably gonna need to run some water through it once to help flush it before putting the final coolant in.

Is there any other drain plug (on the radiator for instance) I should know about?
 
#11 ·
The hardest part was siphoning out the overflow bottle. In the manual, I think it says to remove the lower bodywork and drain it. I preferred to siphon rather than remove the bodywork. You won't get everything out of the system, but most of it will come out. After draining the coolant, tilt the scooter back then forward, and more will come out. I did that several times. There is no other drain plug, and the procedure above pretty much covers it. Make sure you have a long flexible funnel to put in the new coolant. I thought the funnel I had would suffice, but ended up going to the store for one with a hose.

I bought my 2006 scooter in 2008, and it had the initial service, but the coolant had not been changed since then.
 
#12 ·
Just completed this today... Not too bad, kinda wish there was a way I could catch the coolant spilling out of the bleeder hole (centerstand was in the way), but it went smoothly. Note that when you drain the coolant not all of it makes it out, I flushed it twice (refilled 'till bleeder hole was weeping coolant, then drained again; no starting the engine) with distilled water and every time it came out progressively less green but it was never clear. I filled it up with a 50/50 mixture after that and it's good to go. I would imagine the total mixture is slightly less than 50/50 (more water from my flushes), but oh well I garage my bike anyway. I didn't use any kind of flushing chemicals FYI.

I do love that bleeder bolt though! Best darned cooling system feature I've ever seen.
 
#15 ·
Excellent instructions, but I had an issue with the radiator cap, and the air bleed screw. The radiator cap was too close to the body and couldn't be twisted without brute force, once I got it off, I was able to get to the bolt holding it to the fender and adjust its angle and attachment.

The air bleed screw is supposed to have have 2 O rings on it originally, but it came out with just the small one, I probed for it but couldn't find it. I went to the hardware store, and they unbelievably had an O ring that fit. But when I went to replace the bleed screw, it didn't want to start without pushing HARD. Now, I know that other O ring is in there, but I can't get it out, so I got the bolt in and refilled the system. I am at a loss on how to get that O ring out. After " burping" the system with the air bleed screw, it heated up fine, and built pressure as expected.
 
#16 ·
Great pictures - they really helped locating the drain plug and bleed screw. Many thanks to vanc for posting.

JUST OPENING THE DRAIN SCREW ONLY DRAINS ABOUT 60% OF THE COOLANT (1 qt out of the 1 2/3 qt in the system). I poured some 50/50 mix through to flush some of the remaining 40%. ScooterDuende recommended (above) tipping the scooter forwards and backwards to help drain more. Tipping it to the right might also help.
 
#21 ·
New2scootin said:
Is it really necessary to use distilled water? Or is that overkill?
Supposedly, depending where you are from, tap water can have minerals in it (calcium, iron, etc.) that can react with your delicate cooling system parts. I scared so I pick up a gallon at the supermarket for a buck. I'm surprised the "MC antifreeze vs. no silicates car antifreeze" debate hasn't started.
 
#22 ·
A gallon of distilled water is cheap insurance, tap water is full of sediment and minerals. Most minerals are held in solution in the water, so when the minerals come out of solution (high temperature, pressure etc) they will form scale, and clog up the tiny water passages. Sediment can be filtered out, but minerals have to be distilled out.
 
#25 ·
Great writeup vanc. Your info and the other riders hints made changing my Majesty's antifreeze much easier.
I want to add a couple of my hints also. (1) When I had my Honda Shadow it was very difficult to get to the radiator cap. I bought one of the 10.00 pump up garden sprayers and unscrewed the tip so that I could use it to replace the new coolent. It's easy to control and much easier to reach the radiator fill.
and (2) I have a homemade attachent for my small shop vac that reduces it down to clear 1/2 plastic hose. Makes it easy to suck out the coolent from the recovery tank on my cars or bikes and on the bikes I press it to the opening after removing the drain plug. Then when the cap is off and the bleed screw is loose, you can suck out all the old coolent. I measured the amount sucked out of my Majesty and the Honda and all was removed by using the vac.
Again, thanks to all. Tom