Coolant Leak?
 

My bike is leaking a little drop of coolant on the left side, I'm pretty sure its coming from around the T-stat area. There is often a little trickle down on the cases. Has anyone else had any leaks in this area? Thinking I'll get a new t-stat gasket and pull the hoses to check for cracks.

I'm in a rush to get it fixed as all this snow should start melting in another 6-8 weeks.:(

What year VTR do you have? If yours is a 2000 or later, there's a drain hose that goes from the water pump area to the front left side of the motor under or just outside the chin fairing from which coolant can leak.

Thanks Comedo.

Yeah its a 2000. I'll have a look for that hose, it might be routed incorrectly. It may be something like that because It doesn't seem to appear while the bike is running, just after it has been parked after a run.

There's lots of information on this forum about coolant leaks. I typed "water pump" into the search function and a number of threads came up. The consensus seems to be don't worry about the occasional little dribble from the drain hose from the water pump. There are also some other things people suggest checking out.

Mine has a leak also and it appears to be coming from the clutch cover. Does coolant flow through there? I checked the drain hose and it's not close to the little puddle. The bike is never low on coolant but it's dripped for a year. It seems to do it more when the sun is shinning on the left side in the afternoon at work. Is the t-stat right above the clutch?

I had a leak on my 2004 for about a month or two.. Couldnt figure out where it was comeing from at all.. Just kept getting little drips off my clutch cover.. Ended up being my rear water neck.. Almost impossible to see without some dissassembly.

** Words of caution ** If it is the water neck do not try to replace the seal with another one that is not made for it..I ran up to the local parts store, matched up an o-ring .. It was a little thicker than stock, but looked like it would work.. As soon as I tightend the neck down, It cracked.. DAMNIT!!

I had a leak from a hose feeding the thermostat housing. It would weep a little on cold starts when the tstat was closed and causing a pressure buildup.

I was hoping I could fit a piece of universal hose in there, but nope.

When I saw a new Honda hose wasn't in stock anywhere and was going to take forever and a day to ship from Ron Ayers, I decided to pull the hoses and clean the ends and reconnect them.

So far so good. It's realllllly tight to work in there though. There's one hose that's about 3" long that's a pain in the ass to remove.

My experience with replacing hoses is the aftermarket ones last maybe 25% as long as the oem originals. After going through lots from various brands, I put the goodyear blue hi-miler hoses on my car.

For the bike though I guess I'll just buy all new honda hoses next time I get a leak. Not cheap.