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From: The Older Gentleman on 6 Jul 2010 02:12
Just wondered about this, last week when the K's oil light started
flickering at tickover as I was stuck in traffic on a hot day and the
temp needle edged towards the red, and the fan cut in.

I've known loads of BMWs, air- or water-cooled, do the same, and it's a
tad disconcerting.

Had it happen on a couple of Japanese bikes, under similar conditions,
but they were air-cooled. I know a few water-cooled Kawasakis had a
reputation for getting hot and bothered under occasion.

Thing is, the Japs have been building air-cooled fours since the late
1960s and water-cooled fours since the early/mid 1970s, and water-cooled
bikes of one type or another since the early 1970s if not before, and
air-cooled bikes of all sorts since the Year Dot, and I was just
wondering if anyone here has recollections of any (of either type of
cooling) that were prone to similar behaviour.



--
BMW K1100LT Ducati 750SS Honda CB400F Triumph Street Triple
Suzuki TS250ER GN250 Damn, back to six bikes!
Try Googling before asking a damn silly question.
chateau dot murray at idnet dot com
From: BryanUT on 6 Jul 2010 08:57
On Jul 6, 12:12 am, totallydeadmail...(a)yahoo.co.uk (The Older
Gentleman) wrote:
> Just wondered about this, last week when the K's oil light started
> flickering at tickover as I was stuck in traffic on a hot day and the
> temp needle edged towards the red, and the fan cut in.
>
> I've known loads of BMWs, air- or water-cooled, do the same, and it's a
> tad disconcerting.
>
> Had it happen on a couple of Japanese bikes, under similar conditions,
> but they were air-cooled. I know a few water-cooled Kawasakis had a
> reputation for getting hot and bothered under occasion.
>
> Thing is, the Japs have been building air-cooled fours since the late
> 1960s and water-cooled fours since the early/mid 1970s, and water-cooled
> bikes of one type or another since the early 1970s if not before, and
> air-cooled bikes of all sorts since the Year Dot, and I was just
> wondering if anyone here has recollections of any (of either type of
> cooling) that were prone to similar behaviour.
>
> --
> BMW K1100LT  Ducati 750SS  Honda CB400F  Triumph Street Triple
> Suzuki TS250ER GN250  Damn, back to six bikes!
> Try Googling before asking a damn silly question.
> chateau dot murray at idnet dot com

My F4i regularly hits 227f in stop and go traffic when the air temp is
above 90f. Then fan comes on and makes sitting on the bike rather
warm. The oil light has never blinked though.
From: Datesfat Chicks on 6 Jul 2010 09:00
"The Older Gentleman" <totallydeadmailbox(a)yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1jl7566.bsq2kf1wotrj0N%totallydeadmailbox(a)yahoo.co.uk...
> Just wondered about this, last week when the K's oil light started
> flickering at tickover as I was stuck in traffic on a hot day and the
> temp needle edged towards the red, and the fan cut in.
>
> I've known loads of BMWs, air- or water-cooled, do the same, and it's a
> tad disconcerting.
>
> Had it happen on a couple of Japanese bikes, under similar conditions,
> but they were air-cooled. I know a few water-cooled Kawasakis had a
> reputation for getting hot and bothered under occasion.
>
> Thing is, the Japs have been building air-cooled fours since the late
> 1960s and water-cooled fours since the early/mid 1970s, and water-cooled
> bikes of one type or another since the early 1970s if not before, and
> air-cooled bikes of all sorts since the Year Dot, and I was just
> wondering if anyone here has recollections of any (of either type of
> cooling) that were prone to similar behaviour.

First, was that a typo? Did you mean the OIL light flickering? That would
seem odd.

Second, the manufacturer wouldn't build a fan into the system unless there
were some scenarios where there wouldn't be enough airflow through the
radiator. So, the fan engaging isn't that surprising. However, I can
remember mine engaging maybe twice in three years. It is rare.

Third (and this is obvious), check the thermostat. Those voodoo fluid
diverters can fail to operate fully on a motorcycle same as on a car.

Datesfat

From: ? on 6 Jul 2010 09:47
On Jul 6, 6:00 am, "Datesfat Chicks" <datesfat.chi...(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
> First, was that a typo? Did you mean the OIL light flickering? That would
> seem odd.

I suppose my FZR1000's oil light would flicker on and off when it gets
hot, *if* it had a pressure switch instead of an oil level switch.

Maybe the Yamaha engineers were thinking that they didn't want a lot
of customer complaints over oil pressure lights, so they opted for the
level switch instead?
>
> Second, the manufacturer wouldn't build a fan into the system unless there
> were some scenarios where there wouldn't be enough airflow through the
> radiator. So, the fan engaging isn't that surprising. However, I can
> remember mine engaging maybe twice in three years. It is rare.

My FZR1000's fan will come on in heavy traffic.

But the capacity of the cooling system is rather limited, it's only
three quarts of coolant.

Modern liquid cooled sportbikes are not intended to be ridden slowly
in heavy traffic and the cooling system is designed more for
temperature stabilization so the machine can pass EPA emissions tests.

My 1974 Suzuki GT750 Water Buffalo had a radiator that was twice as
thick and the coolant capacity was about five quarts.

The GT750's had cooling fans the first two years, but the fans were
discontinued
for the last four year models because the engine never got hot enough
for the thermoswitch to close and cause the fan to run.

Engineers at US Suzuki put a GT750 on the roof of their warehouse in
the summertime and let it idle for an hour and the fan never came on.

So they advised Suzuki in Japan that the fan was redundant, even in
California heat...

> Third (and this is obvious), check the thermostat. Those voodoo fluid
> diverters can fail to operate fully on a motorcycle same as on a car.

What's so "voodoo" about a wax pellet melting and allowing the
thermostate valve to open?

The only time I ever had a thermostat fail was when the operating pin
wore a hole in the thin sheet metal housing after nearly 100K miles...
From: TOG on 6 Jul 2010 09:53
On 6 July, 14:00, "Datesfat Chicks" <datesfat.chi...(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> "The Older Gentleman" <totallydeadmail...(a)yahoo.co.uk> wrote in messagenews:1jl7566.bsq2kf1wotrj0N%totallydeadmailbox(a)yahoo.co.uk...
>
>
>
>
>
> > Just wondered about this, last week when the K's oil light started
> > flickering at tickover as I was stuck in traffic on a hot day and the
> > temp needle edged towards the red, and the fan cut in.
>
> > I've known loads of BMWs, air- or water-cooled, do the same, and it's a
> > tad disconcerting.
>
> > Had it happen on a couple of Japanese bikes, under similar conditions,
> > but they were air-cooled. I know a few water-cooled Kawasakis had a
> > reputation for getting hot and bothered under occasion.
>
> > Thing is, the Japs have been building air-cooled fours since the late
> > 1960s and water-cooled fours since the early/mid 1970s, and water-cooled
> > bikes of one type or another since the early 1970s if not before, and
> > air-cooled bikes of all sorts since the Year Dot, and I was just
> > wondering if anyone here has recollections of any (of either type of
> > cooling) that were prone to similar behaviour.
>
> First, was that a typo?  Did you mean the OIL light flickering?  That would
> seem odd.

Not really. It doesn't take much to get oil temperatures high enough
for the oil to thin noticeably.

>
> Second, the manufacturer wouldn't build a fan into the system unless there
> were some scenarios where there wouldn't be enough airflow through the
> radiator.  So, the fan engaging isn't that surprising.  However, I can
> remember mine engaging maybe twice in three years.  It is rare.

It's the oil light.
>
> Third (and this is obvious), check the thermostat.  Those voodoo fluid
> diverters can fail to operate fully on a motorcycle same as on a car.
>
Well, yes. When I see an oil pressure light flickering, my first
thought is that the pressure at which it's set to operate must be
unusually low :-/ I've been conditioned by years of relaible
vehicles, and the expectation that manufacturers build in wide margins
of error.

Actually, I've never really seen the point of a pressure warning
light. By the time it comes on, the damage is usually done. Oil
*level* lights, as used by some car manufacturers (and some motorcycle
builders too) always struck me as a more sensible gadget, given that
most lube failures seem to be due to numpty owneers forgetting to top
up the sump.
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