2020 R1 Water Pump Leaking Coolant After Sitting

591 Views 5 Replies 2 Participants Last post by 2muchbluE, 3 mo ago

Nigh7

Discussion Starter · 3 mo ago

Lurker here.

Came to see if I could find common issues but it seems my problem is slightly unique.

I am very aware of the plastic coolant pipe leaking at the O-ring behind the headers on the block, that isn't where my bike is leaking.

I tried to find anyone going through this elsewhere and cant seem too.

The bike is stored at a friends house so I don't have a picture of the the leak but I have investigated it pretty thoroughly. I will get a photo if this thread takes flight.

Is this a common leak ? My thoughts are maybe since we have a pretty cold winter and it is kept in a garage with no heat...the O-ring contracted and let coolant past?

Right where the arrow is pointing a smallball of coolant is slowly leaking off the bottom of the pump, running down the metal exhaust shield and dripping on the floor. It is a pretty steady leak.

In this location the pump is very close to the block, but there is a gap. I managed to stuff a q-tip above the drip location and it started absorbing the coolant. This leads me to believe that some how, coolant is making its way past the o-ring I drew a path too and down the back side of the pump to drip where the arrow is.

I am fairly confident that it is not coming from the housing gasket.

Personal protective equipment Auto part Bicycle part Carmine Electric blue

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Nigh7

Discussion Starter · #3 · 3 mo ago

Thanks for replying.

I ended up digging into it more, it was coolant from the weep hole(no oil fortunately)

Opted to just replace the entire pump rather then doing the mechanical seal inside.

After pricing out everything it was only a little more to buy the whole assembly.

I did buy new o-rings for the two hard line hoses too and from the pump just to get it over with. I know that one behind the headers is a bastard sometimes for people. Hopefully future proofing my self.

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Nigh7

Discussion Starter · #5 · 3 mo ago

I've looked into this water pump thing as much as forums,reddit and youtube will provide. I can only find a few people that have had this issue. 3 of them are mt-10 owners and 1 was a 2015 r1 owner with a lot of miles.

I purchased this bike with 2800 miles on it September of 2022 rode it for a few weekends getting it to like 3100?(don't hold me to the numbers)Then parked it for michigan winters in a garage, no heat.

Prior to me buying it, it sat in a storage unit from September of 2021 to September of 2022. I'm wondering if the lack of use, combined with sudden use, followed by storage again may be the reason for this in my case. I just cant wrap my head around a component failure at such low miles/ age of component.

I did see a hand full of mt-09 owners struggling with this but that is a different water pump. Could be the same supplier for the pump though.

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