Sometime next week I plan on changing antifreeze and have been considering doing a flush using that Prestone radiator flush sold at Walmart . I flushed it once quite a few years ago without any trouble but now I’m kinda wondering if anything that might come loose during a flush might possibly cause damage to the water pump ? Seems like right now at slow speeds the coolant temperature climbs a little faster than it used to but it never gets into the red or boils over. And yes I have already flushed out the radiator fins but that didn’t seem to change much.
Any GL1800 radiator flush advice ?
1 - 20 of 25 Posts
Joined
·
17,793 Posts
What year is your Wing ???
The system needs pressure tested first. Any leaks must be corrected prior to installing new anti-freeze. The coolant Honda requires uses chemicals, instead of silicate, to help keep the system clean. If there are still leaks, those cleaning chemicals will often make any leaks worst. Also, the system must hold pressure for proper protection on hotter days, so the cap needs pressure tested too. If yours cap is original, and your Wing is a 2002, it's likely been bad for a long time.
The reservoir needs removed, cleaned, and inspected. The tube, level that the reservoir hose fits into might be cracked, as well as the to reservoir hoses that route to it. Check for cracks on both ends. Remove the one under the cap and look.
If you still have problems, the shelter might need removed, and the radiators too. Cleaning them when on the bike may not be good enough. When I have those off, I use a a/c coil cleaner from Home Dept. I spray one side at a time allowing the foam to soak in, then flip them and spray again. After about 15mins of sitting, I use one of those pointed water nozzles to rinse with. Be careful not to damage any grids with the water pressure. If you have anything blocking airflow in/out of the rads, you may need to permanently remove it.
Certainly changing it helps, but it really it needs done every 2yrs/24k whichever comes first as Honda requires for a properly maintained Wing. If not, the cooling jackets on the cylinder walls get coated with what looks like a white porous powder that restricts heat flow into the coolant. The 2nd picture shows a healthy water jacket.
The system needs pressure tested first. Any leaks must be corrected prior to installing new anti-freeze. The coolant Honda requires uses chemicals, instead of silicate, to help keep the system clean. If there are still leaks, those cleaning chemicals will often make any leaks worst. Also, the system must hold pressure for proper protection on hotter days, so the cap needs pressure tested too. If yours cap is original, and your Wing is a 2002, it's likely been bad for a long time.
The reservoir needs removed, cleaned, and inspected. The tube, level that the reservoir hose fits into might be cracked, as well as the to reservoir hoses that route to it. Check for cracks on both ends. Remove the one under the cap and look.
If you still have problems, the shelter might need removed, and the radiators too. Cleaning them when on the bike may not be good enough. When I have those off, I use a a/c coil cleaner from Home Dept. I spray one side at a time allowing the foam to soak in, then flip them and spray again. After about 15mins of sitting, I use one of those pointed water nozzles to rinse with. Be careful not to damage any grids with the water pressure. If you have anything blocking airflow in/out of the rads, you may need to permanently remove it.
Certainly changing it helps, but it really it needs done every 2yrs/24k whichever comes first as Honda requires for a properly maintained Wing. If not, the cooling jackets on the cylinder walls get coated with what looks like a white porous powder that restricts heat flow into the coolant. The 2nd picture shows a healthy water jacket.
Attachments
Joined
·
3,352 Posts
The Prestone Radiator Flush works quite well. Every two years with new Coolant makes for excellent preventative maintenance. You might want to have the Radiator Cap tested to be sure it is meeting it's pressure specification. That often is overlooked and the rate of deterioration is something that can be seen long before it's failure generates noticeable problems to the driver. Also the UView Air Lift (along with a good air compressor) makes the flushing and the changing of the Coolant way, Way, WAY easier and much faster. I suspect that many Goldwing Cooling Systems do not receive the routine maintenance called for, because of the serious PIA that refilling the system is, without using a tool such as this.
Attachments
Put on a new radiator cap about 5 years ago even though the old one looked fine.
Last time I did the Prestone 10 minute flush where you let it idle for 10 minutes .
This time I am considering do what Prestone calls heavy duty cleaning where your supposed to drive 3 to 6 hours with a bottle of flush and then topped off with distilled water, does anyone see any possible problems with doing the heavy duty cleaning ?
Last time I did the Prestone 10 minute flush where you let it idle for 10 minutes .
This time I am considering do what Prestone calls heavy duty cleaning where your supposed to drive 3 to 6 hours with a bottle of flush and then topped off with distilled water, does anyone see any possible problems with doing the heavy duty cleaning ?
Joined
·
1,148 Posts
Original water pump at 450,000 miles?!?!?!? That’s great
Joined
·
17,793 Posts
No ... and also have never done the other Preston flush on 5th gens. This is for several reason. Basically because once the water jackets become coated as pictured above, even after hot-tanking they look the same ... the damage is already done. Another is for environmental reasons. Using such products should be used with professional flushing equipment in a shop with a 3-part drain separator. Some home shops might have a 2-part separator, but a 3-part separator is usually only available on commercial sites, and also requires periodic inspections and clean outs. It's my understanding on a 3-part separator, that the 3rd part of the separation process is for antifreeze. A 2-part separator is not good enough.
I have best success doing what I previously recommended. Also, using chemical can have unexpected results, in spite what the labels on their container says.
Greg thank you very much for your reply.
I managed to capture about 99.9 percent of anything drained from the radiator and didn’t use any kind of fancy radiator flush mechanism like a commercial garage might use so I don’t think a 2 or 3 part separator would be required for home use. It does clearly state on the bottle that your supposed to recycle whatever you drain out responsibly and I will be doing that along with a couple other old containers of antifreeze I have sitting around here from previous antifreeze changes.
Now I’m ready to just drive it with the flush- Deep Clean stuff in there for a couple hundred miles and see if I notice any changes.
Joined
·
17,793 Posts
Let us know if you see a change ... I'm curious.
Joined
·
361 Posts
Now I just bought a 2015 wing with 1931 miles on it. Think stock honda antifreeze would coat like that if hardly used and been mostly sitting for 4 yrs?
Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
Joined
·
3,352 Posts
Flush and refill with new Antifreeze/Coolant. The enemy isn't just Miles. It's primarily Oxygen and Time. You may not have the Miles, but your bike has suffered the insults of Oxygen and Time.
Joined
·
16,976 Posts
It has been a few years since I have used the Prestone Super Flush product. IIRC at that time the active ingredient was citric acid, which will not harm aluminum, steel, or copper/brass. I rode my 2002 bike about 30 miles with the flush agent and distilled water. It did a good job, although a little bit of a PIA to flush and then flush the flush. The citric acid or phosphoric acid in such products is not harmful to environment so far as know, but the the coolant residual is toxic.
prs
prs
The first thing I would look at is spraying your radiators with hydrogen peroxide when they are cool and letting it sit for a few min then take the garden hose and spray in them to flush the bugs and crud out of them. A couple years ago mine was running about a bar to bar and a half higher than normal so I drained and flushed the radiators and it still did the same thing. Did the peroxide and garden hose thing and couldn't believe all the bugs and crap that came out of them and after that it has been running right where it always has before it started doing this. I was commuting 700+ mi a week and half of that was at night riding home from work so lots of miles at night when the bugs are out. After watching Freds video on refilling the radiators I opted to get a UView Airlift 55000 and it is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Put it in the opening to the radiator, pull vacuum with an air compressor and stick the hose in a bucket of distilled water and antifreeze and turn the valve and it fills everything no air pockets, no fuss no mess and in less than 5 min I'm buttoning things back up
Yes over the years I have done the hydrogen peroxide and garden hose flush a bunch of times and it does work very well !
I actually did it again today, seems strange but for some reason the right radiator always seems to have way more bugs than the left radiator.
I can't remember where I saw the article if it was Wing World or here but there was an article many years ago about a device that pulsated water to clear out blockages on stubborn bikes that everything else was tried on and didn't work. It was by Stu (the tech guy, can't remember his last name right off hand). Maybe someone remembers that article or knows the name of the tool it describes
Joined
·
507 Posts
Does anyone have any views about Evans waterless coolant used in the wing?
Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk
Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk
Joined
·
1,102 Posts
Stu Oltman was the author and it was in the Jan 08 issue. The device is the Hecat cooling pulsator #118550. I couldn't find a direct link to the article so you will have to download the pdf for the entire issue but it starts on Pg 52.
https://www.google.com/url?q=http:/...FjAAegQIBRAB&usg=AOvVaw2KnyqXsV1sIzBB6Rqzpdwg
1 - 20 of 25 Posts
Join the discussion
Join now to ask and comment!