Coolant leak

Ducati Forum

Help Support Ducati Forum:

K

krikat

Joined
Oct 7, 2014
Messages
70
Location
Australia
Hi guys/gals
Gave my bike a good run at the track last week and a coolant leak popped up.
I have seen a few pics on the forum that look the same as mine. I fixed mine and so far so good. All it was was a loose hose clamp. I tightened it up and leak gone. Just thought I would post it up as going to the dealer can be a pain even for warranty. Cheers.

Leak



Offending clamp



All clean

 
Is it leaking any more? I had the same looking leak and it definitely was not the hose. Its the coolant squirter (manifold above) Its made out of polymer and starts to leak at the joint. It usually starts leaking when the bike is cooling overnight.
 
i had the same problem, tighten up my hose and the leak went away but about 6months later it started to leak again :/

as Fragile said, it only happens when i go for a ride and leave the bike for a period of time to cool down and then come back to it and it has started to leak.


Fragile how did you fix yours?
 
Lol, I have the same thing. Mine is a '12 with about 3300 miles.

I saw the leak, did some research, found hoses clamps as the likely cause, then proceeded to tighten all the loose clamps I had. Interestingly I found the larger diameter hose that comes off the squirter housing towards you(as you are on left side of bike) was off the housing by about 1/4". I loosened it and slid it on all the way and re-tightened clamps (tighten until clamp doesn't move freely then 1 full turn after that).

It seemed to work. Did several long rides with not a drop of coolant afterwards. Then several weeks later I had another couple drops of coolant.

Mine seems to push a little coolant as the weather/temperature is changing (I check daily). Odd I know... I can clean it up and for weeks it will be fine (bike is in non-climate controlled storage so it's not being started or ridden). Then if a weather system moves through, my guess is drastic changes in pressure/temperature, it pushes some coolant out of either the squirter housing or a damaged hose. Or its purely coincidental. After all correlation does not imply causation!!

In any case I plan on replacing the hoses with Samco and the squirter housing this winter. Not looking forward to this exercise!! lol.
 
Oh no, coolant leak!

wqtz4k.jpg


;)

I had the same issue. They initially replaced the clamp but were still having issues so they replaced the hose assembly as well.

Haven't had an issue since.
 
I've been having the same issue lately. I have a '14 model. Dealer has already switched out the clamps. About a month later.. it's leaking a again :,-(.... Called the dealer and now I'm hold till after the new year. They have to call their "service area manager". Very disappointed about this. Especially with it being a new bike and only having 2500 miles....
 
I had this leak last year and I posted about it. This is a warranty item and there is a new clamp and hose for this. Take it to the dealer so they can put the new clamp and hose on. It's not coolant, its oil. Thats the breather hose connected to the air box. It's suppose to carry oil back into the engine I believe. I've had it twice. Once last year April, before my first trip to Barber. The tech made a temp fix( didnt have the parts from Ducati) so I could go to the track day in Alabama. I was suppose to take it back for the Ducati fix, but I forgot. It came back and they put the Ducati fix in. Havent had an issue since.
 
Last edited:
Sorry so late in reply, but this is the "Squirter" fracturing. Its a slightly known problem by the dealers. The "Squirter" they call it is the manifold above the hose made out of polyamide (black plastic). They have to replace the whole assembly or you will have overnight leaks. The leak cannot be reproduced by running the bike but does it when sitting overnight. The way the coolant leaks out makes it look like its coming from the big hose above or the little one below. Trust me, its the Squirter! Tell the dealer to replace the squirter. That is Italian for injector or injection manifold or something like that, haha.

For that poster just above, I am very surprised that he says its oil. The stuff is pink, its coolant dude!
 
Last edited:
Yep you are right, it started leaking again after I tightened everything. Took to the dealer, they knew about the problem and warranty covered it all. New hoses, clamps, housing (Squirter) and coolant. Apparently it is a fault but only fixed once it starts leaking. So no recall? Anyway done about 1,000 kms since the fix and no problem.
Keep an eye on it everyone.
Cheers.
 
Last edited:
I'm guessing this is the culprit. Its on page 111/148 of the parts manual.

55320121A SQUIRTER UNIT $169.86

I had brought my bike to the dealer when I noticed the leak. They checked it out, said they didn't notice any more leaking and its been dry since then.

Is there a service bulletin or anything on it?
 
I'm enjoying little puddles of coolant that form a couple hours after a ride. Haven't pinpointed exactly where; it all drips from the front of the bellypan because the bike is always parked on a paddock stand.

I'll have them repair it at the 600 mile service.
 
Little dribble from one of the threaded dowels below the squirter on mine. 400 miles on the clock. C'mon Ducati, get that cooling system straight please, its been over 4 years of the Panigale and why is my '15 leaking from new? Put a service bulletin out if not already. Leading edge production bike should not be leaking from new.
 
LOL. I would call it more of a heat augmentation system than a cooling system. Reality is this. The Panigale is comprised of a lot of pieces stuffed into a small space and these bikes are very much "assembly line" products. I would bet that most of the issues with the bikes stem from lack of attention to detail in that environment. This thing is not very forgiving with regard to sloppy procedures. That being said. Here are some design problems.
1 the radiator is too small to effectively and efficiently cool a 190hp motor.
2 the fan kicks in too late to catch up
3 the thermostat manifold is cheap thermoplastic unit with a lot of potentially problematic intersections. Assembly integrity in this area is probably hit or miss depending on the day of the week. There are a lot of hose clamps in the system. Additionally, the O rings on the temp sensor either seal it they don't.
4 the water pump gears are some sort of injection molded delrin. The water pump gear undergoes deformation at 218 degrees.
5 the water pump bearing itself is a cheap POS. It is what it is.

I use the MAC 35 mm water only radiator
I manually switch the fan
I use Sacco hoses and stainless smooth bore clamps
I use Petes O ring lube on all the hose connections
I use an aluminum thermostat manifold. It ships with the kits.
I replaced the temp sensor O rings
I replaced the WP bearing with a real one and Check the mesh integrity and alignment of the plastic gears.

Now the bike has a "cooling system" zero leaks, zero heat or reliability issues.
This issue relates to the "loose fastener" thread. You unfortunately should go over your bikes because the guy who built it didn't really give 2 ..... about it.
 
Update, I traced stain back to the weephole so far. Its tiny leak after ride dribbling down to the threaded dowel screw. Still cant tell though if its coming from squirter above or the weephole to be sure. It will have to get much worse to tell. 440 miles on bike, haha. MV has over 6K miles and no issues whatsoever. Boy this sucks.
 
Love the bike. After I fixed all of issues. That being said, very un impressed with the Ducati from a mechanical engineering perspective. Less with the assembly. Sure looks nice though.
 
endodoc said:
LOL. I would call it more of a heat augmentation system than a cooling system. Reality is this. The Panigale is comprised of a lot of pieces stuffed into a small space and these bikes are very much "assembly line" products. I would bet that most of the issues with the bikes stem from lack of attention to detail in that environment. This thing is not very forgiving with regard to sloppy procedures. That being said. Here are some design problems.
1 the radiator is too small to effectively and efficiently cool a 190hp motor.
2 the fan kicks in too late to catch up
3 the thermostat manifold is cheap thermoplastic unit with a lot of potentially problematic intersections. Assembly integrity in this area is probably hit or miss depending on the day of the week. There are a lot of hose clamps in the system. Additionally, the O rings on the temp sensor either seal it they don't.
4 the water pump gears are some sort of injection molded delrin. The water pump gear undergoes deformation at 218 degrees.
5 the water pump bearing itself is a cheap POS. It is what it is.

I use the MAC 35 mm water only radiator
I manually switch the fan
I use Sacco hoses and stainless smooth bore clamps
I use Petes O ring lube on all the hose connections
I use an aluminum thermostat manifold. It ships with the kits.
I replaced the temp sensor O rings
I replaced the WP bearing with a real one and Check the mesh integrity and alignment of the plastic gears.

Now the bike has a "cooling system" zero leaks, zero heat or reliability issues.
This issue relates to the "loose fastener" thread. You unfortunately should go over your bikes because the guy who built it didn't really give 2 ..... about it.
Click to expand...

well done and thanks for the lists. How much did it run you?:confused:
 
MAC radiator is $1000.00. For me is was a bolt in fit. For another member here, they had some issues. I use a microswitch toggle switch that i just turn on at stop lights. The small parts are available online just about anywhere. Now the "ah ha" moment. I have a machine shop of sorts and access to aerospace materials and metric aerospace parts. I surmise my point is that some of the procedures that I find common may seem like a difficult task if you don't have the facilities to do things. If anyone needs anything made or modified, feel free to shoot me a message. As others here can attest to, I don t charge for stuff (within reason) Sometimes just a slight mod is enough to make a bad situation insignificant.
 
endodoc said:
MAC radiator is $1000.00. For me is was a bolt in fit. For another member here, they had some issues. I use a microswitch toggle switch that i just turn on at stop lights. The small parts are available online just about anywhere. Now the "ah ha" moment. I have a machine shop of sorts and access to aerospace materials and metric aerospace parts. I surmise my point is that some of the procedures that I find common may seem like a difficult task if you don't have the facilities to do things. If anyone needs anything made or modified, feel free to shoot me a message. As others here can attest to, I don t charge for stuff (within reason) Sometimes just a slight mod is enough to make a bad situation insignificant.
Click to expand...

Where did you get the aluminum thermostat manifold from? or was it custom made?
 
The cross connect manifold ships with the radiator. H2O and Febur are similar, im sure. The cross connect manifold does not have a thermostat in it. If you want to run the thermostat, you will need to keep the stock manifold.Unless you live in Siberia, having a thermostat on this bike is like putting Oprah on another diet.
 

Similar threads

D
1199R Clutch Slave Leak
Replies
6
Views
285
Dynamics99
D
S
2018 V4S with oil in the radiator/expansion tank
Replies
5
Views
1K
swort
S
V
Severe issues with 2023 Panigale V4R. Need help.
6 7 8
Replies
156
Views
8K
Lefty
Lefty
W
Oil Leak
Replies
10
Views
679
Williebeamen
W
Vicati
For Sale Panigale 1299s and Panigale 959 Full bolt ons
Replies
11
Views
761
Vicati
Vicati

Register CTA

Register on Ducati Forum! This sidebar will go away, and you will see fewer ads.

Recent Discussions

Back
Top