• 4 Stroke Husqvarna Motorcycles Made In Italy - About 1989 to 2014
     TE = 4st Enduro & TC = 4st Cross

  • Hi everyone,

    As you all know, Coffee (Dean) passed away a couple of years ago. I am Dean's ex-wife's husband and happen to have spent my career in tech. Over the years, I occasionally helped Dean with various tech issues.

    When he passed, I worked with his kids to gather the necessary credentials to keep this site running. Since then (and for however long they worked with Coffee), Woodschick and Dirtdame have been maintaining the site and covering the costs. Without their hard work and financial support, CafeHusky would have been lost.

    Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working to migrate the site to a free cloud compute instance so that Woodschick and Dirtdame no longer have to fund it. At the same time, I’ve updated the site to a current version of XenForo (the discussion software it runs on). The previous version was outdated and no longer supported.

    Unfortunately, the new software version doesn’t support importing the old site’s styles, so for now, you’ll see the XenForo default style. This may change over time.

    Coffee didn’t document the work he did on the site, so I’ve been digging through the old setup to understand how everything was running. There may still be things I’ve missed. One known issue is that email functionality is not yet working on the new site, but I hope to resolve this over time.

    Thanks for your patience and support!

2012 TE449 coolant overflow problem

Andy Wheatley

Andy Wheatley

Husqvarna
Been lurking for a while, love the site and strong community support!

Bought a lightly used (530 miles) 2012 TE449. Running race map 2 with FMF Power Core. Everything else stock.

I have put a few hundred miles on the bike over the past few months and not had a problem. I have recently noticed that my bike is pushing coolant out of the overflow hose. I have checked the hoses, clamps and radiator body itself and have found no indication of a leak or puncture. I drained the system and refilled with EngineIce. The radiator cap seemed to still have a good seal around the edges and the pressure spring seemed to be still be functioning as expected (bad assumption??) Followed the shop manual for the refill. Allowed bike to warm up and the topped off radiator again to the prescribed level.

Took bike out for a ride around the neighborhood (30-45mph) and whenever I came to a stop the coolant would begin dripping and sometimes spurting out of the overflow line. I figured that perhaps I put a little too much coolant in and that the system would 'self-regulate' to the appropriate level.

Took the bike out again this evening and again noticed that the bike was still leaking coolant out of the overflow line. 30 second stop light results in a small puddle of coolant under the bike. WTH?!

I noticed this behavior after a low speed tip over (on the left side of the bike, same side as overflow line) on a sandy single track (lost a little fluid out of the overflow line after the tip over, but not enough to cause alarm). Once again I have inspected the cooling system for a leak and have not been able to find anything that is damaged or leaking. The only place the coolant comes out of is the overflow hose.

I thought that after the tip-over the fluid I lost was enough to cause the system to become over pressurized... But after a full system drain and refill the behavior persists... I have not noticed any milky oil or white smoke from my exhaust so I don't think it is a head gasket issue. Any other suggestions?

Is the overflow leakage caused by the EngineIce 'boiling over' ?

Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks in advance. :o)
 
Could be a bad radiator cap. As OHR said, check the fan relay, etc. If you have a infrared thermometer, check the coolant temp and radiators to see if they are even getting hot enough to kick on the fan. If it's not that hot and still boiling over, you need a new cap.
 
Huskynoobee said:
Could be a bad radiator cap. As OHR said, check the fan relay, etc. If you have a infrared thermometer, check the coolant temp and radiators to see if they are even getting hot enough to kick on the fan. If it's not that hot and still boiling over, you need a new cap.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips. I will track down infrared gadget and take a reading. I believe the fan is supposed to kick on at 94 degrees Centigrade, correct?

My not-so-local Husky dealer also suggested to check for water pump flow, so I will be looking into that as well.

I will report back as I work through the issue
 
Andy Wheatley said:
Thanks for the tips. I will track down infrared gadget and take a reading. I believe the fan is supposed to kick on at 94 degrees Centigrade, correct?
My not-so-local Husky dealer also suggested to check for water pump flow, so I will be looking into that as well.
I will report back as I work through the issue
Click to expand...

Mine is an older motor, but my fan will kick on about 210F (99C), I take my reading at the brass fitting on the temp sensor.

HuskyWTSmeasure_zps6651c6a9.jpg
 
My bike boiled over ONCE so far and that was in a parade...we were dual sporting and rolling through a small town and it was some kind of parade and 5K that we had no choice to to join. So 2 mph for 20 mins did it.

I will say my fan comes on at around 190. It does not seem to really cool it down - but holds it at 190. My cap is stock.

Once you confirm flow (get it warm-ish with t e cap off and watch the flow) and you have most of your issues solved, I can highly recommend a recovery tank. I have had one on all of my bikes and plan to make one this winter. I use hobby airplane fuel tanks (they work great). Once you plum it up right, run it hot and blow fluid out and it will retreat as it cools. I can hear mine flowing back and forth while on the bike all the time. If my garage is not embarrassing, Ill take some pics of the parts and process and post it up.
 
Here is a recovery tank that I built. I have a trail tech temp sensor in line with the coolant and my fan comes on at 195 and goes off at 175.IMG_0706.JPG
 
ok sorry I haven't posted in a few days but been a busy weekend. I got some time to check a few things out and here is what I have found:

1. Topped off radiator, left cap off and started bike. Was able to see movement in the liquid so I know that the pump is circulating the coolant.

2. Was able to confirm that the fan is working. I was impatient previously and apparently did not wait long enough for the fan to come on in my previous attempt. It isn't precise science but I found the fan coming on ~85 C @ the brass temperature fitting (~185 F) [this is a rough attempt to measure and then quickly move to other side of bike to confirm fan functionality]

3. I drained the EngineIce and even though the drained liquid looked pretty good I went ahead and did a radiator flush (50/50 distilled water and vinegar). The flush liquid came out looking pretty clean as well.

4. I pulled the water pump cover off and verified that the water pump fan looks pristine. No pitting, no build-up.

5. I also pulled out the temperature sensor and verified that it was clean. I was hoping there was some mechanical action I could test, however it is an electronic sensor with brass tip. I assume this is working as the fan comes on and off at the temperatures that others have previously stated.

6. I filled up the radiator with a fresh batch of EngineIce (this stuff ain't cheap!), verified all the bolts, drain plugs etc. were tightened to specifications. I also verified that the radiator cap was fully locked into place.

I started the bike and sat down to see what happened... about ~60 C fluid started coming out of the drain plug, fan was off. I figured this may have been a little 'extra' that I might have overfilled. I continued to monitor the temperature at the fitting and waited for the fan to come on. The fan kicked on as expected and I still continued to see fluid drain from the overflow...:excuseme: maybe this is still an indication that I have over-filled the radiator?

I decided to take a quick jaunt around the block, took my infrared temperature gun to take readings along the way. I would go for 3-400 yards (~40 mph) and then stop quickly and take measurement. Measured just after stop ~84 C and then watched the temperature increase as I sat still (expected). Fluid would begin draining from the overflow once the bike had come to stop. I did the start, stop, measure action several times and observed similar results. The highest reading I saw was ~93 C but it would decrease to ~85-87. Fluid still comes out of the overflow. At one point it was a steady stream for multiple seconds... :banghead:

At this point I can only think of three possibilities:

1) Radiator cap isn't holding enough pressure, allowing pressure to bleed into overflow
2) EngineIce is boiling at lower than advertised temperature [they claim 124 C boil protection]
3) The actual 'self-calibrated' radiator fluid level is lower than stated in the shop manual.

These are theories based on my limited experience\knowledge -- I may be way off in left field. Any ideas?
 
It's the rad cap. Same thing happened to me. Cheap caps on back order to boot. Get a overflow can from Bills. They know where to get them. Even with a bad cap your level will stay full. Evans coolant works well in the 449/511 but you need to recover what's comming out.
 
OlderHuskyRider said:
Take your cap to an auto shop that tests caps, I'll bet the cap tests OK for the bars printed on the top.
Click to expand...

I called every auto store in my area and no one had the components to test the cap. I found one mechanic shop that had the right tool, however he didn't have an adapter that fit the cap. He did give me the idea to put a thin layer of grease on the inner and outer rubber seal of the cap and see if that made a difference.

I put the grease on the seals and then sealed up system again. The coolant did not start leaking until ~80 C and the leaking was significantly less. I called the Husky dealer for a quote on a new cap and they said $16. I will order one and play the out-of-stock waiting game. He also said the water temperature sensor was about the same cost as the cap, but also out of stock.

I looked at my cap but could not see a pressure rating...does anyone know what pressure it should hold?
 

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Rearwheelin said:
It's the rad cap. Same thing happened to me. Cheap caps on back order to boot. Get a overflow can from Bills. They know where to get them. Even with a bad cap your level will stay full. Evans coolant works well in the 449/511 but you need to recover what's comming out.
Click to expand...

I tried calling Bill's but couldn't ever get through to him, I left my name and number for a callback. The tech I talked to said that they 'had come upon a reservoir system, but they didn't make or stock them'. He said I would need to talk to Bill. I will call again tomorrow.

I think I will order a cheap OEM cap, but as you stated they out of stock... So I guess I will wait? I did see some caps on eBay that claimed to fit the TE 449/511 but they were $32... Anyone tried these? Are they worth twice the price of stock cap?
 
There should be an equivalent cap available. Husky buys those radiators from an outside manufacturer.
 
Andy Wheatley said:
Ordered one, should be here next week. Will post results.
Click to expand...


Put the old rad cap on a bathroom scale, press down with your right hand, while you use your left hand to reach up under the cap to feel when the spring first moves, and look to see what pounds are registered on the scale. My 3 year old cap registers 11 pounds.
 
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