Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

hey guys, im new to all this bike thing and i recently got the Ninja zx250r grey import , moel 1995 and i had a look at the coolant levels of the bike the other day and it was brown!!!...i dont think it is surpose to be that colour???.. would it matter if i just leave it like that because the bike isnt overheating at all?? would it be hard to drain the coolant myself and top it up ??



is there ride days for L Platers like me by any chance????

oh by the way im loving riding its the best thing feeling:D and sorry about all the questions guys

cheers guys

Daniel

I think coolant is A-typically green ... brown would indicate RUST? ... ie, previous owner has been putting just tap water in there ... not a good sign and a lower boiling point. (you may have been getting away with this due to cold weather) ... however, I could be wrong ... Still learning here myself.

Id be flushing it and putting the green shit in.

As far as rides go, depends on where ya is dude! .. check out the rides n get together link in the forum for your nearest ride retailer Learners are always welcome!! (makes us old farts look good ... for a short time anyway)

There are some coolants that are brown and some that are green, so it is possible you could have brown coolant, the old man has a SS that runs brown coolant, on the other hand it could be dirty as hell to, if its dirty you should be able to tell.

Oh and welcome to the site, and where you from?

One more thing...

Holden recommend not to change from the brown coolant to the green coolant, but this may be a holden ploy to keep you buying their coolant.

And your not riding a holden either

Oh yeah ..

WELCOME!!! . .. .hehe

I'd be getting rid of the brown muck and refilling with a good quality coolant (that's suitable for use with alloy engines/radiators) and distilled water to the recommended ratio. I personally use a Repco branded product, which is quite adequate.

It's not a hard job by any stretch of the imagination. There's a drain plug in the water pump - bottom left where the hose goes in - which makes it easy.

Hi Daniel, welcome to the club looks like your question has been answered

welcome to the club

welcome

thanks for all the welcomes, im prolly a young gun compared to all of guys but anyway i really dont think it brown coolant, cos it smells too and just doesnt look normal???

as for draining it myself, where is the water pump ?? like i sed im still new to the bike thing and i dont really know where all the parts are located yet. I just want to drain it all from the radiator and the resevoir tank and put the green coolant in . Thats wat it takes yeah ??

btw im from sydney

Daniel, on the left hand side of the bike you will see rubber hoses running into an area on the side of the crankcase that will be the water pump there will be a hose running in & one running out. At the bottom of the pump there will be a 6mm bolt this is your drain screw, have a bucket on the ready & open the drain screw then open your filler cap at the top of the radiator to let the coolant flow out. My suggestion would be to buy some cheep coolant to flush the system & some good stuff to use once flushed. Fill the radiator & run the bike for 10 minutes then drain again & repeat the process until there is no more rust particles or brown tinge to the coolant, then do a final drain & top up with the good coolant fill the radiator then the overflow bottle to the marker, go fo a ride then check the level.
Check your coolant level regularly especially in summer & replace the coolant every 6 months if this is your daily commuter

The only thing I'll add/contradict is that when flushing the system out, use distilled water. It costs fuck-all (less than even the cheapest coolant) and it's important not to contaminate your system with different coolant types as this in itself can (apparently) cause problems.

If your coolant is anything but green, it's fucked. There are some rare ones as mentioned (Toyota use red coolant) but as a general rule brown = oold and the sooner you ditch it the more likely your engine is to survive despite any damage that may already have been done.

My (ZZR) 250 has 100,000km on it, but it's always had new oil and coolant its whole life.

Good point raised about the water, but the idea is to get rid of the water in the system & for the sake of 5 bucks I would go the coolant & with a 5 ltr container you could do a final flush with the same coolant as you are going to use & still have left over

robracer wrote:Daniel, on the left hand side of the bike you will see rubber hoses running into an area on the side of the crankcase that will be the water pump there will be a hose running in & one running out. At the bottom of the pump there will be a 6mm bolt this is your drain screw, have a bucket on the ready & open the drain screw then open your filler cap at the top of the radiator to let the coolant flow out. My suggestion would be to buy some cheep coolant to flush the system & some good stuff to use once flushed. Fill the radiator & run the bike for 10 minutes then drain again & repeat the process until there is no more rust particles or brown tinge to the coolant, then do a final drain & top up with the good coolant fill the radiator then the overflow bottle to the marker, go fo a ride then check the level.
Check your coolant level regularly especially in summer & replace the coolant every 6 months if this is your daily commuter

thanks guys for the all the advice, ill prolly go with draining the system with destilled water as it seems pretty easy to do, sorta like a car?? and one more thing how do i get to the radiator cap??? sorry but im such a newb with bikes.. i havnt really looked over the whole bike yet

i really am lookin forward to workin on this bike and gettin it to tip top condition before i upgrade..:D

need to spend more time at home now as mum and dad is complaining !!!!!..LOL

Front upper right fairing has to be removed to get the the radiator.