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Brand new 2019 Teryx dumps coolant 1 mile from house

4K views 20 replies 14 participants last post by  keeter 
#1 ·
So, like the title says I just bought a 2019 Teryx which the dealer was nice enough to deliver. Went for my first trail ride outside the house and about a mile into it all the coolant suddenly dumped out with steam billowing through the floorboards. Called the dealer who stated they'd pick it up, no problem - except I had to get it to a road. So I ended up driving it back to the street (about a mile) with the red temp light on.

My questions are:

1) Anybody else experience this? I've read here about earlier year models having hose clamp issues, but seems odd for a new/current unit.

2) For the mechanically minded, any chance I warped the head(s) driving it back to the street? Didn't have a choice.

3) The machine still has less than 5 miles on it now. What impact will this have on motor longevity?

Thanks in advance for any feedback
 
#2 ·
Luckily all the worries are out of your hands on this one as the warranty should take care of it all, that being said did you hear the fan at all? ( clip not tightly installed or bad thermal switch) I’ve seen both happen on tubs, That would be my very first thought. Next would be water pump failure or debris caught in the impeller or a faulty thermostat.
 
#3 ·
Fan was working because it was going nonstop on the ride back. Not sure about the other two possibilities.

Dealer tech who picked it up mentioned this happened a few times with units due to a faulty or loose hose clamp, but I'm amazed if this was known by the factory and is still a problem today. I know it'll be 'fixed' by warranty, but I'm curious about engine longevity now and of course there's the frustration of spending quite a bit of money on a vehicle that couldn't even go a mile.

Saddest part is I've been riding Kawi motorcycle for literally decades...never anticipated this type of issue from them.
 
#5 ·
I found a small puddle of coolant under my '15 on the second day of ownership due to a loose hose clamp (the one by the oil dipstick). Over the years I have seen several other posts with the same issues. It's really not that hard to set a system in place in a the factory to avoid having the hose clamps loose (I worked in the automotive industry for years).

For long term engine concerns I understand where you are coming from. If you stopped and turned the engine off shortly after the coolant dumped out, let it sit for awhile when calling and talking to the dealership, and then went and limped it a mile back to the road I wouldn't be too concerned.
 
#6 ·
Similar issue. 2019 2 hours on engine. Dumped coolant in a stream in my driveway. Back to the dealer and in the shop. They told me about the hose clamp issue. I said no, as I had pulled the skid plate and checked for obvious things like that. Turns out the water pump shaft was missing the c-clip on the engine side of the shaft, causing too much play in the shaft (first clue of the problem, after removing cover plate), allowing leakage past the seal.
Also the impeller ground itself into the cover plate, causing serious damage to impeller and the cover. Fix was to replace the entire water pump assembly. All covered under warranty. Factory engine assembly failure.
 

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#12 ·
Finally fixed. Missing c-clip on the engine side of the water pump shaft. Same exact issue as the water pump problem noted earlier in this thread. I guess someone was having an off day building engines at the factory... Unfortunate but Kawasaki USA did make things right after the machine was repaired.
 
#14 ·
The engines are built in Japan, usually excellent Quality Control, but where humans are involved there will always be an occasional mistake! Same as the loose hose clamps from the Lincoln assembly plant. There are Quality Control measures in place, but a human is still tightening the clamp. In the future when there are NO checkers at W Mart and vehicles are totally built by robots, I suppose they will all be perfect?
 
#20 ·
I know this isn't about coolant leaks but my issue was about wrong clamp type used and tightened too tight. I started noticing @ 5000 miles a loss of oil between oil changes, hence then came fellow riders mentioning burnt oil smell and by 6200 miles blue smoke.
Following hunting season I decided to get JBS to rebuild my motor and during tear down he noticed 2 trails of dust going into my throttle bodies. After checking the end of my air tube he also noticed the same 2 trails only more bigger wrapping around to the outside where the tube was dimpled in 2 places 3/4" apart where it matched the radiator hose clamp. The air filter housing appeared to have been over torqued with a impact wrench causing the dimpled pipe. This is just info for people to check on their SXS's when doing maintenance.
 
#21 ·
Also my ride is a 2016 T2 that I maintained with Kawasaki Premium Synthetic on scheduled mileage changes or sooner if seasonal rides were coming up like hunting season or again at Spring opening rides . On another note people would always talk about what filters to use other then OEM so a fellow rider showed me how to grease the outer and inner ring that fitted into the filter housing. With this I was able to monitor the filters and see no dust was leaking into or around the filter its self as well. Just a trick we learned from our RZR days. LOL
 
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