Folks, quick one here as my issues are growing and I cannae keep up Captain! Anyway, my 2008 848 has sprung a coolant leak from the left, upper bracket that holds it to the frame; not happy, it fair squirts oot when the throttle is applied! I have attached a few piccies for your perusal and welcome any ideas, suggestions or otherwise; Some have a screw driver inserted to show the leak point. Is it fixable or am I looking at a new rad? If I can get it fixed does anybody know a good place on the West of Scotland, particularly Glasgow? Are weak brackets/welds an issue? Should I be worried? Cheers in advnce BTD
Mate of mine had a car radiator fixed at a place called Star radiators in Ibrox. Same problem (bracket tearing alloy), said they were great, reasonably priced (can’t remember how much tho) and it came back like new. Might be worth a try?! Mart
If it can’t be fixed M&P do a pattern part https://production.mandp.cloud/products/ducati-848-1098-1198-08-11-radiator-690972
Ooooo.... that's interesting, 70 quid; I was expecting something like £3-500! I would imagine thats not much more than a fix?
Aye, that’s awesome! For that money it’s worth a punt but keep the old one on the shelf, just in case. My only concern is, at £70 including free delivery (£10-£15 est in this day and age) how much are they buying them for to make a profit on them? That being said, who says Ducati aren’t doing the exact same?? I’d perhaps spend a few quid on a black galvanising spray paint prior to installation just to give it an extra coat of protection to help it deal with the occasional wet day we see up here! But I think I’d plump for the M&P one for sure. Mart
I purchased one of the M&P radiators for my 1198 last year it came really well packaged & had no issues with it since fitted. Only problem I found was the mounting points for the fans didn’t quite line up so had to very carefully manipulate the lower mount points on the radiator but for £70 can’t complain really.
Yup, it does look like a serious option. However, I have been consulting the Hive mind on Utube and it seems that brazing pin hole repairs is not that hard, I am tempted to give it a bash just to learn the skill. I console myself by the simple thought that the radiator is already fecked, I can't make it any worse, only better. The only issue being the location of the hole, I may have to remove the bracket to effect a decent braze and I don't know how the brackets are mounted; thats for tomorrow...stay tuned!!!
I'm assuming the M&P pattern ones are the same as on ebay, in other words from China, I got one a few years ago for my 1198 track bike and it's been fine, probably even gets a bit more abuse than usual, I think I also had to modify the fan mounts slightly though, which was easy enough.
Leaky radiators were common when the 848/1098 came out and were replaced FOC some were even replaced out of warranty like mine. Was The new ones were supposed to be beefed up but mine failed again some time later I have a Chinese one on a shelf somewhere. The Chinese ones have less tubes than OEM.
Would epoxy be up to the job? The hole is caused by metal fatigue from the bracket flexing onto the radiator.
as above, that looks very similar to the one i fitted a few years ago and it's been fine. It did need some fettling* as said, I had to tweak the fan mounts and the lower fixing needed a totally different fixing to standard. Also as said, you will struggle to beat that price even direct from China now. * it took me 3 attempts to get an acceptable rad but I think these were teething problems that are in the past. The two issues on separate rads were:- fan fixings so far out that tweaking was out of the question, and the second one had the filler neck too high so was distorting air filter intake. On the epoxy front, I tried this on an 851 rad before I found an ST2 could be modded and it held pressure for around 6 months but started to slowly weep again. Maybe careful preparation by bead blasting might have given the core a better key to effect a more permanent repair as getting in to clean and then apply the epoxy to the right area was half the problem, maybe not so with yours.
Epoxied it for a larf in situ. We'll see how that goes! If it doesnt work tomorrow I'll get one of those cheap chinesium ones.
agree, it won't remove the fundamental flaw so unless the core frame perimeter is braced then it will only leak again. @Bonkers the Dog not sure if you've had a look for previous threads but it's a well known design flaw that even lead to replacement under warranty when new in some cases here, (in the USA it was all cases!). They nearly always fracture on the left because of the argument between the two hose junctions and the rather inboard top L/H mount and the rather flimsy core framework perimeter but apparently can sometimes fracture in approx same place at top right also..
