Ohendo
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For Christmas this year I bought myself a shiny new thermostat (part # 5SL-12410-00-00) for about $20 on Ron Ayers.
I was convinced mine was stuck open, since I've been riding in the cold lately and it takes forever to get her warmed up, and fuel mileage has definitely taken a hit. In fact, I'd dip back into "warmup mode" (one temperature bar flashing on my '05) during riding. After pulling the old one, I'm convinced it was NOT stuck open. Oh well, new thermostat anyway.
The service manual directs you to remove the air filter case, all coolant, and throttle body assemblies, but I managed to make the swap without doing anything but lifting the tank.
I did lose some coolant, not much. Easily absorbed with a towel. I loosened the hose clamp and pulled the hose at the radiator, not right at the thermostat housing, and was able to direct it into a pan and catch a bit of fluid.
With the tank up, a 10mm socket with a 8" extension gets it done. You can feed it down through from above.
Old thermostat out...looks to be seated and in pretty good shape. Not "stuck open", as I had thought.
New thermostat in hand, appears identical to the removed part:
Completed the reassembly, buttoned it all back up, topped off my radiator with fresh 50/50 mix and started it up. Temps were about 40F.
Still seemed to take awhile to warm up at idle, went for a short ride and the same symptoms existed (never really warmed up, max two bars on the temp scale).
I've concluded it's normal, but would appreciate any feedback from cold weather riders.
Merry Christmas to all those that celebrate it!
I was convinced mine was stuck open, since I've been riding in the cold lately and it takes forever to get her warmed up, and fuel mileage has definitely taken a hit. In fact, I'd dip back into "warmup mode" (one temperature bar flashing on my '05) during riding. After pulling the old one, I'm convinced it was NOT stuck open. Oh well, new thermostat anyway.
The service manual directs you to remove the air filter case, all coolant, and throttle body assemblies, but I managed to make the swap without doing anything but lifting the tank.
I did lose some coolant, not much. Easily absorbed with a towel. I loosened the hose clamp and pulled the hose at the radiator, not right at the thermostat housing, and was able to direct it into a pan and catch a bit of fluid.
With the tank up, a 10mm socket with a 8" extension gets it done. You can feed it down through from above.
Old thermostat out...looks to be seated and in pretty good shape. Not "stuck open", as I had thought.
New thermostat in hand, appears identical to the removed part:
Completed the reassembly, buttoned it all back up, topped off my radiator with fresh 50/50 mix and started it up. Temps were about 40F.
Still seemed to take awhile to warm up at idle, went for a short ride and the same symptoms existed (never really warmed up, max two bars on the temp scale).
I've concluded it's normal, but would appreciate any feedback from cold weather riders.
Merry Christmas to all those that celebrate it!