[johnsr]

hey guys, was gonna post in the intro section first, but i'm afraid i might have a problem. i poked around the engine for a while with a screwdriver handle to the ear, and the best i can tell, it's coming from the water pump area. sort of a cross between a muffled whine and a buzz, if that helps any. noticed it after the 45 mile trip home from work. was louder then. i parked it for a while, came back later went for a short ride, and when it warmed up it came back (not as loud) and seemed to go away at about 2000 rpm and come back at around 1500 rpm.

the water pump gasket was replaced at about 3500 miles under warranty. now has 5500 miles and no longer under warranty. 2005 model.

got any ideas?

i'm new here, but have been reading for a few days. recognize a few names from couple of other forums.

 

[X6_Hustler]

Not sure what to think about that scenario. Sounds more like what I would expect to hear out of the other side where the cam chain is. Although mine doesn't make that noise on either side.... I don't know of anyone that has had a waterpump failure so maybe someone else out there can add some input here.

 

[SgtMarty]

Does the bike keep cool while running? Some (including me) have had a breakage of the coolant impeller shaft. That left the impeller to just sit in the housing with the broken shaft doing nothing. Might not be your issue, and I don't recall the failure being noisy. My only symptom was a failure to cool the motor.

The threaded end of the impeller shaft can be over-tightened causing it to either break right away or break later once things are put back together (which is what mine did).

 

[larryboy]

there have also been some bikes that had the nut loose on the water pump shaft. this let's the impeller spin on the shaft resulting in a "whine". you still get some cooling. it needs to be opened up and checked.

 

[johnsr]

cools fine. i 'm planning on opening it up this weekend to clean the oil screen and see what i can find. i've read through the procedure on marknet half a dozen times at least, so i think i'm ready. if i find out anything i'll post it.
thanks for the replies.

ken

 

[DSjunky]

Good plan to check it out. Like larryboy mentioned, I would suspect a loose nut on the impeller.

Another note.... and I'm not suggesting that your particular noise is normal... but.....

Many folks are overly concerned with little noises and different sounds that come out of the KLR beast. Online sites like this sometimes create a phobia of sorts.... And us KLR officiados tend to worry about any minor engine sounds that are simply normal sounds coming from an internal combustion engine with it's many whirling parts and chains and whatnot.
Of course, obnoxious and obvious sounds should be addressed. But take a moment and consider that because we 'love' our KLRs, we sometimes are over cautious to ordinary sounds.... to our own needless expense and detriment.
When I see posts like yours, I am reminded of a squeek that was coming from my jeeps waterpump many years ago. At the time, I loved my jeep. but I couldn't afford to replace the pump. As it turned out, the water pump worked fine for over 50 thousand miles after the squeek started. When I finally replaced it, the old water pump was perfectly fine.....

 

[johnsr]

ok. didn't figure anything out, but i removed the side cover, and checked the oil screen. there was a very small amount of stringy stuff on the screen. just looked every thing over, put it all back together, and after about 100 miles i haven't heard the noise again.

the oil screen cleaning was pretty easy. mine didn't really need it, but after reading so much about it, i'm glad i know for sure what shape it's in.

the anti freeze was blue. can i put the green stuff in or should i buy some specific type?. i just filled it back up with water for now.

 

[SgtMarty]

Any antifreeze that is rated for aluminum engines is fine. 50/50 mix with distilled water if you are not using pre-mixed stuff. I've seen green and blue coolant. Can't think that the color would matter.