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[ACfixer]

Riding in the mountains today, pulled over to wait for a straggling comrade and we noticed coolant leaking from the front (overflow") and steam and the smell of coolant coming from the right side tail pipe. I called Harley, they told me to ride it in... did so. Service writer says "you know what that means, a blown head gasket!". They can't look at it until Thursday. I'm pretty livid here... 2015 RGU with 900 miles.

[tdkkart]

 Except that, if I'm not mistaken, I don't think the water goes anywhere near the cylinder head gasket in the twin cooled motors.

[ACfixer]

I didn't know one way or the other tdkkart, but the steam and coolant smell coming from the exhaust pipe is disturbing to say the least.

[ACfixer]

Looking at this diagram tdkkart, it appears you are correct. I really hadn't looked into the actual coolant route before but it appears pretty simple, it also appears to be just as disturbing as to why coolant would leak into the exhaust.

[tdkkart]

Looking at this diagram tdkkart, it appears you are correct. I really hadn't looked into the actual coolant route before but it appears pretty simple, it also appears to be just as disturbing as to why coolant would leak into the exhaust.

 Apparently there's been some issues with porous cylinder head castings. At least you know where your's is
going, there have been many reports of mystery leaks also.

My 15 RGU has 4750mi, I check the water every time I check the oil, so far it hasn't lost any of either.

[RGlideKid]

Daing it, Lance!  I sure am sorry to hear about that.  I'll be interested to hear what comes of it.  Please let me know what they say and do for you.

I guess I'm just old fashioned, but there's absolutely no excuse for that kind of cheesy stuff happening on a $40k bike.
Harley ought to be ashamed of their quality and design, not to mention the lack of robustness of their hardware.  It's almost like they're trying to piss us off!  I just can't get over the defects and marginal design issues we're finding on these bikes.  They keep this up and it won't matter what the 2016's look like.  Or any future model, for that matter.  This may be my last Harley for a long time to come, unless it turns out to be more trouble than it's worth.
It sounds to me like the dealer was familiar with your problem.  That speaks volumes about what they're seeing with these '14's and '15's.

I'll be watching mine now.  Man, that sucks big time.

[ACfixer]

Yeah I'll let you know ASAP. I did get back in touch with the guy that sold me the back who I've known for 11 years and asked him to see if they could light a fire under the service dept. All the big wigs are away on Sunday, and they are closed tomorrow so maybe Tuesday I'll know something.

[ACfixer]

"We did every test on your bike, found no problems". 

[RGlideKid]

"We did every test on your bike, found no problems". 

Say what?   

[twinotter]

Automatic healing Harley, the first of a long line of new technologies designed to fool everyone and no-one!!  Tests?? What tests??  Run it for five minutes in the parking lot!
Go drive the piss out of it, if and when it fails, let HD "testers" fix it.  fwiw  Buffalo

[ACfixer]

Yeah we'll see. I rode it hard and hot all weekend, in 100+ heat and stop lights trying to duplicate it, no issues. Took it out and ran it on cruise control at various RPM's to see if I could detect the slightest miss, no issues. I got the guy to give me the bro handshake promise to not void any warranties if I change the exhaust and tune it like it's supposed to run... I guess that's all I can ask for at this point.  If there's a problem it will happen again, I just wanted to make sure I could proceed with the exhaust and tuning mods.

[grc]

Yeah we'll see. I rode it hard and hot all weekend, in 100+ heat and stop lights trying to duplicate it, no issues. Took it out and ran it on cruise control at various RPM's to see if I could detect the slightest miss, no issues. I got the guy to give me the bro handshake promise to not void any warranties if I change the exhaust and tune it like it's supposed to run... I guess that's all I can ask for at this point.  If there's a problem it will happen again, I just wanted to make sure I could proceed with the exhaust and tuning mods.

Several people have indicated a miss in the past year that turned out to be a spark plug issue on a new bike.  Perhaps a bad plug, or a fouled plug due to poor fuel from either the factory or dealership, who knows.   

When you had that fluid loss from the overflow initially, it could have been the result of several things, from an overfilled reservoir to a fan or thermostat failure.  I'd suggest making sure the fluid is at the normal cold fill level on the reservoir, then keep checking it daily to see if you're loosing any fluid over time.  If everything is as it should be, you shouldn't have any noticeable difference in cold fill level from day to day, just like on your car. 

Jerry

[RGlideKid]

Yeah we'll see. I rode it hard and hot all weekend, in 100+ heat and stop lights trying to duplicate it, no issues. Took it out and ran it on cruise control at various RPM's to see if I could detect the slightest miss, no issues. I got the guy to give me the bro handshake promise to not void any warranties if I change the exhaust and tune it like it's supposed to run... I guess that's all I can ask for at this point.  If there's a problem it will happen again, I just wanted to make sure I could proceed with the exhaust and tuning mods.

That's just the weirdest thing, Lance.  I know you're gonna have trouble relaxing until you put a bunch of miles on her.  Keep checking the level like Jerry said. 
In the meantime, go ahead and live a little and change over your exhaust and get her dyno'd.  She should run cooler from those changes alone, plus you'll love the throttle response. 
Keep us all informed on what happens to you.  Shoot me a PM if you need to yak.

[tdkkart]

 Another reason I really like the power Vision tuner that I have permanently mounted to the bars on my bike.
Besides being a very good tuning system, I've got up to 18 gauges I can set up for any parameters I want to monitor as I ride.
I have head and water temps on the screen all the time, so I have an idea of the temps it typically runs and will see a problem if it arises.

[ACfixer]

Will do, thanks guys. Jerry, I haven't had a miss at all - I just ran it at steady RPMs at temp to see if I could detect one which in my experience will usually happen if there are any head or gasket issues. The bike seems to be running flawlessly now, I have read there are been some fan issues that are supposedly corrected with an ECM update which they said they did. On Saturday I really put it to the test and they seemed strong and in sync with what was going on.

Getting the dealership GM to give me the verbal ok to proceed with the mods was big in my mind Harry. I know you and I had chatted about that earlier because I didn't want to have to swap pipes and tunes back and forth if there were any warranty issues so having him look me in the eye and give me his word was reassuring. He knows the cat sucks, but he just can't do it himself or put things in writing for obvious reasons.

A appreciate the input folks, forums like this are one of the best things about the internet.

Another reason I really like the power Vision tuner that I have permanently mounted to the bars on my bike.
Besides being a very good tuning system, I've got up to 18 gauges I can set up for any parameters I want to monitor as I ride.
I have head and water temps on the screen all the time, so I have an idea of the temps it typically runs and will see a problem if it arises.

Why on earth don't they give you these on the infotainment screen?