Over heating

I was on my phone, allow me to expound.

1: Your thermostat being stuck open will never in anyway on any motorcycle in any year in any way cause OVERHEATING!!. It will cause the bike to run and stay cooler longer than is optimal for proper temps to be reached by the cylinder head. As a result you will almost certainly have some reduced gas mileage, but, the R3 ECU is stupid and has no idea the thermostat is stuck open. To reemphasis, the thermostat is a separate issue from overheating.

2. If you have a bad head gasket, with no apparent problems, which it seems you no telltale indicators, get a coolant tester to check for exhaust gasses in the coolant. This will validate that it is or isn't the head gasket 100%. The test kit is $30 and you can very very easily do it at home, it's a laymans tool, and easy to do!!

3. A crack in the block will 100% show oil in water or water in oil. There is no path for exhaust to get through the block into the coolant... period. NOW, if you have a cracked cylinder liner, that's different. It's extremely unlikely you've a cracked cylinder liner, so unlikely, that you'd be the very first instance I've ever heard of on any modern motorcycle, let alone a Rocket, with it's overbuilt everything.

Your dealer is taking you for a ride so he can charge you $2,000 in labor to disassemble the motor, a few grand in parts he will deem as "out of tolerance" but will have nothing to do with overheating. Then he'll put it all together, and in the thousands of dollars of pars he'll replace, inevitably one of them will have been the source of the problem, so it'll seem like it was "money well spent" because the problem is gone, when in reality, he used a shotgun repair strategy when a precise application of thought could have avoided all of it.

Your dealer is garbage, sorry.

Todd said:

The service manager told me that the crack is heating up the water from a exhaust crack.

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I would suggest said service manager takes up selling ladies handbags. Coz he knows little about engines - imo.

We are however magnanimous - he can come on here and explain the origins of his thesis. I certainly am open to technical advancement. If he is.

a little story
3 1/2 years ago i installed a transmission in a 2005 nissan maxima.
customer when to dealer problem would not come out of park and scanner would not read data.
dealer said $5000 for transmission and then they could diagnose the problem.
i checked the nissan this morning replaced a $1.00 fuse everything perfect.

they r not diagnosing your rocket
questions did u get a code ?/ is it actually overheating? / does the fan work? /is it full of coolant ?
what temp does the ecu have ? is it blowing exhaust out of the radiator ? ect.
when u know the answer to these questions then u can probably make a good guess as to what to try first.

You might try fitting a new radiator cap. Mate of mine had coolant pouring out the overflow hose onto the ground and bike overheating. Dealer could'nt sort it but a new radiator cap did!!!!!

My bike used to randomly stop with an overtemp fault but it wasnt actually hot. I contacted guy who I purchased bike off (was 3 years old but only 600miles on it, go figure) he said he had same problem and had new radiator, radiator hoses, temp sensor etc replaced under warranty by stealership, turns out ECU plug had one wire pin not fitted correctly, it was the temp sensor... fixed. I have no faith in them.

If you've got a cracked block, blown head gasket, you'd know about it and its a few basic checks as everyone else is saying above to diagnose.

Yup, my 2016, when still "new" started puking coolant out, after I had parked it at my dealer, on a Saturday free food day. Someone came into the show room, and asked who owned the Rocket in the parking lot, that was pissing coolant. In a matter of seconds, a mechanic grabbed a cap off a Rocket on the show room floor and went out and put it on my bike. Never a problem since.

kipper said:

You might try fitting a new radiator cap. Mate of mine had coolant pouring out the overflow hose onto the ground and bike overheating. Dealer could'nt sort it but a new radiator cap did!!!!!

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cootertwo said:

Yup, my 2016, when still "new" started puking coolant out, after I had parked it at my dealer, on a Saturday free food day. Someone came into the show room, and asked who owned the Rocket in the parking lot, that was pissing coolant. In a matter of seconds, a mechanic grabbed a cap off a Rocket on the show room floor and went out and put it on my bike. Never a problem since.

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Had the same issue with my touring and also my Sprint ST 1050 before it. Triumph must use a crap supplier!

ScottishR3T said:

Had the same issue with my touring and also my Sprint ST 1050 before it. Triumph must use a crap supplier!

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K T M

Hello Todd and welcome from Virginia, and to hear of you trouble

Todd said:

I have my 10 r3 t at the dealer for over heating. It’s just started being bad and they are telling me that the thermostat was stuck open and that I ether have a blown head gasket or cracked block. I have no leaks, no water in the oil, and no steam from the exhaust. The service manager told me that the crack is heating up the water from a exhaust crack. I’m just not understanding how this can be! Has anyone else ever seen this???

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Was the thermostat stuck completely open or partially? A partly open one can mimic overheating. Do the other shadetree checks suggested before digging in too deep.