It's only a dismantle the bikejob as I understand it if u have coolant collecting behind the rear cylinder. The dealer tech took one look at mine and acted even out of warranty and it was sorted, although I didn't keep the bike for long. My mates went even sooner, 500 miles into ownership on his 959. Both cases through separate dealers and handled by replacing the water pump. The right side engine case needs to come off though which is a chunky job
I understand that fully, but how can you sell a watercooled engine that leaks water? In my eyes and plenty of other owners this therefore resembles a fault of some kind, whether it be a design fault with the pump, seals or whatever.. Water cooled engines should be watertight and shouldn't leak. Ive worked in the motor trade as a senior tech for main dealers for the last 12 years and been a plant engineer for the last 3. Any liquid cooled engine that seeps, leaks or oozes any type of water has some sort of fault and needs to be addressed.... I was also under the impression the fault occurs when the seals expand when they're hot and then contract as the engine cools and therefore small amounts of water bypass the seal and comes out of the tell tale hole... My dealer has admitted to me there is a fault, but it down to Ducati's durastiction to whether the leak is 'bad enough' to result in a new water pump being fitted....
Its unlikely Ducati will invest heavily in redesigning a part for a largely discontinued model. With the V4 coming, my guess is they will just keep on churning out replacement pumps. Not so much solution, more sticking plaster.
If this is a concern with oem water pump you would have thought another company would manufacture a part that works as it should.
But there is a cost element to that, which Ducati won't be keen to undertake, at the end of a model's production. Not when they have a warehouse full of OEM ones. Moreover, IF another company were to independantly produce an alternative, the chances of you getting a dealer to repair it if it grenaded itself and the engine, would be zero. It's cheaper to just throw another replacement in, button it up and send the customer on his way.
New GS's have exact same problem with exact same options. Ride it don't worry, new pumps and it's fine, new pump and same problem. One guy had 3 water pumps replaced. Could be the same pump manufacturer! Others said after a few 100 of 1000 miles it stopped leaking. When I had issues with my Mutley 1200 I found Seastar fair to deal with.
I still feel its unlikely. Its' unlikely there will be a sufficient enough volume of sales to warrant designing a pump that will only work on one specific engine and not enough failures across the total number of Panigales sold to customers, to guarantee a return on the investment of producing an alternative pump.
Update to all. Ducati commissioned a new water pump to be fitted to my bike last week via warranty. Pump was fitted today so bike will be back with me tomo
Update to all. Ducati commissioned a new water pump to be fitted to my bike last week via warranty. Pump was fitted today so bike will be back with me tomo
Mine still leaks a little, but not always. I have put a little piece of cloth in the Path. Works very well!
Leaks for the first time on my 1199S,9000kms. Riding trackdays in Spain and coming back in the morning it was a nice puddle beneath. It was so for 3 days then i tightened one of the hose clips and it stopped. But i think its something with the waterpump as it looks very strange outside,"salty,wet & corroded" are words to describe it. Doesnt look right. No leakage when running the bike,only when cooling off in the nights.
Mine just started today Bike has sat for a couple of weeks which is normal for me stared up and ran up to temp till fan kicked in and put it away and noticed this, The dealer said they will inspect and replace it if I want but in all likelihood will happen again even with a new pump He said it’s quite a big job to replace the water pump. Not sure if it’s worth doing. If it’s only a slight weep from time to time then I could live with that. I’ll keep my eye on it for now but it’s about to be put away for the winter so it’s annoying! Also spoke to corner speed, DMC and motorapido and they all said it was normal and unless excessively leaking out then its not a paroblem
Ran it up to temp again today and while warming up a tiny drip Came out then no more Maybe at about 60 degrees cooling temp. Seems that the seal passes slightly when warming up. Unless it’s left over fluid from last time as it only came out when I leaned the bike right over to try and encourage it. If it stays like this I’ll be happy to live with and all the dealers I spoke to said it’s ‘normal’ and a new pump May be no better...
