Hey everyone,

This morning I schedule an appointment with my Kawasaki dealer to have my first service done on my P650. I now have 1500km's on the bike and I wanted to get the oil changed in the motor, rear end, and front diffirential. Also the belt started squealing a bit on take off when in high gear so I figured that they would have to shim it.

Well me and my buddy Chris both brought our bikes into the shop this morning to have the same thing done, and when we walked in, the dealer told us that they where going to hardwire the fan on our bikes so that they would start running when the key was turned on. We asked him why he was doing that, and he explained that this was Kawasaki Canada's recommendation to prevent the bikes from overheating. As some of you are aware, a few weekends ago I had overheating problems, but since that weekend, I've been keeping a closer eye on my rad and I haven't had any problems. But the dealer said I had to do it since they where instructed by Kawasaki to perform this fix on all 650's that came in. Well I'm sure that this will help the bike in the overheating department, but it's kind of a pain to have the fan running all the time. I'm also scared that this will put premature wear on the fan since it's now running all the time.

Wondering if anybody else heard this from there dealer.

 

Interesting. I still would rather have a switch.

I have had that on my mind to install one.

 

Never heard of it over here, but my quad is in the shop right now and I'll ask them when ever it's finished if they did it to mine or if they heard of it being done.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

Try switching coolant to a 75% Water/24% Antifreeze/1% Purple Ice or Water Wetter mix. I did this, combined with switching to Mobil 1 20-50 V-Twin synthetic oil, and my fan ran AT LEAST 50% less if not more. I would try this, and thoroughly clean the radiator, and see if it helps. I ran mine next to my dads stock 650, and his fan was running over 75% more than mine was.

The radiator needs to be continually washed out if you ride in mud or dirty conditions. The fan running constantly isn't going to solve anything except to annoy the hell out of you.

I wouldn't let the dealer do it, I've never heard of it, I wouldn't want mine running all the time.

 

Parker650,

You have a good point there [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] I'm definitely doing the coolant change. I was sooo mad when mine over heated like it did. Anything I can do to help that camo rocket stay cool I'll try.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

Running the fan all of time is not good. For instance, if you are in
deep water, the fan won't last long trying to churn water. That fan is
quite expensive. I would make the dealer put a switch on it, so you can
turn it off in water.

Also, Kaw Can is not fixing the problem, only a symptom.

 

Thats a good idea, back in my old Jeep mudding days, we aways put electric fans on the Jeeps, just so we could shut them off in the mud / water...Have A GREAT Day, Go Four Wheel'in !!!!!WAM

 

If the bike is hot it's hot period. The fan is on already. No point of having it on all the time. I have mine switched in under the cover for the airbox and I do use mine sometimes. DO NOT LET THEM HARD WIRE IT... because in the winter when mine switch is on it's more of a %&%^^*&) to start and twice it wouldn't start until I shut it off on a cold start. It's also hard on your bike at night when you are running low speed with the hibeams on heated grips etc... Also having the fan on all the time clogs your rad faster.

 

Kawi650

It's too late, they already hard wired it this morning. They spliced it into the the 12V Power Outlet . So I can get to the wire very easily throught the front cover for the rad.

It really sucks having the fan running all the time. A while ago I was washing my radiator and when I started the bike, the fan started shooting water. You could really hear it forcing.

I like the idea of having a switch to allow me to control the fan. But the bad thing about this is that if the bike does get hot, and if the fan is off, it want get cooled down until I flick the switch. I really liked the way it was before where it would just kick in if it was needed.

Do you know what kind of switch I would need to allow me to shut the fan down. Should I be able to buy this at Canadian Tire or an Automotive Store?

So if your fan is in the off position, will it still kick in automatically if the bike gets hot or do you have to turn the switch on?

 

Whether it will still come on if the switch is off depends on how they wire it. If they are smart it will be wired in parallel to the existing temp switch that controls the fan now. I would prefer it to be childproof. You don't want to rely on the high temp warning to tell you to turn on the fan. By then your bike is way too hot.