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Its role

In general, motorcycle (or scooter) engines are high performance machines which rev much faster than those of cars.
Moreover, frontal surface is limited and therefore radiators are small. So you can understand the difficulties involved in cooling.

As the coolant ensures better engine temperature stability (therefore keeps performance constant, with less polluting emissions, due to lower energy losses), engines simply cooled by air are gradually tending to disappear.
As a general rule, the coolant (often pale green) level can be checked through a window in the header tank.

Changing the coolant

The coolant needs to be changed as it can pick up particles due to corrosion in the engine and in time its characteristics and fluidity may alter, being a mixture of distilled water and glycol ethylene.

Its anti-freeze capacity is also reduced. It is commonly acknowledged that the optimum lifespan of a coolant is two years, after which there is a danger of the formation of scale which greatly reduces the overall efficiency of the system.

The coolant replacement operation can be complicated due to the accessibility of the header tank, the need (or not) to bleed off the coolant pump and the location of the different hoses. Unlike an engine oil change, the coolant must be changed with the engine cold.

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