I'd say that radiator has done a pretty stellar job if it gave you a more or less problem free 132.000km

 

My grommets were missing, so were replaced entirely at 96,000km. They seemed ok at 81,000km when first rad repair was done.
This is that radiator now at after 132,000km. Too many wheelies they said.

 

Sorry i don't have pictures
It hapened last year
While changing the radiator , i noticed the bottom bracket(still bolted to the engine) had a lot of up and down play, so the radiator had no support from the bottom
The grommets were flattened really bad
After replacement , the bracket didnt have any play in it.

 

Hello
It happened on my 15 sdr
I had to buy a 700$ replacement radiator
I looked at everything carefully , what i found(on my bike) was that the lower radiator support bracket was loose.
The bolts were tight , but the rubber grommets were cracked so the bracket had play in it, wich left all the weight on the top brackets , where the leak was.
Those little grommets are cheap, but cause a lot of damage.
Check your bottom brackets !!

 

Any photos by chance? I've heard some folks talking on the facebook group about replacing these with generic honda ones with good results. Just curious how bad yours got in such a short amount of time.

 

Looks like you found a Carbon tank cover that fits?

 

My tank was off for my 30kkm Maintenance 2018 SDR) and when I put it back I was shocked how much movement there was - as others have mentioned those round rubber mounts are so loose in the tank “cups”…so I decided to build them up with tape (for hockey equipment) - made a huge difference in reducing the movement..

 

My tank was off for my 30kkm Maintenance 2018 SDR) and when I put it back I was shocked how much movement there was - as others have mentioned those round rubber mounts are so loose in the tank “cups”…so I decided to build them up with tape (for hockey equipment) - made a huge difference in reducing the movement..

Pretty much my solution, I used tape strips for windows to stop draft coming in. Tends to be a few mm thick which fills the gap perfectly. Just lay a strip inside the tank cup and keep it short, or it's visible from the riders position.

 

I have not had a Radiator problem yet but after 2.5 months waiting to hear from KTM about
my swollen and blistered gas tank they said too bad you can buy a new for full price. Ducati
replaced 2 tanks on my Sport Classic out of warranty no questions asked The 3rd Gen
went to a steel tank so KTM knows it's an issue they just don't care.

 

For completeness, to submit/report a safety concern via NHTSA, you can go here.

 

Just to let you all know, KTM got back to me advising they are looking into this issue. I'm pretty sure the company is aware of info on this forum.

 

Did you hear anything else from them? I've just had mine repaired. Leaking beneath both mounts.

 

I just did this as a preventive measure being new to the KTM game. My rad appeared to be intact @3500 miles. I removed all 4 plastic washers from the fairing front bolts, used loctite (blue of course), seated them fully, then backed off a quarter turn. I'm confident this will work but only time will tell. Thanks to all that contributed to this inevitable nightmare and I hope this is the end of radiator problems.🤞

 

The main purpose of those four bolts connecting the fairings to the rad are to support the fairings, not the other way around. The bracket under/bottom of the rad and at the top won't be touched. Just those four holding the fairings from "blowing out" at speed.

 

Dunno about those fasteners bro ... they hold light weight panels in place. Those are on my truck to hold the plastic cover on the bumper, like 16 of them. The rad is way heavier and you can only use a max of 4 of them right?

 

Thinking about just replacing the four rad bolts with these... Figure they'll offer some flexibility and maybe soak up some vibs.

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Not with the bike right now just thinking this through.

The photos that made the damage pretty clear were directly under the top two mounting points it looked like. Sure the side ones are feeling the pressure too... But from what I've seen those appear to be within the limits of the radiator. Where as the top two are the only two causing problems

 

All points of contact from the fairings would exert pressure on the radiator according to the video - why don’t you just leave out the top 2 and move your tank downward and see if the radiator moves…

 

Maybe a stupid question here... But as far as I can tell the only mounts causing the issues are the ones at the top of the radiator. Not the ones on the sides.

Thoughts on only modifying those top mounting points but leaving the side ones "solidly" mounted?

 

2cati, summarizing what you did here... You just simply removed the plastic washer and then didn't "snug" down the bolts but instead used loktite to keep them from falling back out on you?

 

That was my initial intent but once I removed the plastic washers, there is enough clearance for the plastic side panels to float while tightened properly - I still use loctite. You can see in the photo below the shoulder of the screw extends past the plastic, so when tightened down, the plastic will float. Hope this helps.

 

When I order a new radiator, I’ll be trying this out

 

Put the panels back on and they definitely float without moving the radiator and my radiator guard is solidly mounted. I’ll try this for now.

I’ll see how it goes and in the winter when I check my valve clearances - tank will be removed - I’ll beef up the rubber pads/mounts….and likely Mish’s method with he 5mm*30mm screws/grommets/washers.

 

I removed the washer and I suspect this deforms and wedges itself in the side panel hole making it rigidly attached to the radiator.

I test fit the shoulder screw without the plastic washer in the panel and it should allow the panel to float …and secure my radiator guard.

I’m going to try this for now (remove the plastic washers) and see how it works (floats) - hopefully no secondary issues.

All this makes sense based on the videos however the only caveat is if KTMs intent was for the panels to also support the radiator as the top radiator mounts were not enough….I’ll try it - it cant make things worse…

 

All this radiator leak talk has ended my procrastination so I decided to start looking at this as I have been doing some long day rides.

I should note that I have an evotech rad guard on the bike.
So took off the side panels and inspected the radiator for deformation and wasn’t able to see any comparing it to a straight edge - a good sign.

The next thing I noticed that I wasn’t aware of is the shoulder screws have Somme sort of plastic washer built in - I never noticed this before.

it’s almost like a low friction washer?

The next thing I noticed is the side panels seem to already have enlarged holes - as if to allow movement however, tightening these down lock the side panel in my opinion. If the side panel material was thinner or the shoulder height higher, it would alow the panel to float.

Now this is the top hole. Interestingly the lower hole has a horizontal slot.

My preference is to add some washer shims that will effectively raise the shoulder but I don’t have time to source them. I may just temporarily remove these plastic washers allowing more clearance for the panels. I will use loctite and not torque them down.
I’ll also elongate the holes to allow for more vertical movement if required….

It’s almost like KTM knew they needed to make the panels float without putting pressure on the radiator…..perhaps I’m giving them too much credit

 

Gotta love forums... Seen a few rad leaking posts pop up the past week or so. Did a quick search and found this. All the answers/ideas I needed. Will be gearing up to hopefully avoid this issue all together this weekend.

 

The leaking radiator seems to be an isolated SDR problem. Since the SDGT has a larger gas tank, it is hard mounted, unlike the SDR which floats on rubber mounts. It seems after a few wheelies and other hooligan behavior, the SDR tank starts pushing down on the radiator mounts, which causes it to start leaking.

 

This is an awesome post - I had some time today and inspected my radiator - looks to be fine - me seeing the deformation. That said, I enlarged the holes on the plastic mounts (elongated them vertically) and used loctite but didn’t snug them down all the way so the “wings” can move without pushing on the rad. I didn’t know WP made radiators

 

This is heads up to GT owners. Don’t think this fix is required for your bike, checked tank movement and it is solid. Guessing the R and GT tank mounts are not the same?
Any GT's owners out there that can report a failure at the same spot?

 

Correct. Only for Super Duke R owners.

 

Great post !!! I’ll have to do this enhancement soon before my radiator fails....