Thruxton R Barrel Fault Hairline Crack Or Porosity Leaking Coolant

I've just had a quick read as I'm at work, I take it it's not been sold as a Triumph approved bike? I bought 2 Thruxtons last year, A 2018 and a 2019 and were both Triumph approved which came with 1 years warranty, Please ignore if you've already been asked,
Must read the whole post when I get a minute

 

Hi @timboo I have sent you a pm

 

Hi timboo, If your dispute goes to the final stage (small claims court), and hopefully it won't come to that, if however it does then the case will be heard at your local Magistrates Court, a few years ago there was a re structure of Courts in England, it was to streamline the system and reduce the number of Courts, although it did increase the amount of cases in the remaining Courts, in effect what took place was that the small claims Court and the Family Courts were integrated into the Magistrates Courts that remained, the small claims cases are heard by a single District Judge (DJ), he or she has sight of all the evidence before the case is heard that is submitted by claimant and defendant. Start by getting together in date order, starting with any copy of the advert, document dates and times of conversations in a diary, copy all e mail and recorded letters sent, in effect you are creating a "prosecution file", the more comprehensive the better (although it has to be truthful and factual), not guesswork or supposition, the last thing you need is a "he said she said scenario", if it comes to a Court claim then you decide the Court you wish it to be listed at (your local Magistrates Court), you will have little to travel, however the dealer will have to travel the 150 mile each way, you can call all the staff members you dealt with (if it relates to the sale of the machine, after sales, and fault reporting), the dealer will undoubtedly seek the advice and or representation of the company solicitor, don't let this put you off, the DJ will allow you a lot of leeway unlike the defence solicitor whom will not. In essence the harsh reality facing the dealer of financial loss through Court costs (staff away for the day, solicitors fees, time in preparation, bad publicity etc etc) will far outweigh any cost to repair, or it may be you wish to return the machine for a full refund, and buy something different from a reputable trustworthy dealership. If you lived nearer I would happily assist you to prepare a "case file" if needed. Ride safe all from an ageing Rocker.

 

Evidently all crankcases are pressure checked and if found to be defective they are resin injected and the n used on the assembly line. As the water jacket takes a fluid under pressure you would have thought the same would apply.

 

If all else fails and so thinking of the repair options plus I am a TIG welder amongst other things this info by @Baza puts a different slant on things.
In effect if welded would the resin burn potentially creating further leaks elsewhere?

Maybe welding isn't an option?

 

Good point !

 

My thoughts on an insitu remedy was based on the defect being a hairline crack whereas the conversation with the factory refers to porosity of the casting. Cracks can be identified by tried and trusted NDT methods but would those methods work on a porosity defect, I don’t know.

Also I may have misled you, I understand from one of my sources that the barrels and their coolant jacket aren’t pressure tested so there should be no fear of resin being present at the site of the defect.

Apologies for leading you up the garden path.

 

I would assume if this was going down the legal avenue the bike would need stripping and an engineer report explaining what the issue is and what would be needed to remedy the problem. New barrels or repair.

 

This may assist the OP if he still has doubts over the issues location or for others with similar concerns....

Pressure testing can come in various forms.
I would assume that most manufacturers will do some water cooling pressure test as part of their quality control albeit it may be the full system as opposed to individual items.

Using the dye/pen system, simplest form = two aerosols, one red very fluid ink for penetration, combined with another of white sort of talcuum powder aerosol (think a greater scale of deodorant held too close to clothing) to act as blotting paper and so with capillary action show porosity defects but there are better methods.

Personally if you need to satisfy your curiosity I would simply buy another radiator cap. Many moons ago I had a commercial testing kit with various caps and what looked like a balloon pump with pressure gauge, the below is simply mimicking that

Do not dismantle anything!

Modify the spare cap to accept a bicycle pump and blow the system up to the cap rating ( possible 1.2 bar; check).
Froth some soapy water up with a brush and apply to casings etc freely and it will show the issue up quite clearly.

The only issue you may have here is if the porosity/crack is heat expansion related. Do the cold test first as it maybe blatantly obvious and so no need to go further.

So, if later questioned
You removed the cap, could argue if need be that you were checking coolant level
You put diluted washing up liquid on the engine cases - you were cleaning it

 

Personally I feel the only acceptable answer if the casting was found cracked or porous is new barrels.

A lot of years ago I welded quite a few cracked diesel cylinder head water jackets. In the trade they were known as "boomerang heads" as very few stayed on the cylinders for long. I did quite a bit of pressure testing and trying different methods of tig repair.
What surprised me most was the quality/purity/cleanliness of the base metal varied so much from very clean (Nissan IIRC) to downright shockingly dirty (BMW IIRC).

The above was a lot of years ago and may not now be correct but the lesson was learnt: a new casting is the only predictably reliable outcome.

 

Do I understand that your local dealer is refusing to carry out the remedial works?

 

Give Rich a call at their Woburn branch.