Took me 8 hours to find a coolant leak that was just a loose clamp under the airbox

I was pulling my hair out on a 2015 Renegade 1000. Temp gauge climbing, puking antifreeze everywhere after 10 minutes of riding. I pressure tested, replaced the cap, checked hoses, even pulled the radiator. Turned out the lower hose clamp on the thermostat housing was barely loose. You could see the crusty residue if you bent the hose a certain way. A 10mm wrench fixed it in 30 seconds. Has anyone else wasted a whole day chasing something this dumb?

2 comments

2 Comments

sean_murray6d ago

Ugh that hurts man. I had an 08 Outlander 800 doing the same thing, chasing a mystery overheat for two weekends. I replaced the thermostat, flushed the system twice, even bought a new rad cap. Finally found the little return hose off the top of the water pump was kinked behind a wire loom. Straightened it out, never ran hot again. Makes you feel like an idiot but at least it was a cheap fix.

mason.paige6d ago

...and that's exactly what gets me the most. It's not the hard fixes that take forever, it's the stupid simple stuff that hides in plain sight. But here's my question for you after reading your story - when you finally found that kinked line, did you feel like a genius for figuring it out or a total moron for wasting two weekends on it? Because I went back and forth for a solid hour after I tightened that clamp. Like yeah, I fixed it, but I also spent eight hours staring at the same two hoses without seeing the obvious answer. Made me question if I even know what I'm doing half the time.