Common S3 issues

[tyrebyter]

Coolant leak at the rear of the cylinder head (head gasket). Very slight, but it gave me an excuse to have a look inside. I hear the leak is common to the wet-liner T5's.

[Hotmailrules]

"1) Both light's being on all the time drains the battery too much " Quackster.

There must be an easy fix for this. Does anybody else have this problem? Does each bulb have extra filaments for the highbeams?

[daveallen]

im installing an inline switch for the left bulb. i was warned about this by our service dept.

I guess I've been lucky. The only problem I've ever had is the speedo cable, twice. The problem was from rust down at the wheel end from water getting in the lube hole at the top.
My clutch cable never broke, yet. I do have the new one from the dealer under warranty just in case.(not installed yet). Also I've never had a battery problem as I'm still on my original battery. (4 seasons).

[Agkistrodon]

the fuel fitting you guys had to pay for should have been free ! I took my bike to rpm cycles (my local triumph guys) for something completely unrelated and they tossed those on and told me as i was about to ride off no charge thanks guys

On 2005-04-10 15:45, Hotmailrules wrote:
"1) Both light's being on all the time drains the battery too much " Quackster.

I'm not sure if US models differ, mines a UK 04 model. As standard this came with only one light on at a time, and the on/off switch is blanked. I have the factory alarm fitted, have had the relay conversion done to give me both lights all the time, and do not have power in my garage to use a charger. I have to use my car for work, so only get to ride once or twice a week.
To summarise:-
The Downsides
I can't charge the battery.
I have both lights on all the time.
I have the factory alarm installed.
I can't turn the lights off when the bike is warming up.
The bike stands for 4 to 8 days at a time without being used, (3 weeks on one occaision).
The Upside
I have never used my bike to commute, apart from one time when it was snowing and I only did about 2 miles, if I start my bike I do a minimum of 50 miles (and I do like to hear that 7k+ howl)
Thus far I've had no battery problems (11 months). Despite regularly finding the alarm in sleep mode, she's always fired straight up. I do expect to have a much shorter battery life than ideal, but I considered this before I had the alarm fitted, and decided even if I have to replace the battery every year it would still be the best option.

Twice I have had problems with water getting into the coil/plug. First time was my fault as I got over zealous with the hose when cleaning. The second time was because of a heavy sea mist I rode through. Strangly I've ridden through torrential rain with no problems at all.
From a previous post this appears to be a fairly common issue, and it really is a complete pain in the arse when it happens.

[xSpeed3x]

Anybody have a probelm with the feul indicator staying on? Not a big problem but an annoying one.

Is there a way to reset it?

[Roland]

Those of you who are worried about running two lights - you can probably change yours to be like how the UK bikes are shipped.

There are 4 relay sockets on the UK bikes - two for each light operating high and low beams each. In the UK one high from one light and one low from the other is missing. Many of us buy the additional relays to enable both light. So you should probably be able to remove one of each yourself. The relays are situated under your seat towards the right side/back.

Further to my post about the water on the plugs.... I actually got my finger out and had a butchers at it today. The two outside coils are seated nice an flush.... but the centre one is definately up at the back. I reckon it was probably like this from new, so may be an idea for folks to make sure yours are seated ok. Still is in for her first year service next week, so I'll let them sort it out for me.