Hey guys, have a quick question regarding the overflow bottle/ resiviuor on my rvf 400. New to all bike related stuff so bear with me. As far as I understand the bottle that comes of the radiator is just a overflow bottle and not a resiviuor. Could some one please tell if this correct and the coolant is not supposed to flow back to the radiator which means I need to keep an eye on coolant levels. Also I believe the radiator needs changing pretty bad due to the gunk that seems to be flowing into the bottle when it overflows. How hard is it to change. Couldn't imagine it's that difficult with the manual which I will have in a week or so. One last thing how high should the coolant be topped up to. When ever I top it up close to the top it always just flows back to the bottle anyway, so at what point do you top it up again.

Thanks

This depends on what bottle you are talking about - a standard reservoir or an aftermarket overflow bottle?
I would be more concerned about the gunk as it sounds like part of your coolant system has been bodged and is possibly blocked so needs sorting asap before you cause bigger issues.
An original coolant bottle has max and min levels on the side of it, overfilling is not good.

Some pics of what you are talking about will confirm. Is it an ex race bike by any chance?

Its easy to change rads over, but some of the worst jobs start with 'How hard can this be...' lol

Can't seem to upload a picture. But Im 99% surr it's a hrc overflow bottle. It was under the seat but the guy in the work shop mounted it on the front right hand side of the radiator. I think maybe the gunk may just be form the hose but couldn't be certain as I am a newby, it definitely doesn't seem to overheat according to the gage but thanks I'll have the guy from Rb facing.look at it. Not sure if it's ex race bike but Def reckon the mileage odo has been swaped out seeing as it says 12500 kms. Which I can't see being possible. N yeh that sounds bout right Murphy's law. Hhaha

Hrc overflow bottle is a near transparent bottle with 2 openings in the lid (one I got from RO was HRC part no. 19602-NF4-810)

Does it look like this.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-HRC-Honda ... xypNtSd880

Yeh it was just like that till the guy at Rb racing swapped it over to something similar but now only has the one hose from it to the radiator.