The American brand of motorcycles owned and produced by American automotive manufacturer Polaris Inc. – Indian Motorcycle recently initiated a recall for its FTR range of motorbikes. According to the company the affected motorcycles were built with a suspect coolant junction which may leak hot coolant onto the rider and rear tire. This leaked coolant may burn the skin of the riders or it can spill on to the rear wheels of the bike inducing less grip and resulting in a crash. As per the company, certain 2019 to 2022 FTR 1200 models have these issues.
Indian Motorcycle in its official statement said, “Indian Motorcycle has determined that the affected vehicles may experience a failure at the coolant junction resulting in coolant loss during operation. If this occurs, coolant may come in contact with the rider, posing an injury hazard and/or coolant may come in contact with the rear tire, posing a crash hazard.” It further stated, “Potential for hot coolant to contact the rider, posing an injury hazard and/or coolant may come in contact with the rear tire, posing a crash hazard.”
Indian claims that during development testing in February 2022, they discovered a leak at the coolant junction on an FTR motorbike that caused hot coolant to come in touch with the test rider. The test rider sustained no wounds. However, Indian then started an inquiry, which involved getting in touch with the RL Hudson of Broken Arrow, an Oklahoma-based part supplier. As a result, both Indian Motorcycles and the supplier of the cooling junction conducted extra testing on the coolant junction.
Indian also found 64 consumer claims of leakage at the coolant connection during its inquiry, including four incidents of coolant coming in touch with the rider. However, Indian has not found any instances of accidents, injuries, or fatalities connected to the issue. Indian Motorcycle’s Executive Review Committee made the decision that the coolant leak during operation caused by the breakdown at the coolant connection constituted a safety-related fault.
So to rectify this issue, the company is in the process of designing a new and non-defective replacement cooling junction. The company in its detailed report stated, “The remedy coolant junction part will have been manufactured subject to a material change to increase performance at operating temperatures and reduce manufacturing variation.” It further added, “The remedy coolant junction part will have been manufactured subject to a material change to increase performance at operating temperatures and reduce manufacturing variation.”
Owners will have to wait until the new cooling junction is available since the manufacturer has not yet disclosed how the recall will be carried out. Once it is, Indian will provide its dealers instructions to swap out the coolant junction without charging the motorcycle’s owner. In India the company will also contact the owners of the vehicles and will notify them of the recall and perform the required corrective actions.
