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low coolant indicator

798 Views 12 Replies 11 Participants Last post by  ipsd1
The low coolant indicator came on for a few seconds after a 30 mile trip. The coolant overflow bottle was at the right level. Could the sensor be bad? Or dirty?
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thats a good question cause my light comes on everytime i start my car but once i start moving it goes away !
How much dirt is in your overflow bottle? Answer that question first. I don't know how you'd clean a sensor. I useually use carb cleaner on parts, but you don't want carb cleaner in your cooling system.

Maybe make a solution out of some radiator flush do to the job.

You may still have to replace the sensor.
The float can stick, and it probably can soak up fluid and waterlog. It can also probably wear out or start sticking on the plastic part it slides on (I think, I am a little hazy as to how it looks right now). I had the tranny heat exchanger go out on my 97, and filled the coolant with tranny fluid, and the part that took the biggest hit and I couldn't really clean or fix, it was gunked up for awhile.

If you (not the original poster) get it only the first few minutes of your drive for the day, then you are likely low on coolant.
Mine used to do that, I poked at it with a screwdriver to make it slide up and down a bit, and the problem went away.
forgot, you will have to remove it from the car fill it up ,swoosh it around ,and spray the hell out of it with a hose.
My 95 Cougar had that problem along with something that looked like snot that wouldn't come out with radiator flush. I removed the bottle, poured in about 3 cups of pea gravel put in about 3 cups of water, tightened the cap put my hand over the lower hose fitting and shook the hell out of it. Pour out the water/gravel/dirt mix making sure that all the gravel comes out. Did that about 3 times and now my tank is spotless. Now if I can keep the temp gage from going all over the place on these warm days......
take it out of the tank, unplug it and hit it with the hose. I just cleaned my entire cooling system out(flush) and removed the over flow container to get rid of some rust deposits. for a few minutes after I got the low coolant reading I pushed on the wires at the head(outside the containter) and its been fine since.
I’ve noticed that I have to over fill mine a little bit to get the light to go away. My coolant is almost oil black. So yea, gonna change that pretty soon LOL. I wonder if the first owner ever changed it..
lol don't worry my brother thought I was changing the oil when I drained mine into the container.
I’ve noticed that I have to over fill mine a little bit to get the light to go away. My coolant is almost oil black. So yea, gonna change that pretty soon LOL. I wonder if the first owner ever changed it..
I work at a shop that does Rad flushes and coolant shouldnt look like that so to answer your question, no most likely the previous owner never flushed out the coolant lol
I just took the over flow out of my car so I could panit the Radiator support. While the tank was out I flushed it out. This is how I did it. First I got some Alluminum foil and covered the out let and the top little hose holes. The I used rubber bands to hold the foil on there. Then I used Castrol super clean. I put a heavy mix of super clean with water in the bottle and let it soak for a few hours. Then I took a long hadled tooth brush and scrubed out the left overs. Rinsed it out and all was really really clean. I would have used the pea gravel but I didn't read about it until today. It isn't like I would have to pay for the gravel I live in Stone County MO. Lots of rocks layin around just about everywhere.
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