When I start the car the "Add Coolant" light comes on, and the buzzer sounds.. both stop after a minute or so.
I\'ve checked the coolant, which is fine.
The only thing I can think of which is related is that the gasket between the water pump and the block wasn\'t in too great a condition when we took it off last weekend... but it seemed not too bad. other than that there\'s nothing else.
Any ideas?
Cheers!
Hi,
When you check the coolant level, are you looking at the little plastic dipstick on the expansion tank, or in the filler neck in the centre of the engine bay? This is where the sensor is, so take that cap off and have a squint in there. Fill it to the top (and give the car a bit of a rock and squeeze the nearby pipes). Given that you\'ve had the pump off though - you probably know all about that ...
Mine does this occasionally, but it doesn\'t seem serious - just a bit of an airlock. Its been doing it for 4 years and hasn\'t expired yet although I should add that I only do about 3000 miles a year in the FD - although they are all er.. "quality" miles :P
I\'m not really sure how that sensor works - does it go off when it\'s wet (because of low coolant levels causing the water to boil up the filler neck) or when it\'s dry - as you\'d expect. I\'ve had that go off even after I\'ve filled it to the brim...
It\'s the same symptom I had on mine that was a sign of impending water seal failure although there may be other causes.
Best bet is to get the coolant system pressure checked. If there\'s a drop in pressure but no sign of leakage then it\'s likely to be leaking into the rotor housings. If the test is done with the lower plugs removed then it will be pretty obvious if hte seals have failed as water will come out of the holes!
One other test is to run the engine without the filler cap on from cold. If you can see bubbles being forced up the neck then it\'s water seals.
Hope it\'s something else but if it\'s not then it\'s not necesarily the end of the world - mine ran for about 4 months before I got it rebuilt with no major problems. Starting got worse due to seapage into the plug area and I had to keep topping the coolant up. Probably covered 4k miles like that.
Iain
Thanks guys...
It would be useful to find out how the sensor works. I\'m thinking it might be that the dodgy gasket on the water pump is causing a small amount of leakage which is bringing on the alarm.. but surely this would only be the case if the sensor was alerted by a fall in pressure, as opposed to the level of coolant in the system...
Also, as we changed the coolant I\'m thinking there may be an airlock in the system? Is it worth trying to bleed the system?
sorry to butt in,
what does the buzzer sound like, is it a buzz or a beep?? my coolant light (red above the guage)comes on when i turn on the ignition but goes off as soon as i turn the engine over, is this normal?? the car beeps at me when the ignition is on sometimes, but i think it might be the alarm or something unrelated,
Nick
you\'d know if the coolant buzzer was on... its loud and continuous! Incidentally mine this morning, came on, went off, came on, went off, three of four times. And then went off for good.
I really hope its not the water seals.. I\'m going to check the coolant level again today at lunch
Same Symptom as mine before my water seals went completley, Mine only lasted another 1000 miles before I had to rebuild it due to water seal failure.
i dont know a huge amount about this but i would say that if your buzzer is going off you do have a problem in the water system, you could have a dodgy connection to the buzzer making it go on and off, or, you could have a short some where making you buzzer go on or off regardless of water.
Nick
I reckon that since you have changed the coolant,you probably have an airlock or something.
Look for threads that have covered this before and how to bleed the system properly.
Or give me a buzz.
07776 304 174
Regards
Carl
Thanks Carl - I\'ll try that
:)
One quick thing you could try is removing the cold startup water hose that connects to the back of the intake plenum. It\'s really easy to find, it\'s on the opposite side of the plenum (towards the rear of the car) as the throttle. It\'s a black pipe around 10mm in diameter held on with one of those naff clips. Remove this pipe and check the coolant level (from the thermostat housing). You may - upon removing the cold startup pipe - hear a burbling, which would be air being released, fill up from the main point until full, reconnect the cold startup pipe and see how you go. One thing to note, this pipe is the highest point on the system, so should get most air out, but there can still be some trapped so you may need to do it a couple of times between a very short drive (so water isn\'t boiling).
HTH
H