Engine coolant level

I assume you checked it after you warmed the car up, yes? If not, you will be blowing coolant out the pressure relief valve. When full it should be warm and ~40mm below the top of the tank. It is difficult to tell how far down it really is so I used a ruler; you will think you can tell but you probably don't' have the distance right so check.

If you were really that low I would turn the heater on full hot and drive the car for a while to bring fully to temp. That will open the thermostat and clear any air out of the cooling system.

 

Try pulling 16 ozs out of the unit, replace it with two pints of Red Line's Wetter Water and yo will find a drop in your normal temp which is benefical to the car's over-all performance.

 

If you don't remove some coolant, the system will for you. When it heats up the expansion will drive fluid out the overflow tube. Other than any environmental issues there shouldn't be much of a risk since it drains out the bottom.

I don't have my workshop manual here but as I recall it says 80-90c. That is pretty hot but not boiling.

 

Strange for me to check it when warm. The User Manual and the WSM are mentionning 40 mm below the tank neck with the engine cold ... as it is always the case with pressurized cooling system as far as I know. It could be very dangerous to open such a system with the coolant at 90°C and almost 1bar of pressure above the atmospheric pressure. Be careful ...

 

I definitely waited until the temp dropped to where the pressure was off the system.

I can tell you that filling to 40mm when it is cold will definitely push coolant out of the tank through the overflow. I will double check my workshop manual when I get home.

 

Page 7.11 of the manual says "pour the coolant into the expansion tank untill the latter is completely filled;" where does it say 40mm below neck line? what's to follow?

 

Steve, you posted in two placed and you are wrong about filling to the top. See the post in the 360/430 section.