coolant

[matoakwell]

Hi everyone,

The coolant warning light has started lighting up for 5 seconds or so when the engine is cold. It goes out and once the engine is warm doesn't light back up aswell as not lighting up when starting the engine while it is still warm. I know nothing about engines etc so can someone explain what I need to do, is it just a matter of topping up with water, if so where does it go. I've looked around the radiator and can't see any leak. The car is booked into the garage for some work on tuesday so I just want to keep it going till then.

Thanks

Mat

[omega]

look for a black tank on the drivers side wing and just unscrew cap and top up
make sure the engine is cold.

[Springnuts]

To up with coolant rather than water Regards, Springnuts.

[matoakwell]

Thanks for the replies, is there a particular coolant I should use? I've found a bottle of coolant / antifreeze in the garage. Will this do?

Car is 2003 hdi S

Thanks

Mat

[Welly]

Ooh, now you're not supposed to mix antifreeze's nowadays cos they can react with each other and go weird. Being a 2003 model your likely to have a long life coolant in there, be worth checking out what you should use first (I'm not sure to be honest but know there are kinda colour-coded antifreezes now ).

My car has a yellow coolant but my missus car is purple coolant

If there's any doubt and you only need a little top up then just use a bit of clean water.

[swiss]

To be completely thorough, you could drain and flush the coolant system. There are many articles on the board for how-tos.

Meanwhile, I always used the cheap pink ready-mixed stuff from Tesco. You could also top up with de-ionised water, designed for batteries and ironing but good for your radiator as it won't fur up. Be mindful of diluting the anti-freeze mixture though. Ultimately the trick is not to mix the different coloured types ^_^

[teamster1975]

As swiss says I would ditch the existing coolant & refill with a fresh mix. You don't know how diluted the stuff in there already is; better to deal with it now than suffer a frozen water pump or worse!
I use a half-half mix of red antifreeze & de-ionized water.