Dashboard light problems, and coolant line?
 

Hey all, bought my first FC Saturday morning, and just got it insured today.

Taught myself how to drive stick on it yesturday afternoon in about an hour, and finally today got it down to where I no longer kill typically.

Anyway, onto my problems.

1) My dashboard lights, and speedometer, oil, rpm, etc etc doesn't light up. HOWEVER I just went over a bump in the road like 10 minutes ago while driving home, and they magically came on, however not all at once. It slowly crept up from dark, into full brightness, flickered a few more times - and then died once again, didn't have them the last mile of the journey.

2) When I got the car it had no coolant in it, when I got it home I did the proper 50/50 mix of coolant/water, but on my dash the "Add Coolant" light hasn't turned off yet. Is this merely something I have to reset? Or is it a problem with my line? A fuse? etc etc

Thanks for looking, and I hope to hear back soon, would like these small blemishes gone with.

is the sensor on top of the radiator pluged in? did you fully fill up the radiator (make sure no air bubbles?)

1) I'm going to bet my money on the solder joints.

2) Did you follow procedure for filling coolant? There should be a write up in the archives or FAQs.

Solder Joints? Sorry, am new to mechanics. Learning as I go here.

As far as the filling the coolant, I just filled it according to the write up link found in the faq, I'll find out if it worked when I start up my car here soon.

Dash board lights are covered in the FAQ for FC sticky thread found at the top of this section.

Based on my experience, the dash stuff could be loose. There is a huge plug that goes into it, and its kind of a pain to get on all the way with the little movement your limited space allows. So in a nutshell, make sure its in all the way. If it is, take apart your cluster (could be a poor alternator too, you never know).

You will keep getting that coolent light until you work out all the bubbles. And if your Water-Jacket seals are bad, you will continue to loose coolent, over heat, and need a rebuild. A good way to check, is to (WITH RADIATOR CAP OFF) start your car (COLD) and if you get an eruption of bubbles and stuff, its safe to say your seals are leaking. Also, what does your over flow bottle do?