"Add coolant light" on, but topped off?

 
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Old Jul 24, 2001 | 06:52 PM
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Angry "Add coolant light" on, but topped off?

I've topped off the system, but on start-up I still hear a wooshing sound on the passenger side. I did notice that after awhile driving and after it has cooled off, it needs to be topped off again only a little....really nothing to speak off. I think the sensor is covered with coolant, if that is the black wire coming from the fill pipe just to the driver's side of the air pump and in front of the cross-over tube. I've done things like reset the ECU (disconnect the battery, press on brake 5 times and leave it for an hour) because recently the whole system was acting funky. The car wouldn't turn off...I had to disconnect the battery and reset everything and then it went away. I then started having 3K hesitation, which was new. And the battery light and the oil light would flicker on and off together. Again, that is gone since the reset. But, what remains is the coolant light screaming. The temp is fine though.

Help. What can I do first? How do I test the sensor?...be specific cause I suck at electronics. I'm going to go read about burping the system, but this hasn't been a problem in the past.
Old Jul 24, 2001 | 09:00 PM
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Make sure you are not getting air in the system form somewhere. That I think can cause a faulty reading. My car does the same ******* ****!!! I replaced the thermostat, drained coolant, purged the system. nothing worked, now I just ordered the Pettit AST. Hope that works!
Old Jul 24, 2001 | 09:30 PM
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Remove the coolant line in back of the throttle body. This will burp your system. On my 1st try before I learned this trick it took me like 5 days to "burp" all the air through the system. Now I can flush/refill in less than an hour! Just remember to reconnect it before you start her.
Old Jul 24, 2001 | 09:32 PM
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u have to have the ASt FULL or the filler neck seems to loose about 1 inch per day...
Old Jul 24, 2001 | 10:28 PM
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Yeah, you know all this stuff started happening after I took the extension manifold off to do my hoses. BTW...I can now smell gas at WOT and there's a woosh on the driver's side when I get over 10 psi....but I've replaced or inspected all the rubber connectors ($$$). I did not replace that little thin gasket between the manifold and the intake from the intercooler. Is some of my problem there?

I'll try to burp that line behind the throttle body. I remember I sucked up the anitfreeze to get most of the air out, but maybe I've got a loose connection down by the AST...I kinda doubt it though.
Old Jul 25, 2001 | 01:03 AM
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Just my two cents. When this happened to me, i needed a new radiator. I, at first, thought it was just the level sensor. But then soon after, the temperatures starting rising and the engine kept overheating. So we got a new radiator. Unfortunately, didn't get aftermarket, boo... Since then, no problem.
Old Jul 25, 2001 | 09:27 AM
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I too believe it is a bad sensor connection. It may have broke near the sensor, or it may have unplugged at the second connection harness located next to the front trailing spark plug.
Old Jul 25, 2001 | 10:28 AM
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Axe, by chance has your car overheated recently?
Old Jul 25, 2001 | 01:19 PM
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The car has NOT recently overheated. It has been staying nice and cool. I only see one black wire to what I think is the sensor (self grounded) and it loooks ok. I will check back by the spark plug for the secondary connection. If I have trouble tracing this back is there a diagram someone can post of this connection?
Old Jul 26, 2001 | 07:00 AM
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following from sensor back there is a total of 5 conections in that line. after putting a motor in mine, one was disconected and made same problems. if you have the factory wiring diagram book. you can follow this and will show you each of the 5.
Old Jul 26, 2001 | 11:07 AM
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You are going to hate this, but first you should go back and retrace your steps, disconnect everything you put on and re-do the whole thing, being carefull to check all the hoses and all connections. in addition, be carefull about wires and selenoids that are around the area and make sure they are connected well. Usually, not always, if things start to act strange after some work, then it is very posible that you either missed something or disconnected something and didn't notice it. I have accidentally disconnected stuff and had all kinds of problems, then found some minor thing was off and it later worked fine once re-connected.

What is worrysome is the resetting of the ECU. Lets say your check eng. light is flashing 16 for example (EGR) and you just reset the ECU to make it stop. That does not mean that the EGR has nothing wrong with it anymore, it just means that the system is reset and "thinks" it got fixed. You should investigate anything the ECU is trying to tell you before resetting it, since it may not tell you something is wrong later with that same part. If you look in the manual, there are certain things the ECU will not warn you about. Some of those things are regarding the cooling system. I had a similar type of coolant problem but it ended up just being a blown seal

Good luck, these types of problems can be frustrating, but sometimes, with luck, it is something minor like a loose or unplugged part.
Old Jul 30, 2001 | 07:12 PM
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Well, it gets wierder. I drove it around a lot today and then went and washed it. While I'm standing there wetting it down the antenna goes up and the radio turns on while the key is out!!!!????!!!

I then drove it around some more and took it around a corner fast and the coolant light finally went out. But, on the way to having the coolant light go out I noticed that the charge light and the add oil light were flickering on and off when I would hit bumps. Then I went over a speed bump and those lights stayed on for a long time. They eventually went out again.

It doesn't end.....

If I take a right hand turn hard, my windshield wipers swipe a couple of times (no I didn't hit the switch).

Other than that she runs great....
Old Jul 30, 2001 | 11:57 PM
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Time to call the Exorcist
Old Jul 31, 2001 | 12:16 AM
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Is it possible you have a grounding problem ????? Everything you mentioned is electrical. Does your battery shift around in the tray or do you have it anchored down ???
Old Jul 31, 2001 | 03:28 AM
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dude, just dont drive it like that,

my coolant light was on for a while,
i figured i'd just not worry about it, and keep a close
eye on those coolant levels.

course that doesnt help when all the coolant dissapears at
once!!! then you have no way to know till your cars overheated,

then your out 5grand!
Old Jul 31, 2001 | 08:50 AM
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Originally posted by Tad
dude, just dont drive it like that,

my coolant light was on for a while,
i figured i'd just not worry about it, and keep a close
eye on those coolant levels.

course that doesnt help when all the coolant dissapears at
once!!! then you have no way to know till your cars overheated,

then your out 5grand!
Yeah, great advice. Just ignore it and it will go away and instead of a minor rebuild you get to buy new rotors and rotor housings also! Hey, it's only another couple of grand dude!
Old Jul 31, 2001 | 09:25 AM
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Time to call the Exorcist
badass7,

....ditto.....


...seriously, though, it sounds like a grounding problem. check your grounds to make sure they're all making good contact.

 
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