Coolant level warning when cold

[Slimy]

Hi, I wonder if anyone has seen this before. The last few days have seen sub zero temperatures here, and every time I've started the car I've had the coolant light flashing red and a beeping noise. According to the manual this is the coolant level being incorrect, however from what I can see the coolant level is fine.

Additionally, once the car has got slightly warm, the warning goes away. This suggests to me that the coolant level sensor is getting frozen and is reporting an error, until it defrosts and starts working again. The only thing is that the coolant itself is actually quite good stuff, and has never froze anywhere.

Can anyone offer any opinions? It's definitely temperature related, it only happens below about -2, and it fixes itself as soon as the car has warmed up. Driving it shows no issues, there is no overheating or loss of coolant. Even starting the car has been fine, it's no worse than it was on a summers day.

Oh, I should mention it's a V5 AQN engine.

 

[Justin R]

I've been getting this on my 1.8T. The handbook says if the light goes on the coolant is either low of temps are high. It says nothing about it alarming if its too cold.

I'm pretty sure my light came on and stayed on a few times but flashed others so your theory of and intermitant fault through a sensor icing may be right.

 

[andycupra]

has anyone else had this problem...

yes its the coolant level sensor indicating a low coolant level.

The colder weather brings tup this issue on the forum, - often while the coolant level is ok so seems confusing. When its cold it will be lower than usual. (thus when warm its ok)
My advice would be to top up the coolant to the upper end of the range indicated on the bottle. (when engine is cold). Ive owned two leons, both had warnings when coolant level was ok but towards lower end of the range, which have never been repeated after topping up the coolant.

Others will swear that you sould remove expansion bottle top, look inside and locate the two metal prongs running from electrical connector into the coolant; then give these a gentle wiggle and scrape off any crap on the prong surfaces.
It is possible that over time some residue builds up on the prongs and if the coolant level drops even alittle this means that the prongs are less efficient and not enough connection is made between the two via the coolant.

You could be thorough and remove the electrical connector and clean all contacts.

Others will say only fix is to replace the expansion bottle as the sensor is built it. But i would do the above first as this works 95% of the time.

 

[Slimy]

Thanks for the pointers Andy, they are very useful. I would agree that while the coolant level is between the limits, it is probably closer to the low than the high mark. I guess half a litre of topping up won't go amiss.

I'll save the electrical contact clean for the summer, at least it'll be a bit more comfortable!

 

[westoncraig]

yeah i get this most mornings at 6am now.. the cars just really really cold. Start it up and de ice your windows on the outside with the scraper.. get in the car (idle for about a minute) and stop the engine..start it again and hey presto the lights are gone! Be sure to let your glow plug light go out in these colder temps!

 

[PSX]

Also had this today, did worry me once I realised it wasnt the typical 'washer level low' beep, however problem went away as soon as I switched off and restarted the engine. 05 LCR, 80k miles.

Alex

 

[sedonou75]

I think I have the solution to your problem, you must clean the stems of your jar of liquid cooling with an old toothbrush, because there may avaoir a deposit which is formed above and those that his book your bipppp by very low temperature.

PS: for the sake of prevention of false contact disconnect the probe presence of coolant and tap into the jar

 

[Slimy]

I think I have the solution to your problem, you must clean the stems of your jar of liquid cooling with an old toothbrush

Good idea with the toothbrush, thanks!

 

[sedonou75]

I got permission to put the photo I would have done but I have not yet reached 15 posts

 

[sedonou75]

then still have problems?

 

[Marktdi180]

I have the same problem with the warning light, not tried putting more coolant in it as the level is fine, thanks andy

 

[Slimy]

I also topped it up slightly, it's now all sorted. Although I could have done without paying a fortune for coolant when I only needed about 100ml to get it to exactly halfway!

 

[kewe]

If it's only a small amount i.e. from min to max on exapnsion bottle, could you not get away with just using water?

MarkTDI180- Are you checking your level when the engine is stone cold? Level will show higher when warm but drop when cold. If it's OK when cold yours could be worth cleaning the prongs.

 

[Slimy]

If it's only a small amount i.e. from min to max on exapnsion bottle, could you not get away with just using water?

Yes, had I known that it only needed a little bit, I probably wouldn't have bought a bottle...

The expansion tank made it look like loads, and I didn't want to dilute it too much considering how low the temperatures were going.