so i stazrt my car the other day, and about 15 seconds into it running the add coolant light comes on and buzz's at me. i say oh **** and turn it off. 15 seconds later with just the key on the buzzer and light come back on. i checked the levels and its as full of coolant as the day i filled it.



anyone have this happen before? is it the level sensors way of telling me its dying?

 

itll come on randomly at idle now, but go away if i rev it up or drive it for a few seconds.



any ideas?

 

air in the system?

 

sounds like its got a little air bubble. it really only takes a pinhole of a leak for the recovery system not to work, and it runs a little low like that. my 91 does this same thing, the water pump is bad, bitch of it was it wasnt wet on the front of the engine or the weep hole, it took parking it in the garage for a few days to see that it wasnt the motor.

 

This actually happened to me about four times in the length that I owned my '86 GXL. However, I don't think it was air in the system. The power steering buzzer would also sound sometimes, but went away when I shut the car off and back on again. I think it was linked to bad grounds, possibly, because at times when I would start the car, the idiot lights would never go off and the car ran ever so slightly like ****. Adding grounds seemed to help me.

 

I'd start by pressure testing the system, if all is well there then I would just go ahead and bleed it to make sure you have no air (which you should do after pressure testing anyhow) test the cap, then move on to the more complicated **** like bad sensors

 

i let it burp for a few minutes but no bubbles came, but ill give it a shot again and check for any leaks.

 

no air bubbles came out, didnt spot any leaks.

buzzer still stays on at idle unless i hold it at 3k for a few secs, but comes back on a few seconds after it goes back to idle.



could it be the waterpump? i might change it just for preventative measures, because i doubt its been changed before. but this buzzer is driving me nuts.

 

i think if the wire is not grounded (i might have this backwards) the light and buzzer will come on. if you ground the wire, and the light doesnt come back on then the add coolant system works, if it still does, the wire is bad, or maybe the cpu or whatever runs the light

 

yeah the sensor grounds through the coolant. so if it doesn't have any water touching it, the light and buzzer will sound. does your recovery system work? does your engine fill up the overflow and never suck it back in? i would 2nd the pressure test being top priority. for some reason this is the best test for coolant system trouble shooting yet rarely do fc owners follow through with it. if everything checks out next check the cap. remember the hose that goes to the overflow bottle has to be air tight as well. goodtimes lee....