Note: I searched, and while this has been discussed in the past, I didn't land on anything conclusive to answer my question.

My owner's manual was stolen () last year during a break-in, so I thought I'd post a quick note.

I noticed my coolant reservoir was barely above "Min" when the engine was hot. This morning before driving to work, the coolant was about a half-inch below "Min". I took off the radiator cap and sure enough, there was coolant right up to the top; I got a green finger for my efforts.

After the drive to work, the coolant line was back a half-inch above the "Min" line again.

Question: do I need to add coolant? If so, do I add to the radiator, or to the resevoir bottle?

 

Add coolant to the reservoir when the engine is cold. Keep the level somewhere between MIN and MAX. The level goes up a bit when the engine is hot.

 

Check your ECU, there was a thread a while ago about a leak in the heater line that would drip coolant onto the ECU and eventually fry it out.

 

Shit, good call. I'll do that in the morning.

 

Actually, that car had a leaking heater core. You should be able to smell
any antifreeze leaking inside the cabin.

FWIW, my 06 with 31k miles uses a little coolant - maybe 1/2 ounce every 1k miles. Not enough to have the dealer look at, but when I get at the end of the warrantee, I will.

 

The guy said that the only thing he could smell was a very faint burning odor before it shorted out .

 

my coolant is just below the min line. I keep reading to add antifreeze to the reservoir, not the radiator. Where do I add coolant to the reservoir? All I see is the cap right in the front of the car, above the tank that shows the min and max lines? Is that where I add the coolant?

 

Yes. The other place where coolant can be added is into the radiator itself. There's a warning sticker on the cap that basically says do not remove cap when engine is hot. Most of the time we add coolant into here when we replace the coolant.

 

Thanks. So just to confirm, adding to the silver cap at the front/center of the car with the warning, goes to the reservoir and not the radiator itself?

 

No..the silver cap leads directly into the radiator. The plastic cap just behind the silver cap leads into the reservoir.

 

Thanks for the clarification. The plastic cap didn't look like it comes off, but I give it a shot.

 

Unscrew it like a bottled water cap.