I'm wondering how often you guys have to fill up the coolant/antifreeze in your TL's? I notice that it's hard to see the max/min lines because of the location of the container in the engine.

 

Fill-up Never.

The container just comes up if you just grab it and pull up, no need to disconet anything. Look in the manual to see how often should be replaced. D:

 

I never have filled mine up in the 2yrs of ownership of this car.
I have it serviced at the dealership & they should top off anything if needed. I ofcourse check fluid levels & the only thing I put in is wiper fluid. I do agree that its hard to see the coolant level recovery tank. I just eye it & it looks the same always.

 

Interesting...I never knew you could pull up the container. I checked mine today and it's at the minimum mark. I guess they didn't top it off during my first maintenance.

 

The coolant reservoir tank should read close to the Min mark on a cool engine and close to the Max mark on a hot engine. Coolant is allowed in and out of the radiator as needed to maintain an ideal amount.

 

Hmmm...now I'm confused. The dealer told me to fill it back up to just below the maximum mark. That's what I just did (on a cool engine). Is there anything wrong with that?

 

btw, I read the manual too, and it didn't say anything about the max and min marks corresponding to hot and cool engine.

 

Bebber is right. You want it at or just above the minimum level when the engine is cold. As the engine heats up, the water heats up and expands. Expanding fluid needs some place to go, so it goes into the overflow bottle. Designed right, when the car is at normal operating temperature, the level should be just a little below the max line. When you shut the car off, as the engine cools, it draws the coolant back into the radiator. So if you fill it up to max when the engine is cold, it's going to go *way* over the max line when the engine heats up. Not a real danger unless it comes out the overflow tube and gets all over your engine bay.

 

I filled mine when I got my brand new TL. I don't understand why it dropped below the min. So I filled it to max at engine warm. No problem at all.

 

Correct!

 

I guess I'll check how high the level gets when the engine is warmed up. I filled it to halfway between low and high when the engine was cool. Thanks for the input everyone!

 

I handled the problem of not being able to see the bottle by moving the battery tray back (closer to the CAI pipe) which then makes room for the bottle to move back away from the grill. I did this by reworking the bracket. Then with a black magic marker I darkened the LOW and FULL lines so at a glance the fluid level can be checked in two seconds. When it comes to cornering there is nothing better than moving weight to the center of the car- in fact I may move the battery to the trunk some day.