Engine: S60: Coolant low. HELP

Please can I pick your brains?

The red triangle has just come on and the message says coolant low stop immediately.

I have done this.

Can I just get some coolant from Halfords and fill it up?

Do I need to go to the dealer and if so is it safe to drive there? I'dd rather not go to them as they'll charge £100 just to open the bonnet. However, if it requires work under the warranty I want it done.

Should I call the AA?

The car is a 54 petrol 2.O t with 38,500 miles. It was last serviced at 23,000 miles in July and is due the next 18,000 mile service at 41,500 miles.

I've never had this problem in a car before so your help would be greatly appreciated.

[imac]

First things first, check the level of coolant yourself. Dead easy, bottle on the left as you open the bonnet with MIN-MAX written on it.

You can top it up with a 50:50 mix of coolant and water.

You're supposed to use Volvo coolant, but provided you purchase coolant of the same colour (Green) and correct specs, you will be fine.

Top it up to the max mark on the bottle.

IMAC, thanks very much for this useful advise.

[Gen_Billy]

Normal water can do also, until u get some coolent.
Make sure its not cold water, put warm water if the engine has already warmed up.

[blues60]

Am I missing something... is water not classed as "coolant" these days? I always did the pre winter test and syphoned some of the contents of the rad into a cup and put it in the freezer overnight. If it freezed then I'd put some more antifreeze in, if not I'd be fine for the winter. Never let me down.
I take it you can now buy water/antifreeze mix in the same way you can buy ready peeled potatoes and ready grated cheese!

[imac]

Originally Posted by blues60

Am I missing something... is water not classed as "coolant" these days? I

No. Water is water, coolant is coolant (ie Antifreeze).

[Viper_7]

Water/coolant is not the coolant, the engine oil is the coolant,but water is used as the heat exchanger to take the heat from the oil and disapate it in the air via the Radiator.
This is because water/collant has a very high specific heat capacity that oil - it will quickly heat up and cool down.
Unlike oil, which has a very low specific heat capacity in comparison, if the oil passed through the radiator it would never cool down sufficiently, so coolant is used to take the heat from the oil.


Putting water in your radiator alone will cause it to fail very quickly - it will simply corode it from inside out.

Best to use proper coolant which won't corode your radiator/pipes.

Having a mix of anti-freeze and water is the next best thing -but your still looking at corrosion over time.

Vipes


Edit : oh loss of coolant can be a sign of Head Gasket failure - but not likely with so little miles on the clock
Check your oil cap for any sludge / mayonaise type look to it.

Top it up with coolant ( best) and keep an aye on the levels.

[imac]

Vipes, I understand exactly what you're saying but to the uninitiated your post is a bit confusing! In one sentance you say engine oil is coolant and later you say to only use proper coolant rather than just water.

I can just imagine lots of people pouring 5w40 oil into the coolant bottle now!!!! Hehe.

[Viper_7]

sorry!

and it was full of Typo's and bad Grammar.

I was wrestling with a two year old at the time!

My point was actually only going to be - don't use water in the radiator unless it's an emergency - and then make sure it's replaced with proper "coolant" off the shelf or a mix of water/anti-freeze.

Somehow went off on a tangent with lots of switching about which is why it ended up being a muddle!

[Alpha206]

Of course, if your coolant level is OK it could be one of those spurious warnings - my car was 6 months old when, on the M40, I had "oil level low - top up oil" (or similar) followed by "oil level low - stop safely" and "oil level low - stop engine" within the space of 5 minutes. Oil level was fine - RAC confirmed it - went on my way & never had the problem again. Didn't even register in the fault codes.

If your car's a 54 plate then it should be still under the 3-year warranty so you won't (or at least SHOULDN'T) get charged by the dealer "for opening the bonnet".