Had a trusted mechanic change my coolant a few months ago (about 99K miles). About a thousand miles later, everything seems fine with engine temperature and overall operation as far as I can tell.

The other day I was sitting at a red light... noticed that although the engine temp was several notches above "cold", I was getting pretty cold air with heater on highest temperature setting. Then when I started accelerating I noticed air was getting warmer and then in a matter of seconds air was as warm as usual at that heater level.

I checked coolant level when engine was cold today... well, tried - bottle is pretty old so hard to tell. Looked inside by opening the cap. There is some fluid there but can't really tell how much. I'm wondering if I'm low... Is there a way to tell what is low and what is full now that the bottle makes it impossible to read level?

 

it's low coolant I have a funnel that is used to be higher then the over flow tank so when the air tries to escape the displaced air is replaced by coolant

 

OK, thanks - so how much should I add? Up to about "max" mark by eyeballing it since I can't really see level or all the way to the top of the coolant bottle?

 

fill it up until U cant put any more in

 

Didn't have to add much, but I'm pretty close to MAX now. Heater works great while idling now. Thank you!

 

Keep your eye on it. If it goes down because you're losing coolant you need to find out why. Could be it went down after you had that work done simply because the system bled out some air. It will bleed air by itself over time but after that it should not continue to go down.

 

Will do. I read on this forum about thermostat housing leaks... yikes.