Coolant level

[Notamech]

Hi all i ran into a bit of an issue and was hoping someone could advise. So i opened both the radiator cap (the one where the two black pipes meet) and the reservoir cap to check something. At first when i opened the radiator cap coolant came spilling out and it was filled till the brim with coolant but as soon as i opened the cap of the reservoir bottle the coolant level went down in the black plastic piece and filled up the reservoir. Now i have way too much coolant in the reservoir (almost full bottle) and less in the black plastic where the two black pipes meet. I drove the car and the engine wasnt overheating or anything but just wondering if if this can cause any issues. Also how do i fix this and get the coolant from the reservoir to go back into the black pipes? 

[ikeja]

Was the engine hot at the time?

 

[Notamech]

43 minutes ago, ikeja said:

Was the engine hot at the time?

 

No it was cold. I didn't want to risk opening coolant caps when the engine is hot. I think opening the reservoir bottle released pressure resulting in coolant flowing into it. Might try opening only the coolant bottle and not the radiator cap and run the engine for a bit and see if it get sucked back. I guess this is the procedure they use to fill new coolant as well so hoping it will work. 

[TonyW80]

Hi everyone. I have exactly the same problem.

I'm wondering if the coolant caps have been mixed up on mine.

Can I ask did the problem get resolved and how?

[Notamech]

This happens because the cap on the rubber L shaped pipes is the highest point on the system. Where as the reservoir sits lower. The only way to fix this is to close the cap on the rubber pipe use a suction pump available on eBay to suck out the excess coolant from the reservoir and store this in a cl3an bottle. Then close the cap on the reservoir open the cap on the rubber pipes and fill the coolant you removed into this till it reaches the top.  Do not keep both caps open at the same time or you will run into the issue again. Also both caps are different. The cap for the reservoir has a valve underneath. Where as the cap for the rubber L shaped line is just hard plastic with a rubber gasket you cant interchange the caps as they wont fit. 

[Mr_Groundhog]

Slightly unrelated but I will ask here: On the service book, the coolant change is scheduled only by mileage but not by time.... It will take me very long to reach the mileage and i have heard that coolants acidify after a few years (five?) and can corrode pipes and rubbers etc inside the engine. Mine is a December 2018 car with 27.5 k miles on the odometer.

What should I do to prevent this? Should I force a coolant change at the next service? How much can it be? The guy on the phone quoted me last week but it must have been a mistake as the amount was far too high (now you speak to a lexus call centre not to the dealership itsef) 🤨

[ColinBarber]

1 hour ago, Mr_Groundhog said:

Slightly unrelated but I will ask here: On the service book, the coolant change is scheduled only by mileage but not by time.... It will take me very long to reach the mileage and i have heard that coolants acidify after a few years (five?) and can corrode pipes and rubbers etc inside the engine. Mine is a December 2018 car with 27.5 k miles on the odometer.

What should I do to prevent this? Should I force a coolant change at the next service? How much can it be? The guy on the phone quoted me last week but it must have been a mistake as the amount was far too high (now you speak to a lexus call centre not to the dealership itsef) 🤨

The pink Toyota Super Long Life coolant is good for 100k miles (initial factory fill) then every 50k miles. If you equate that to time then it would be 10 years for the initial replacement and then every 5 years.

The only thing that would possibly benefit from an early coolant change is the water pump but I'm not convinced it would extend its life anyway so I'm not sure I would change it before 10 years.

If you are going to change it then you might as well do both systems, the engine coolant and the hybrid inverter coolant.

[Mr_Groundhog]

I didn't know the pink colant was "super long life", thank you.

Presumably that means it won't acidify as early as other coolants... As for the water pump, it was changed earlier (before I bouht the car) as stated in one of the Lexus documents I got when I bought it, so that should be allright.

[Notamech]

3 hours ago, Mr_Groundhog said:

Slightly unrelated but I will ask here: On the service book, the coolant change is scheduled only by mileage but not by time.... It will take me very long to reach the mileage and i have heard that coolants acidify after a few years (five?) and can corrode pipes and rubbers etc inside the engine. Mine is a December 2018 car with 27.5 k miles on the odometer.

What should I do to prevent this? Should I force a coolant change at the next service? How much can it be? The guy on the phone quoted me last week but it must have been a mistake as the amount was far too high (now you speak to a lexus call centre not to the dealership itsef) 🤨

I would do it if I planned to keep the car long. Its fairly simple to do and shouldn't cost too much. Maybe use a specialist / good indie instead of lexus. Typically when i buy a car i plan to keep for 5 years or more i change all the fluids and regas the ac within the first couple of years just for good measure. Might be an overkill but at least i know its all done.

Alternatively you could just buy coolant from eBay or lexus parts direct and use a suction pump to pump out coolant from the reservoirs and replace them - maybe around a litre each. If you do this every year your coolant will most likely never need a full flush. 

 

[ColinBarber]

1 hour ago, Mr_Groundhog said:

As for the water pump, it was changed earlier (before I bouht the car) as stated in one of the Lexus documents I got when I bought it, so that should be allright.

In which case your coolant would have already been changed - and as it is no longer the factory fill it should be changed 50k miles/5 years after that water pump was done.

[Mr_Groundhog]

14 hours ago, ColinBarber said:

In which case your coolant would have already been changed - and as it is no longer the factory fill it should be changed 50k miles/5 years after that water pump was done.

Oh really? Ah thank you so much for letting me know: I didn't know that the water pump change implied the coolant change too. That's reassuring then.