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Re: Low Coolant Light
The lower intake problem is well documented in this forum. Search the forum and you will find many helpful posts about that.
If you are not losing coolant, and have no evidence that coolant is mixing with oil inside the engine.... then you could have a sticky coolant level sensor float. Mine had this problem caused by lots of clotted up Dexcool in the expansion tank.
Even though the maintenance manual says you only need flush the cooling system every 100K miles, do not believe it! I removed my expansion tank and flushed it with lots and lots of hot water, while knocking it around with my hand: I was horrified at all the clotted gooey crap that came out of it! Anyway since then, I have not gotten the false "low coolant" light coming ON.
Take the time to also flush the engine and put in new coolant. I removed the top and bottom radiator hoses, and took the plug out of the engine block (near the oil filter) and flushed lots of water through to remove all the old coolant.
Many folks insist on changing the the Green coolant, but I did not do that. If you are going "green" you must get every bit of the old REd stuff out.
However, Prestone now makes a Yellow coolant that can be mixed with either the green or red (dexcool) coolant, so that may be an easier way to transition away from the Dexcool.
Change you radiator cap also when you do the flush. Many have indicated that the clotting is caused by air leaks into the expansion tank, causing the Dexcool to oxidize.
good luck!
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ShadeTreeBill
1989 525i Cirrus Blue Automatic
2002 White Malibu (wife's car!)
shade tree mechanic - an amateur or otherwise marginally competent mechanic who primarily works on cars out back under a "shade tree" which serves both to provide a cool place to work, and a handy tree limb to attach the block and tackle to remove the engine.
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