Coolant light stays on after car sat overnight

Smeech

Member

Feb 28, 2004

148

1

16

Fremont, Ca

Aug 16, 2004

#1

• Aug 16, 2004

• #1

Now it's happening more often. My coolant level is fine, just a little dirty looking (50000 miles, I should flush, huh?) anyways, the coolant light stays on only after the car has sat for many hours (overnight) Usually, shutting off the car and restarting it rids it. But today, I turned off the car, started again and the light stayed on. Work is relatively close, once I got there, I turned off and started again and it was gone... is this just a sticky sensor? I'm not leaking/doesn't smell...

 

nyuk98gt

15 Year Member

Oct 10, 2000

1,427

6

79

Chesterfield, MO

Aug 16, 2004

#2

• Aug 16, 2004

• #2

Smeech:

Sticky sensor. Flushing out the reservoir bottle with a garden hose will help to remove any suspended solids and, often, will get that pesky light to stay off. To flush the reservoir, disconnect the bottom hose (1" dia.) and go wild with the garden hose. Use a new hose clamp to secure the rubber hose to the reservoir if you don't like messing around with the spring clamp.

50k is a good time to flush the system. In fact, you should be doing it every three years! A search here (or on other Mustang boards) will turn up a flushing procedure and the Haynes manual ($18) has a very good write-up with pictures.

Hope this helps.

 

70stangcoupe

Founding Member

Nov 12, 2001

2,895

0

0

Winston-Salem, NC

Aug 16, 2004

#3

• Aug 16, 2004

• #3

Time to flush! That should kill your light.

 

holler

Founding Member

Dec 5, 2000

332

0

0

Chicago

Aug 16, 2004

#4

• Aug 16, 2004

• #4

from what I hear, the float mechanism in the mustang is too sensitive. If you don't have a pefect 50/50 water to coolant ratio it will not float properly. I am debating to just pull the bulb.

 

Smeech

Member

Feb 28, 2004

148

1

16

Fremont, Ca

Aug 16, 2004

#5

• Aug 16, 2004

• #5

thanks all for the replies!

 

nyuk98gt

15 Year Member

Oct 10, 2000

1,427

6

79

Chesterfield, MO

Aug 17, 2004

#6

• Aug 17, 2004

• #6

holler:

You can just unplug the connection near the bottom of the reservoir. That way, you don't have to mess with the bulb.

Chris

 

YardSpecial

New Member

Mar 20, 2003

2,664

0

0

MT

Aug 18, 2004

#7

• Aug 18, 2004

• #7

My friends 97 GT does that all the dam time.........

Very common problem on these cars...........
I change my coolant and thermostat every two years..........
My GT has only 18K on tho, changed them both out.

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