I have searched and found nothing so I am asking here.
97 lt1 Camaro. I am getting the dreaded coolant low light issue. I am pretty sure its the sensor.

My question is this. When I take the rad cap off when he car is cold. should the coolant level be right at the top? or down a bit?

My coolant is always down, it is above the sensor, but not at the top of the rad.
New rad cap, new coolant hoses ( even from the over flow ), and new Thermostat. Car runs great, no temp issues, and if i add coolant to the rad when cold, it all ends up in the overflow.
is it just a flaky sensor? or when the car is cold should the rad be completely full? and I have a pressure leak somewhere??

 

thats how mine is too, shouldnt worry about it.. i havent had a problen and its been 3 years

 

There is a level on the the overflow dip stick that will show where it should be. You want the radiator full and the overflow to be at the right mark. If either keeps dropping much, you have a leak of some sort or its being blown out the pressure release hose.

 

It should be right at the top when cold.


Click...

 

I will give it another attempt to bleed the system and see if there is still some air in it somewhere. I have assumed that since I am getting normal operating temps, that there shouldn't be any air in the system. Maybe I am mistaken in this and I still have a pocket somewhere.

Thanks for the reply's, I will give the bleeding another try and see what I can get out of it.

On a side note, there are no leaks that i can see / find, and the coolant level always stays the same ( I siphon out the excess in the over flow and put it back into the rad) I have not added fresh coolant for a while. and the level stay the same.

 

My guess is the spring in the rad cap is weak and letting too much coolant into the over flow when it's hot then when it cools down there is less in the radiator.

As far as the coolant level sensor, what a big pos these are. I've replaced mine and just a few years later it's back on and same issue in my '99.
Anyone know if you unplug the harness and jump a wire across the 2 pins or ground one if that will keep it off?

 

All you have to do is unplug the sensor. No jumping required.

 

You may have a hole in the metal tube on top of the reservoir that the hose connects to. If there's a hole in the tube, just like if there's a hole in the rubber overflow hose, the vacuum that forms in the radiator as the coolant cools down and contracts can't pull a vacuum on the coolant in the reservoir to refill the radiator.

As Rob/Shoebox notes, radiator should always be full to the brim when you take the cap off.

 

Damn, That is exactly what I was afraid someone was going to say. I have had that metal tube out a few times, and cleaned it up and inspected it, it looks good and I dont see any signs of wear or cracks. The old hose was definitely cracked and letting pressure out. I could see coolant once in a while. Since I put on a new hose I have not found coolant anywhere. I will take out the metal tube and inspect it once more. Maybe I missed something. I will also go through the bleeding process again. Something is still wrong so I will see what i can do to track it down.

 

Hate to drag up an old post,
But in case someone has the same issue and is searching.

I had 3 issues with my coolant system. They have all be resolved and everything is working normal.

1 - Coolant sensor. This was bad and caused some issues

2 - Cracked overflow line which was causing air leakage.

3 - Leaky Steam Pipe Seals.

The steam pipe seals were the major cause of all my issues. When i first posted they were not bad enough to show leaks, but they would seep in air instead of sucking in coolant from the reservoir. This spring the steam pipe started to leak more, I replaced the seals and the coolant system is now stable and working normally.

 

Thanks for following up. It helps when people search.