Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Has anyone seen this?

I've read all the topic's on the low coolant light and they still haven't addressed the problem I'm seeing. It seems that my coolant overflow tank magnetic float isn't floating and it appears to not be floating after the engine comes up to operating temperature. I've tryed every coolant level imaginable in the overflow tant without out any success. I used my ohm meter to see exactly where I can get the 82 ohms by lowering any raising the sensor. Once it gets hot the sensor turns on when I pull it down at least over a half inch and this is with the tank 1" over the max level line. It appears my float is sinking. I've cleaned the tank and my coolant is fresh at about a 50/50 mix. Has anyone seen this or have any idea what going on. The only thing I can figure is the float must have some junk on it maybe. I have two sensors one with one of them being new and they both act the same. I'm about to just go get a new or used tank cause I'm tired of seeing that %$#@ light come on.

DaveNC

I've been looking at a low coolant light ever since I backflushed my system and added new fluid. It seems to only come on after I've driven about 18-20 minutes on my way home from work. The fluid level is about 1 inch above the max line.

I'm thinking about removing the reservoir tank and taking out the sensor and giving it a good cleaning whenever I get around to replacing the stripped radiator drain plug.

This is tipical with cougars....its a bad coolant level snesor (the float you refer to) if it bugs you enough just replace it...I could not find any posts on successful cleanings of them.


Lupe

mine comes on for about the first 3 minutes of operation and then clicks off. but I think I have a funky seal on my water pump that's causing a tad bit of a leak. I'll look into the sensor though.

I had this problem for a long time. I first replaced the sensor that looks like a giant suppository that is under the coolant overflow tank...didn't do any good. I finally replaced the entire overflow coolant tank and problem is now gone....

I opened up the tank this weekend to get a look at the float. I used my dremmel tool and cut a square hole right above the float. The float has a restrictor that keeps the float from going any higher than when the coolant is a half inch over the max line. There is about 1 inch of vertical movement available. Anything over a half inch above the max line is wasted coolant. The problem with my float is that it comes up to the top and then starts to sink a bit. Which makes sense in referance to why the light keeps coming on. The float was clean so that means over time the material that surrounds the magnet (which you can see) looses it's boyancy. So now I "know" I need a new coolant reservoir since there is no repairing this one. Anybody know the cheapest place to get Ford parts online? No sense in buying a used one since you'll end up with the same issue again.

Another thing worth noting is that the external switch has a dead spot in the center of it. I used a small magnet with my ohm meter and found a dead spot on the vertical shaft of the switch. You know the suppository looking thing. The switch's dead spot is about 3/4" starting in the middle of the vertical shaft. Basically the bottom of the switch is just not used. Bad design that all. Just a plain old bad design. I hope this sheds some light on the subject for you guys.

DaveNC

I've had to replace the colant tank three times. The problem would go away each time, but would eventually return. I became tired of this exercise so I unplugged the sensor from the tank and put a bypass wire(paper clip) in the plug to replace the sensor. Problem solved, no more light. The only down side to doing this is that you must now visually check the colant level instead of relying on the low level warrning light, just like you do should be doing with the other fluid levels.

Dave,

Thanks for the detail on what you found in the tank....I guess another Ford cheap part strikes again!

Regards,
Bob