Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting coolant warn. light--dirty tank or air in system?

The coolant light comes on when I'm driving, and turns off. It
doesn't come on unless I've been driving it for a while, around
10 minutes.

I tried a sensor from another Contour, same thing so now I
think the problem is either the tank is dirty (but I think the light
would be on all the time if it were dirty?) or there is air in the
system still (when the light comes on the coolant is getting
mixed around in the tank pretty good).

Any ideas?

Brian

Maybe you have a head gasket leak. That may be causing all of those bubbles.

I don't think so, the light only started coming on after the coolant was changed, and the coolant level hasn't dropped.

Plus the temperature gauge occasionally spikes up to midway which makes me think there's still some air in the system.

Other thing I thought of is that I might have too much coolant in there...

Brian

I removed about 1/4" of the coolant and now the light doesn't come on until it's been driven about an hour, and then it was only on for about a minute. Looks like I might need to remove a little more. (It was over the level of the two hoses on the side of the tank, which could account for the coolant splashing around inside the tank).

Is having too much coolant in the tank known to trigger the light?

Brian