Celica Forums General Discussion Exterior Engine Coolant

Hey guys!

I was cleaning my engine bay today, and noticed my coolant was WAY below the "low" mark.

I did a search here, and I've found that some people say just pour some water in there, others say to go to the dealer, others say to lift the resevoir up and fill it up.

What should I do. Keep in mind I do NOT want to go to my dealer (LONG story)

if your not overheating or running hot, you put in 50/50 mix of toyota red coolant. topping it off with distill water wouldn't hurt either...
If its really empty, you might want to burp her.

burp her?

Can you give me some step by step?

Does it HAVE to be toyota coolant, it takes my dealer like 1 week to get parts in, and I don't want to wait that long if I don't have to

It's not running hot, never even been over the middle bar.

It's not super low, just about a 1/4" below the low mark.

I've been hearing that gurgling noise, as well.

1) Pick her up
2) Put her over your shoulder
3) Pat her on the back

Just kidding!

I think what you want to do is:

With the engine cold...
1) Unbolt the coolant reservoir and lift it up a few inches and set it on the hood latch. The reservoir is designed to slip right over it.
2) remove the coolant reservoir cap

With the engine running...
3) add 50/50 mix of coolant and distilled water to reservoir
4) pinch and release the tube going from the radiator to the reservoir several times to get any air out of the system

There is also a bleeder valve on the reservoir, so if you just want to make sure there is no air in the system preventing you from filling it all the way up, you don't have to take the cap off. You can just loosen the bleeder valve (with engine running) and pinch the tube to get any air out. Loosen the bleeder valve slowly and carefully, and don't loosen it too much or you could get hot scalding coolant on you.

In your case, you probably don't need to do all that, just top if off and check to make sure the level remains where it should and you aren't overheating.

I would suggest sticking with Toyota coolant, especially if that's what's in there already. The dealer should have it readily available since they use it all the time in the shop. My dealer sold it to me for $14 a gallon, which is only a few bucks more than what you would pay for most long-life coolant, and is supposed to have additional benefits.

what they said...and be sure to use the red stuff..not the cheap green coolant.

can I buy this any place but the dealer (The coolant)

I refuse to buy stuff from my dealer, they wouldn't even give me the CEL codes.

Not that I know of. Is there only one Toyota dealer in your area?

Nope, I'll have to drive 50-60 miles and I don't want to go very far on low coolant.

Can I buy long life coolant someplace? or does no one make decent coolant except toyota?

get some redline WaterWetter supercoolant

redline waterwetter [bestbrakes.com]

Do a search there are tons of places that sell it. A lot of people recommend this stuff.

A qoute i found:

"My last car was a Taurus SHO (with the Yamaha V6) which was prone to run hot, so the last time I had my mechanic flush the coolant, I had him do the WaterWetter thing. Dropped my average running coolant temp significantly (not too cold, of course)."

Redline WaterWetter Technical info [redlineoil.com]

This is just coolant...not coolant/antifreeze. So if you live in cold weather then probably try something else.

yes the Water wetter is good

If you're going to change to something else, flush out what's in there and do a complete fill. I wouldn't recommend mixing two different types of coolant.

how do I flush it out?

this is quickly turning into another $90 trip to my dealer only to have them break something

Honestly, if I were you, I would just grit your teeth, walk into your dealer, and give them the $15 for a gallon of coolant, then top off your coolant with a 50/50 mix. That beats giving them $90 and saves you from their poor service.

If you want to be totally free from relying on your dealer for Toyota coolant, then you can flush your radiator and refill it with aftermarket coolant.

With engine cold...
1) Open reservoir cap to relieve the pressure
2) place drippan under lower right side of radiator
3) loosen petcock on lower right side of radiator
4) wait until coolant stop coming out

If you really want to flush out all existing coolant, fill the radiator back up with fresh water, start the engine and let it run for 10-15 minutes, then drain it again. If you do this, you'll want to use a higher concentration of coolant when you fill it back up, since there will still be water left in the system.

5) Fill with new coolant per directions on sticker under the hood

I'm just going to buy it and top it off, ASSUMING they will sell it to me.

They REFUSED to sell me a control board to my car, they would only give it to me if they installed it, $450 instead of $60 for the part

Check if your water pump is leaking. I had that problem on mine. You'll see red stuff on the left side of your engine. I got it fixed under warranty.

Yeah my red coolant is WAYYYY below the low mark. I'm trying to get coolant and fill her up, but how do I take off the passenger-side plastic piece in the engine bay so I can get access to the reservoir?

do NOT use distilled water in the celica! The water does not mix well with the red coolant, and does not have the cooling capability of it either. Either go to the dealer and buy a gallon of the red coolant, or go to an auto parts store and get it. The toyota stuff has some other additives in it, i don't know exactly what for, but regular RED coolant will work too, and will mix with the toyota stuff.

What are you talking about? You can't just use coolant by itself, you have to mix it with water. I've never seen red coolant at an auto parts store; I've only seen green and orange.

As to the previous question about removing the plastic engine cover, there are five plastic clips that will pull out if you push down on the center of the clip with a small screwdriver or a pen or something like that. Just don't lose them.

You can buy redi-mixed coolant at most auto parts stores, and the orange is basically the same as the red, just pigmented differently. The two basic kinds are the green, and the red (or orange).

What's the difference (property and purpose-wise) between the two/three?

Mostly, the difference is in the cost, and cooling power. The red is more expensive, and has a higher specific heat, which means it works better (i don't know exactly what all is in the specific Toyota coolant, but they claim it has "special additives"). This makes it better for high strung engines like ours. The green is cheap, and doesn't have the same high specific heat of the red, and therefore doesn't work as well. The green can end up being more economical though, because it works well with distilled water, which the red does not.

This is the knowledge that I gained while researching coolants after discovering the same problem that prompted this thread. It seems that the Celica has a tendency to drink coolant. Even the toyota techs that I've talked to about it don't exactly know why, just that it's a well documented problem. All I have to do is stop by the dealer, and they top off my coolant whenever I need.

if you dont wanna drive to the dealer, then you can go to a auto shop near you and ask them for original (red) toyota coolant/antifreeze. they will order it from the company, they get it for cheap and sell it to u. make sure like others said, 50/50. its a black gallon with red/black sticker on it if i remember. also make sure ur car is RUNNING while you poor the substance in and itll be better to do so when ur car is cool. have the car off for an hour or so and then turn it on and poor it in. the reason for it is because it will harm the radiator if you dont, it might crack it.

Use a ethyleneglycol based cooling liquid and use it 50/50 with destilled water. The red stuff from toyota is based on ethyleneglycol and DOESN'T contain any other additives.
And if the level in the reservoir isn't completely empty, you should only fill it up to max(max on the reservoir, not to top). DON'T USE ONLY COOLING LIQUID, use a mixture of 50/50 (maximum 70/30) because else the cooling capability decreases.

Sorry for my English

FWIW...

use 50/50 coolant/dist. water

worked great for me!

Thanks.