low coolant warning light?

[1990LTD]

Would it be possible to rig a low coolant warning light, similar to the one in the washer tank? I would actually put it in the same location in the coolant side of the tank so when it gets to the bottom of the overflow tank, a warning light in the passenger compartment would illuminate.



My power steering leak wasnt a power steering leak at all, it just appeared as such because it was dark fluid on the road that was slightly thick, and my PS fluid was slightly low. I didn't take into account that the fluid was probably laying on the road all night since I parked my car there and got mixed up with some road dirt. Strange thing was, there wasn't really any coolant missing that I noticed that day, as I checked all of my fluids and PS was the only one noticeably low.

replacing my radiator, hoses, and thermostat today.


so yeah, could a person rig a low coolant warning light in the reservoir tank?

[1990LTD]

additionally, can you pull the top off of the reservoir to clean it up inside? what's holding the tank in to the car?

[87gtVIC]

Two bolts just underneath the lip of the core support hold the combo reservoir and a tab locates the base of the reservoir onto the plastic fender well on my 87.

I could be mistaken but I believe some newer fox body mustangs have a low coolant sensor in their fan shroud mounted radiator overflow tank.

As far as opening up the combo reservoir..No idea man.

[1990LTD]

I wonder how the things are wired. When the voltage drops to a certain level corresponding to lack of fluid on the sensor, it trips the light?


I wonder if that's EEC controlled or if you could just buy the Mustang sensor and use it as intended? A switch type of thing like the stock idiot light oil pressure switch would be good, so it's either on/off and I don't need to worry about resistance values etc

[sly]

it's just two metal prongs. when there's coolant... it conducts and draws current away from the light. when there's no coolant, it's open and the light gets all the current. Only works with real light bulbs though. There are more better ways of doing this (mounting a liquid sensor to the tank and then wiring that to a circuit that will trip when the resistance of the sensor gets to a certain level and turn on a light - this way there's no current draw through the coolant itself).

[1990LTD]

sending 12v through coolant doesnt seem like a fantastic idea

[sly]

now that i think more about it... I think I'm mistaken there. The washer tank uses some kind of photo sensor thing (there's a float in the tank and when it bottoms out, it makes the photosensor's area all dark)... the coolant tanks that have sensors may use the same thing.

bah... my brain... it farts.

[gadget73]

yeah, its a float with I think a magnetic switch. Magnet in the float opens or closes the contacts in the switch, depending where its sitting.

[sly]

ah... that makes more sense now.

[rick99601]

ah... that makes more sense now.

the float in my mustangs degauss bottle would get stuck before i flushed it out (the whole cooling system).

damn sediment.