Coolant Level Switch

[kiwi]

As I was looking in the Haynes manual I noticed it says they the level of the water in the BX Rads should be between 250-300mm from the top of the filler.
Now this got me thinking on why myself and many other have the coolant level light come on.
The switch that activates it IS 300mm below the neck.

So going from everyones experiance where would you say the level should be?

Please be aware I mean the ones without a seperate expansion pack from the radiator.

[Geoffrey Gould]

Hello from what I can remember Haynes used to mention that there was was a dip stick in the rad side tank (header tank thingy that is part of the radiator) this was a simple plastic tube with ribs on. I have never had sight of one so they may have been deleted ? Or lost. I used to fill the rad up to the top and let it find its own level by pushing out the excess when hot and running it for a couple of days, keeping a check of course, then fill it again and let it find its own level and if the two levels were the same then that was the level that was ok. It seemed to settle about 4 or 5" down from the very top if I remember correctly. Could be seen easily. Worked for me never had a problem doing it that way.

Cheers.
Geoff.

[kiwi]

This is what I am trying to clear up.

I know of that tube I had a couple of BX fitted with one, and its mentioned in the haynes manual.

Quickly converts 5 inches to metric and thats half of what the haynes manual says, like I said what the haynes manual says is pretty close to the trip switch.

[Geoffrey Gould]

Hi well I am a bit 'careful' as regards some of the measurements given in the Haynes. In the conversion tables and other places I have found them to be wrong. Like missing zero's or misplaced decimal places.
Found that the fillit and see made more sense.
Cheers.
Geoff.

[prm]

As a very rough guide, gallon of water expands from cold, by approx 100-150 ML in a vehicle cooling system to normal operating temperature.

Don’t take this as a golden rule, because there are some many variables with a complete system.

Also I failed my chemistry first time around.

Geoff –

I know exactly what you mean with Haynes.

How about a 16v with oil pressure of 2 bar at 8500 rpm.

I should imagine that could be correct ……….

Most probably starting to suffer from main bearing failure at that speed.