[Guest]

Hi, recently i took my 94 nissan sentra to a garage to do a coolant flush. after it was done, i noticed there were about half green coolant in the coolant reservior. a few days later, i checked again, there were no coolant in the reservior at all. i wonder is this normal? i didn't see any sign of leaking. i want to add some coolant myself but i don't know what brand of coolant they added to my car so does matter if i add some other brand of coolant?

thanks for your time, i really appreciate it.

leon

 

[1slickser]

The overflow container is what your talking about, and yes it is sometimes empty and sometimes it has fluid. you can add more coolant to the radiator, it won't hurt if its a different kind. Mixmatch fluid is better than having your car overheat. Just remember to mix the coolant with water 50/50 mixture. You don't just put in straight coolant. Hope I've helped.

 

[Boosterwitch]

The overflow container will go up and down a little with the level as the car warms and cools. It should not be empty though. You need to wait till the car is completely cool before adding fluid to it. On our Nissan's there is no problem with mixing different brands of coolant. Mix it 50/50 with water as 1slickser said unless you buy premixed coolant.

 

[BORNGEARHEAD]

When you drain your coolant there are air pockets in the cooling system. If you just fill you radiator up and put the cap on, you can have air bubbles trapped in the system and can possibly overheat. Air will sometimes be trapped where your thermostat is not allowing the thermostat to open. What you should do is fill up the coolant in the radiator and with the cap off, start the vehicle and let it idle till it warms up, opening the thermostat and letting the air out. You will usually know when the thermostat opens because the level will go down. Then top off the radiator with coolant and put the cap on.Some of the guys in the shop will just fill the radiator up and take it out on a test drive and kick it down a couple of times which will also "burp" it. You noticed the level decrease because it burped out the air after you drove it.

"Now you know, and knowing is half the battle."

 

[By Nature]

Never mix orange and green coolant. But yea, seems like a garage didn't do a good job of making sure that you're system doesn't have airpockets. I would go back and ask them to finish their job. The overflow bottle should never be full, but never empty either.