Low coolant?

Is the coolant supposed to be read when it's hot? The pictures below are cold reads, but even when its hot it doesn't seem that much higher, maybe slightly above the low mark. I have 45000 miles on my truck, and wasn't planning on flushing the coolant until 60k to 100k.

Should I go buy some coolant from the dealer and top it off? Have them pressure check it? Does this seem normal for our trucks?

 

get a bottle and fill it up to the full mark.

 

Get that topped off dude before its too late...

 

I'll go out and buy a gallon to fill it up. Is it normal for the coolant to go down over time, or am I leaking?

 

Don't mix any just old coolant with the pink toyota long-life stuff. If you're going to be changing it soon and it's not too cold where you are, I'd top it off with distilled water and go buy the toyota LL stuff. It's not normal for the level to drop, so that coolant is going somewhere. Hopefully just a loose hose connection somewhere. You should have it pressure tested so they can find where the leak is coming from.

 

I'm just about to go top it off. Hopefully you're right about this just being a loose hose or something. My S-10 I traded to get this had a leaky radiator that made me fill it up like every week.

I'll probably get it pressure tested this week sometime. Dealer best place to do this?

 

Dealer is never the best place to do anything unless you don't mind paying extra lol

 

Since I sort of had the same question, everyone pointed me to other threads and other websites where they say it's NORMAL for the coolant to go down over time (evaporation mainly from the reserve bottle itself). So it really depends on where it was when you bought it. After 5 years, mine is still above the low line when it's cold. So maybe you have a leak, and maybe you don't. Personally, I would just look around for any pink stains where the hoses are and fill up the reserve bottle. Then monitor it. Maybe use a permanent marker and mark what the level is after you fill it up (and do it when it's cold).

 

+1

 

Also good advice. I've had the truck for two years now. I've never added coolant to it. Unless the dealer has been doing it at oil changes/services, then it might just be normal. I topped it off and will keep an eye on it over the next few weeks.

Thanks for the help.

 

Make sure you look the radiator over good with a flash light from every direction possible. I had a 06 explorer that every time I filled the reserve tank it would be empty in a couple of months and with no dips on the garage floor. This went on for 6 months before the leak got big enough to start leaving a spot on the garage floor. It was leaking so slow that it was evaporating within a couple of inches from the leak. It was very had to spot the leak because of location.