How to check coolant level on Xantia

Biglittlebear · Post by **Biglittlebear** » 14 Aug 2010, 14:37

Hi

This is my first post.
Hope its not too silly a question, but my wife has a 2000 xantia 1.8i 16v
I checked the manual and it says coolant should be between min/max on radiator header box (which makes sense).
But having looked......its a black box with no visible min/max markings.
Can anyone shed some light on this for me.

ps I have searched the forum, but no luck, hence the silly question remark above.

Post by **CitroJim** » 14 Aug 2010, 14:42

Welcome to the forum Biglittlebear

No question on here is silly.. What is silly is making expansion tanks out of black plastic

Check the level cold. Remove the cap and you'll see a plastic tube in the filler hole. The bottom of this tube has a slot in it and correct level is when the level is at the top of the slot.

Often, if you fill to this level, you may find it won't hold it and the level will drop to the bottom of the tube. This is fine as many Xantias seem to like to blow out what they don't want and establish a natural status-quo at the bottom of the tube.

If you can see coolant at the bottom of the tube and can't actually see the end of the tube, you're OK...

Biglittlebear · Post by **Biglittlebear** » 14 Aug 2010, 15:29

Thanks CitroJim

Just checked it cold using a torch......no coolant visible at bottom of tube.

Would it be ok to top up with ionised water?

BLB

addo · Post by **addo** » 14 Aug 2010, 23:08

Short term only, yes. I've a car that suffered from "just topping it up" for too long and corrosion started to eat through the head gasket.

Post by **CitroJim** » 15 Aug 2010, 08:00

addo wrote:Short term only, yes.

Agreed. I'd be very tempted to do a coolant change so you know what's in there is good.

Refill with a 50:50 mix of water and antifreeze. The mixture strength will guard against any corrosion in the engine.

Keep an eye on the level. If it has fallen that much you may have a small leak.

Biglittlebear · Post by **Biglittlebear** » 15 Aug 2010, 08:52

Thanks for the advice

Its much appreciated

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 15 Aug 2010, 09:50

turn your heater on and sniff for curry/cat pee smell incase its leaking from the heater matrix

MikeT · Post by **MikeT** » 15 Aug 2010, 13:43

CitroJim wrote:Often, if you fill to this level, you may find it won't hold it and the level will drop to the bottom of the tube. This is fine as many Xantias seem to like to blow out what they don't want and establish a natural status-quo at the bottom of the tube.

Until I had the matrix replaced, I would have agreed 100% with this.

I'm on my second TD Xantia and both would show this low level. No matter how many times I topped it up and bled it, I could never get it to hold the specified level, even when I added a bottle of K-seal which cured the curry smell. With a new matrix, it's spot on.

Perhaps we've discovered an early warning of impending matrix failure?