hummm...the minimania one at least has ribs for the Max and Min points
but the one you show has no indicators... is there an indicator on the
inside or do you make sort of a dip stick for it with a popsicle stick?
which i guess would work...

these convenience parts are some times more inconvenient.
has bling factor though.

 

this tank doesn't have any indicators as to "full or low." i just pull the top and check it on saturday mornings before it head out. once you've been through a heat cycle, the antifreeze will stabilize where it's balanced. then you can put a stick in it to check, or use your finger like i do. there are other (round) tanks available, but i haven't looked at any of them and don't know how they are built. i think this squarish one fits in nicely. it fills the space and looks like it belongs.

 

you don't lick your fingers afterwards, do you?

 

got a girlfriend for that

 

bloody murderer!!

 

The coolant you people are losing may have ended up in my car.

My 2006 MCC is less than 2 months old. Twice this week in stop-and-go driving on the way home, I smelled a kind of burning chemical odor coming in through the vents that lasted about 5 minutes. I wasn't sure whether it was coming from outside or my engine compartment. The first time, I got busy with something and forgot to check. After it happened last night, I looked under the hood when I got home.

The coolant level is WAY over the max level. The picture below is from this morning when the engine was cold. I don't know if it was the cause of the odor, but you can see splatters of green fluid as though the coolant had overflowed. Is this worthy of hassling with a service visit, or should I try to bring down the level myself? How much excess fluid would be involved? I assume it is an indicator of level throughout the system, not just in this container.

 

while the car is cold, you can take a rolled up paper towel or a
new sponge and suck some of that out until it is at the middle of Max
and Min. is that a flip top?

the heck did they do there, pour winshield washer?

 

Looks like it made a mess, but at least your coolant is still blue green, instead of a nasty oily looking brown gunk that mine has turned into in only 8,000 miles.

 

the easiest way to take liquid out is with a $2.oo turkey baster from the grocery store.

 

I've also been losing fluid in my 2004 MCS. I see a white residue on the expansion tank and on the heat shield below it (that is why I sometimes smell it burning). I scheduled a trip to the dealer (1 1/2 hours away) to have the tank replaced this past Friday. The tech told me that the tank is indeed leaking but it also has a leak at the water pump (o-ring). He said that because it is leaking at the water pump and dropped the fluid level so low, the blown expansion tank is the result. That would take over 2 1/2 hours to fix and I did not plan on spending that much time that day.
I'll have to re-schedule this repair when I have more time available.

 

Make sure cap is cranked down.I measure with finger feel down till you feel ridge inside tank thats full line.If finger is wet at that point its ok.I usually sheck cold then mark level on tank with blue marker.This allows monitoring of level.