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Old 10-09-2021, 09:28 AM   #1
navybanker
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Adding coolant to 12 duramax

Low coolant notice on cool mornings. Read the manual and tried by getting to operating temp and ran truck for five minutes at 2500 rpm after adding some coolant. Coolant came out since manual says to take cap off. Supposedly, add a little at a time using same process. Not sure I like the coolant coming out!! Have done searches and looked at utube. Prefer your advice!!! 2012 Chevy duramax thanks
 
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Old 10-09-2021, 09:44 AM   #2
Montana Man
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My advice is to service coolant on a cold engine. Fill the reservoir to full mark cold. Replace the cap and done.
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Old 10-09-2021, 12:37 PM   #3
DadsHemi
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Add coolant when your engine is cool, on real cold mornings your reservoir will show as being low. If your coolant is coming out the very low tube when it is warmed up it very possible your coolant reservoir need a new cap.
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Old 10-09-2021, 01:55 PM   #4
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I just had our radiator replaced due to a crack in one of the plastic end tanks. There quite a few locations on these rigs where the coolant can leak, besides the overflow tank.
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Old 10-09-2021, 02:43 PM   #5
navybanker
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The message low coolant happened on a month long trip driving around 2,000 miles pulling. Kept watching the temp and was always at the 210 mark. Added some coolant in Lancaster, PA. Decided to wait until back home after that experience. The surge tank is low on cool mornings but no messages after arriving back in Tennessee. Purging air is the issue according to manual. Thanks,
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Old 10-09-2021, 03:57 PM   #6
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The tank should never be empty. There should be a COLD level line on the tank. When the coolant heats and pressure builds, some coolant will be forced into the tank. And when it cools and pressure drops it will pull coolant back to the radiator. If the tank is empty it will pull air back into the radiator. Good idea to check that level regularly. Although most of us likely tend to forget.

Lots of ways to lose coolant. Some worse than others. Coolant on my wife’s Expedition was low last year with no obvious leak. Added enough to get it back to normal and all still fine a year later. No idea why.
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Old 10-10-2021, 09:01 AM   #7
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I'd be more concerned why you have low coolant. My brother's 2018 D-Max had no less than (5) warranty repairs by the dealership for a low coolant sensor display, which has been for sensors and other items associated with the coolant system. He has now started the lemon-law process.
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Old 10-20-2021, 02:53 PM   #8
Leftie Canuk
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Low Coolant - Duramax

Quote:
Originally Posted by BB_TX View Post
The tank should never be empty. There should be a COLD level line on the tank. When the coolant heats and pressure builds, some coolant will be forced into the tank. And when it cools and pressure drops it will pull coolant back to the radiator. If the tank is empty it will pull air back into the radiator. Good idea to check that level regularly. Although most of us likely tend to forget.

Lots of ways to lose coolant. Some worse than others. Coolant on my wife’s Expedition was low last year with no obvious leak. Added enough to get it back to normal and all still fine a year later. No idea why.
Same here - 2005 Duramax with 200,000 + miles, and for awhile it ran hotter than normal (not towing), topped up with more 'orange' coolant when cold, did not burp it. Eventually, the coolant level stabilized in the tank when hot and cold, and all I can assume is that at some point the coolant was so low it was overheating, adding coolant trapped some air, now the system is back to normal. Whew !
Lessons learned - mark the hot and cold levels in pencil on the reservoir, and check often ! Temperature gauge should rarely exceed boiling unless doing some heavy towing in very hot weather.
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Old 10-20-2021, 03:42 PM   #9
GrahamLock
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I had the low coolant indicator come on in cool weather every time. Turned out to be a bad level sensor which the dealer replaced. No issues since.
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Old 10-21-2021, 07:32 AM   #10
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I have a 12' Duramax. The coolant bottle is one bottle with 2 separate compartments inside. To add coolant..Make sure the engine is cold. Remove the cap on the coolant recovery/overflow bottle. If the tank is empty add coolant to about 3/4 full. Leave the cap off and start the engine. Let the engine come up to operating temperature, 200-210 degs on your dash gauge. It takes a while for the engine to come up to temperature. I turn on my heater so I have coolant running thru the heater core. It will take around 15 -20 mins for the engine to come up to temp. You want to make sure both thermostats are open.

Remember the coolant tank has two compartments. A left and a right side. Once the eng is at temp slowly start adding coolant to the bottle. You will notice that only one side of the tank is filling, the side with the cap. Fill the bottle to the min, line. Let it sit for a minute or 2. If the level drops keep adding coolant until it stays at the Min. line.

Now, once the level is stabilized at the min line and no longer drops, SLOWLY keep adding coolant to the bottle making sure it does not overflow out of the top of the bottle. Once the coolant is full to the min line on the bottle it will internally overflow and start filling the the left side of the bottle. Keep adding coolant until the left side of the bottle is 1/4 to 1/3 full. Put the cap back on the bottle and you're done.

Check the level in the bottle at least once a day for a few days. You may have to add some coolant in a day or 2 because air may still be trapped in the system and once it bleeds out the level will drop..Obliviously if you keep having to add coolant you have a leak...
This procedure is also explained in the owners manual.. That's how I learned how to add coolant.
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Old 10-29-2021, 06:32 AM   #11
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Hope that sicne its a 2012 you have drained the coolant by now and replaced it with fresh Dexcool...

You could have a bad cap on the reservoir tank ( which is the radiator pressure cap on a Duramax).

If you see no external leaks then fill that reservoir tank when cold and monitor.. if the fluid goes low again you may want to have the coolant system tested fir evidence of exhaust in the fluid, which would indicate a head gasket leak

It is NORMAL for the cool to come out the reservoir tank if you remove it on a hot engine since that's the pressure cap

Lastly since its a 2012 when is the last time you remove the cover off the top of the radiator stack and washed in between to remove dust, dirt, insects and such... The "Stack" as its referred to amongst those that work on Duramax engines is the A/C coils to radiator coils...

It WILL cause your engine to slowly start to run hotter and hotter on a long pull up a steep grade...

Antifreeze - use ONLY DEXCOOL and not that green crap from Prestone.
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Old 10-30-2021, 05:54 AM   #12
Dave W
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To refill a current diesel pickup cooling system radiator, you really need a vacuum refill tool. Yes, it can be done other ways but it is really time consuming. It took me minutes with this one vs ???. There are less costly versions. This one is at least ten bucks more then I paid 5 years ago, but it works.https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1


You do need to find the source of loss though. As noted above - a radiator or possibly a hose. I did need to replace a top hose on my Ford and the two radiator caps on my Ford. Those caps, it bad will allow too much pressure build up and when they release will dump significant fluid



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Old 10-31-2021, 06:52 AM   #13
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Hey all, recently had LOW COOLANT warning come up intermittently. 3500 2019 duramax with 26000 miles. coolant level looked ok weather hot or cold. Took it to the dealer and he said this happens occasionally and he said the low level sensor inside the tank is malfunctioning and ordered a new tank. I only put about 100 miles on after new tank was put on but so far so good. Hope this helps.
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