I noticed I have a very small coolant leak from where the reservoir connects to the rubber hose. I want to add more coolant to bring it back up to the required level, but I am a new owner of the vehicle and have no idea what coolant is currently in the system. I know our cars use an orange (though in my case it looks pink) coolant. I've read that there are gelling issues if Dexcool and Jaguar coolant are mixed, so I have no idea what coolant I should top off with. HELP!

Here's what's currently in the car--it's pink--what should I do?

 

Flush the coolant out, fix the leak, fill it with universal coolant. I did that and everything is working perfect. I'm not a fan of mixing coolants.

 

I don't like to mix either, however, I will not be able to have my coolant flushed until next week and I need to be able to drive my vehicle until then.

 

Just top it off with water. You should be ok for awhile. I would also changed the hose clamps to better ones.

 

rjs, I have used the pink coolant and the Prestone green together and all was fine. So, if you insist on using coolant, then that is what I would use. Granted, for the moment, save the money and just add a litlte bit of water till you are able to fix the leak issue. Then I would do a complete system drain, then flush, then refill. It will give you some time with the car and all the work will be pretty easy and straight forward.

 

Agreed, a little bit of water to top off won't dilute things too much. The coolant in your pic appears to be the correct colour if nothing else. Look in the owners manual for the recommended spec and go with that.

 

I agree with the guys on this one just top off with some distilled water not tap water. then get some new hose clamps from your local parts store that should fix your leak. When you have time do a coolant flush and refill, plenty of videos on this on you tube depending on the quality of your tap water flush with that I have very hard water here so i flush with distilled not to expensive. Check out thermo`s post on burping the system when you do the refill.

 

Thanks for the replies. I popped by my independent mechanic's shop on my way home on Friday. I told him what was going on, he went in back and and came out with an unopened quart of Jaguar coolant. Two minutes and $0 later I had a topped off reservoir.

The funniest part about the whole thing is despite Jaguar's manual telling you to use "long life fluid colored orange" their fluid is actually pink! The OEM fluid I dumped into the reservoir was a color match of what was already in there.

 

Your indy should have topped up with a 50/50 mix of coolant and distilled water.

 

He handed me the coolant to take, I topped it off myself with a mixture.

 

That's great service by your garage. Have you determined the source of the leak?

 

I believe so. Given I can see it leaking in the engine bay (see original photo) I stuck my finger under the hose and noticed it was wet with coolant and very soft. I'm going to throw a new hose on there and see if it fixes the problem.