Where to get the Battery coolant to top off reservoir?

[antimatterparticle]

I checked the battery coolant reservoir, and it is barely touching the min line. (Right below it).

What type of liquid is it and where can I get it?

my dealer is about 2 hours away and the ones in the area cannot be trusted.

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[Wsl346]

Well the tank you’re looking at is an expansion tank. Is the coolant at the min line when the truck is cold and hasn’t been driven in a while? If yes, there is no issue.

 

[TaxmanHog]

If it's below minimum while cool, bring up the level with the following

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/mof-vc13dlg

If, you're losing coolant persistently, the truck needs service ASAP

 

[RickLightning]

Given that it's barely on the line, I wouldn't touch it. At your 10,000 service, they are supposed to top off fluids. Make sure you mention it.

 

[GDN]

If it's below minimum while cool, bring up the level with the following

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/mof-vc13dlg

If, you're losing coolant persistently, the truck needs service ASAP

So Ford thinks it is OK that we can lose up to 1.1 quarts of this a month and there are no problems? Yeah, that is the engineering behind our trucks.

 

[cvalue13]

Well the tank you’re looking at is an expansion tank. Is the coolant at the min line when the truck is cold and hasn’t been driven in a while? If yes, there is no issue.

I wish someone would do an explainer video on this, that can be spammed whenever people say “ford delivered my vehicle with the coolant at the minimum line!”

 

[rdr854]

Given that it's barely on the line, I wouldn't touch it. At your 10,000 service, they are supposed to top off fluids. Make sure you mention it.

I am having to add fluid approximately once every 2,000 miles. The dealer has topped it off to the max line when cold and I am now back to almost the min line. They have not been able to find any leaks thus far.

 

[TaxmanHog]

I am having to add fluid approximately once every 2,000 miles. The dealer has topped it off to the max line when cold and I am now back to almost the min line. They have not been able to find any leaks thus far.

I wonder if the battery has threaded plugs on the bottom of the pack shell to sample for potential in-pack leaks, damaged connections between cooling plates, or the plates themselves?

 

[rdr854]

I wonder if the battery has threaded plugs on the bottom of the pack shell to sample for potential in-pack leaks, damaged connections between cooling plates, or the plates themselves?

Don’t know. I just check the coolant level each day that I open the frunk.

 

[Monkey]

I am having to add fluid approximately once every 2,000 miles. The dealer has topped it off to the max line when cold and I am now back to almost the min line. They have not been able to find any leaks thus far.

Are you doing a lot of DC fast charging? Especially when cold or after the truck has been driven hard between charges -- think road trip and maintaining 75+ MPH most of the way... Rapid heating while charging can cause the coolant to vaporize and the pack will vent. We get that in our Tesla and it's worse when it's cold because the cold coolant emanating a rapidly heating battery causes a lot of steam. Have not had to top off coolant though, but it seems Tesla has a larger reservoir. I'm wondering if there's more coolant in the system on Lightnings with the Max Tow package that has the additional conditioning loop?

Has the truck given you any service warnings or indication that coolant is low?

 

[TaxmanHog]

I'm wondering if there's more coolant in the system on Lightnings with the Max Tow package that has the additional conditioning loop?

The capacity variation is more a function of ER vs SR, the Max Tow extra AC Comp only requires a little extra coolant tubing/hoses.

This chart might be flawed with the ER/SR labels

 

[rdr854]

Are you doing a lot of DC fast charging? Especially when cold or after the truck has been driven hard between charges -- think road trip and maintaining 75+ MPH most of the way... Rapid heating while charging can cause the coolant to vaporize and the pack will vent. We get that in our Tesla and it's worse when it's cold because the cold coolant emanating a rapidly heating battery causes a lot of steam. Have not had to top off coolant though, but it seems Tesla has a larger reservoir. I'm wondering if there's more coolant in the system on Lightnings with the Max Tow package that has the additional conditioning loop?

Has the truck given you any service warnings or indication that coolant is low?

I have had no service warnings. I also don’t drive my truck hard. While I have done some DC fast charging, most of my charging has been either Level 1 (12 volt) or Level 2 (240 volt) public charging using Charge Point or EV Go affiliated chargers. I did not get the Max Tow Package because I was concerned about the EV tax credit when I ordered my truck in January 2022.

 

[Pitbull2o08]

Was at my dealer for service on my 10 day old truck and they casually mentioned to me they have a truck that just loses coolant, and they had no idea where it was going. it's waiting on parts. No one would have found it had the guy mark sharpie ticks every day on his reservoir. It just kept going down, they said. And there were no leaks anywhere.

 

[tls]

Are you doing a lot of DC fast charging? Especially when cold or after the truck has been driven hard between charges -- think road trip and maintaining 75+ MPH most of the way... Rapid heating while charging can cause the coolant to vaporize and the pack will vent. We get that in our Tesla and it's worse when it's cold because the cold coolant emanating a rapidly heating battery causes a lot of steam. Have not had to top off coolant though, but it seems Tesla has a larger reservoir. I'm wondering if there's more coolant in the system on Lightnings with the Max Tow package that has the additional conditioning loop?

Has the truck given you any service warnings or indication that coolant is low?

Teslas are *not* supposed to do that. Are you sure you don't have a pinhole leak in one of the radiators?

Years ago with our 2015 S we saw something similar. The service center have roughly the explanation you just gave. It didn't make sense to me - the cooling system doesn't have any vents inside the battery! - but I believed them.

4 months later one radiator failed catastrophically and dumped coolant all over our driveway. Turned out it had a bad seam and had been slowly leaking all along.

The manager at the service center we were towed to when that happened told us we were lucky we'd previously reported the problem because he was basically under standing orders to call all radiator leaks "road damage" and deny warranty claims - even though our radiator obviously failed at a seam, not due to a rock into the fins etc.

Moral of the story: I wouldn't trust Tesla to give you the straight dope about this kind of problem on their own cars, and definitely wouldn't analogize it to a Ford...

 

[GDN]

Teslas are *not* supposed to do that. Are you sure you don't have a pinhole leak in one of the radiators?

Years ago with our 2015 S we saw something similar. The service center have roughly the explanation you just gave. It didn't make sense to me - the cooling system doesn't have any vents inside the battery! - but I believed them.

4 months later one radiator failed catastrophically and dumped coolant all over our driveway. Turned out it had a bad seam and had been slowly leaking all along.

The manager at the service center we were towed to when that happened told us we were lucky we'd previously reported the problem because he was basically under standing orders to call all radiator leaks "road damage" and deny warranty claims - even though our radiator obviously failed at a seam, not due to a rock into the fins etc.

Moral of the story: I wouldn't trust Tesla to give you the straight dope about this kind of problem on their own cars, and definitely wouldn't analogize it to a Ford...

Well they may have at one time, but this is the big difference - Tesla's system for the battery coolant is closed these days - there is nothing to check nor add to. Not owner maintained. Fords system is open and has a tank and is expected to be maintained by the owner.

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