Yep,I'm real confused. The resevoir should be reading minimum whilst cold, which it's not and the radiator seems empty
Need a new radiator cap now
I know I'm a bit dull but someone just tell me what to do in which order again
Did you read my post?
Here’s a video primer you may find interesting...
In older engines, it was simple to change the coolant as the radiator filler neck (where the pressure cap lives) was always higher than the engine Itself. This meant when fill.ing the radiator in these older cars, the engine block will fill up with coolant before the radiator would fill up and as such very little air would be left within the engine block.
In newer cars with low slung bonnets, like your Holden V6, the radiator sits lower that the engine. As such when you fill the radiator, the engine block wont be full of water (the stuff doesn’t want to flow up hill). So whe tne radiator is ful, the engine block will be a little more than half full and have lots of air within it.
So in your case, with a full radiator and the reservoir at min, you’d start the engine and after a while the thermostat will open and push a lot of the air out of the engine and into the radiator. Then when the engine and radiator, or more particularly the coolant within cools down, it may or may not suck any coolant back from the reservoir (as it depending on how much pressure and vacuum was created during heat and cool cycle). The radiator will look empty... there may be no coolant in the reservoir.
When the system is cold to the touch, it’s safe to take off the radiator cap off, do so and fill up the radiator again... Also top up the reservoir to the min level. Then start and run the engine until it gets hot. Turn off the engine and wait until it cools down again so you can safely open the radiator cap and top up the coolant if needed... Fill tne radiator to the top and the reservoir to the min level.
Once you’ve done this a few times, all the air within the system shoud have been expelled and the engine block and radiator should be full of coolant and the reservoir should be at the min level.
BUT, if there is a lot of air in the system, you may cause engine damage if the heads overheat for lack of coolant... If all depends on how full you can make it in your first fill step. Some people accomplish this by running the car up on ramps or lift the front of the car onto axle stands so the top of the radiator is level with or above the engine...
However, if you are not comfortable with the use of car ramps, jacks and safety stands, or basic cooling system principles, it’s much safer from both a personal perspective and engine perspective to pay someone to do the coolant flush. I’d hate to read someone was crushed while under a car (yes it happens yearly) or you cooked your engine and it will cost you $3k to fix...
