Was out today looking at my rad overflow tank and seen the fluid is down about 2" below the cold mark. When I released the cap there was a slight amount of pressure,not much but some. So I looked inside at the temp guage and it moved just a bit from the bottom so probably not totally cold but close. The questions are how much lose is normal for the fluid over time? I do not look at it a lot so this might have happened over a fairly long period of time. The other question is should there be pressure at the recovery tank when cold. Am I just being paranoid or what? Thanks

My 4.5 is nearly 10 months old. The fluid is still at the factory level. I had a 99 1500, same setup. Owned it nearly five years, never did add fluid. (well, the time I took out bambi's mom the body shop flushed and added, but that doesn't count). On a cold engine
you should not have pressure. Can you say head gaskets?

Jim

Make sure you check when the engine is "completely cold" (preferably after sitting over night). If the engine is still a little warm, the fluid will rise in the expansion tank just a little bit and there will be a slight positive pressure when you remove the cap. Fill the reservoir to the required level and keep an eye on it. There can be reasons for coolant leaks other than head gaskets.

There is a short coolant bypass hose mounted horizontally below the A/C pump that is starting to rupture on the 01's.Mine went at 55,000. Started as very slow leak for 500 miles, then got big fast.

Chipper, thanks for the good info... I KNOW I can SMELL coolant burning on mine but cant find the source and I'm not losing much at all. But I know its burning some somewhere, thats the first place I'm gonna look now. Sorry, Didnt mean to hijack your thread either, nobull.
Jason

Went out and checked fluid this morning when cold, no pressure. But last night I filled it to the cold mark and took about 1/2 gallon. Maybe don't have the pressurized tank but wonder where the 1/2 gallon went. I now will keep a look out for loss of fluid by way of coolant tank.I wonder does anyone add fluid to top up over a couple year period or should it never go down?. Your manual says how to top it up but is that just if there is a problem?

Check the coolant feed and return hoses to/from the turbo. The spring style clamp lost tension on my truck and allowed coolant past the end of the hose. First the feed hose started leaking on one end and then awhile later I found the return hose leaking on one end. They were both slow leaks that stopped after putting on real hose clamps.

Also, this may not be the problem, but my 1500 2000 had a plastic T fitting from the rad cap to the over flow bottle that leaked, when the dealer fixed it (warranty) they chucked that set up and went back to a mettal fitting saying they had seen a couple of them fail.

I've got the same issue as well. I'm low on coolant on my recovery tank and I've got a small drip coming from an unknown area at this point. I'm finding a few drips on my driver side that collects on the crossmember. Looking straight up without pulling the skid plate doesn't reveal where it's coming from, but hopefully this weekend I'll get a chance to look.

ok a quick update here. Finally found the 20 minutes to climb underneath and take a quick look(that and my upcoming 3k trip to FL and back in 2 weeks pressure) and didn't find any visible leaking. I did however see a few drops on the lower radiator clamp where it goes back to the pump, and a wet spot that looks like over time it slowly coked the hose but wasn't wet to the touch. It looks like Tang and feels slick almost like an oil(new to the dexcool thing so I'm hoping that it fits that description).

Anyhow i grabbed a small wrench to check the tightness of the clamp and it took almost no effort to turn it even being a small 4" wrench with little leverage, so I gave it a few cranks until I felt some resistance and wiped everything down.

The lower rad is hose is weird though, it has a coupler with a smaller hose that leads off towards the side where the oil filter is(maybe to assist in oil cooling?).

The other question I have is the recovery tank. It has a seam halfway up or so that my fluid is currently at, then around 3 inches higher writing that says full cold with a little tab just above that. So I'm assuming the little tab above the words full cold is where my cold level should be???

I have wondered the same thing about the full line. If you look closely at the words "full cold", you will see an arrow that points down to the seam. The manual is a little vague on where the full line it. There is a picture in the diesel supplement that would lead one to believe that the full line is the tab (which is 1.5 inches above the seam). I just split the difference.

I have wondered the same thing about the full line. If you look closely at the words "full cold", you will see an arrow that points down to the seam.
Now you have me wondering if mine was ever at the mark above the seam. I can honestly say I don't really know, for sure. Doing a quick visual on the recovery tank the last couple of years if I saw at the seam I probably would look no further. The other day I was doing a close inspection of all fluids and assumed it was/had been at the mark above the seam. Anyways I checked the cap again this morning and had o pressure so that's a good thing. For anyone checking for pressure in the tank it really does take a long time to cool off. The best time is in the morning after sitting all night. So I guess I will keep a eye on it and see if it disappears. As it stands right know I will say the glass is half full as opposed to half empty:D Stay tuned "I'll be back"

Victory Red,the cold level full is actually at the seam on the tank.I took a closer look at mine after reviewing your post and if you can get up high enough you will see an arrow just to the left of the (cold level)pointing down to the seam.I have been looking at mine for three years and just seen this today.My truck came from factory with the cold level at about an inch above the seam which is 4 ounces and when hot no where near the overfull.For the last 4 months I have been losing fluid at the rate of an ounce per 1,000 miles only adding at the 4 ounce level I marked on the resovoir.I have yet to find an external leak visually or by smell and I have looked everywhere including the banjo bolts on the turbo.No sign of water in the oil or out the exhaust pipe.My Helms manuals suggest leakage at the injector sleeve seals but if it is leaking there why does it not show up in the oil or exhaust?Stumped for now! Jim

I had the low coolant level warning come on about 2 months ago and now it is on again. There are no visual signs of a leak but I swore I smelled it one morning.