How to Check Coolant Level 2003-12 Volvo XC90

Len: Hey friends, it's Len here at 1A Auto. Today, we're working on our 2004 Volvo XC90 and I want to show you something very basic. We're going to be checking and topping off the cooling system. To do that, it's right over here, we've got ourselves a nice green cap. Something to pay attention to before you go ahead and open this up, I know you're super excited about it, is you want to make sure that it's nice and cool. You didn't just go for a ride to the beach, you didn't just come home from doing a little groceries or going out for some ice cream, whatever it is you're into. It's been sitting for a little while. It's nice and cool.

At that point, you could take your cap, turn it counterclockwise. As you lift, that might be under pressure. You want to lift it up and tilt it away from you, just in case it is under pressure and decides it wants to do something crazy. You're going to use the cap as a deflector, and it's going to protect you. We don't have any issues with that. We'll take a look under here, make sure the seal's good all the way around. This looks good.

You can also make sure that you don't see any crusties coming around. Sometimes you'll see some funny colors that are all crusted up. That just means that your cover's venting. If it's venting, you might've had an overheating situation or your cap may just be bad and you'd want to replace it. Either way, I would say, start by replacing the cooling cap and moving along from there. This one looks good, so we'll set it aside.

Here's your coolant reservoir. You would fill it right straight through this hole. It tells you to use Volvo Coolant with a mixture of 50/50 water and coolant. If you have a concentrate, you need to make sure that you mix it 50/50. Now, we're just going to take a peak, look for the lines. Here we are. Right here, says maximum. Then, all the way down here where you can't see because this lovely hose is in the way, it says minimum. You're going to have to trust me on it. We essentially want to be anywhere in between the minimum and the maximum.

If it's a little bit above the minimum, go ahead and add some. If it's a little bit above the maximum, you're going to need to take some out. Generally speaking, I like to be at the maximum or maybe even just a little below it. With that said, we're going to go ahead and take our European coolant that we have here, so we've got a little funnel just to make sure that we don't spill it all over the place. We're just going to add some coolant until, like I said before, it comes up just below that maximum line.

Take a look at it, looks like we're at approximately the minimum. Let's keep bringing it up. All right, we're looking good. We're just below the maximum at this point, which is perfect. I'm going to take this, get it out of the way, close off my coolant. The reason why I left it a little bit below the maximum is because once the vehicle does heat up, you go for your ride, you go get your ice cream or whatever you're into, like I said before, the coolant, of course, is going to expand once it gets hot and it's going to want to come up in here. If you have it at the maximum/above the maximum now and then it heats up, where's it going to go? It has no place to go. We'll take our cap. We're just going to screw it back on clockwise or to the right until it's nice and snug, and then down the road we go. Easy peasy.

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