Coolant Level Sensor - what to fit?

Was wanting to fit an inexpensive coolant level senser to the Good Lady's 1.8 Time Bomb (Freelander 1 2000). Looking for an inexpensive solution (i.e not a Brown and Gammons £90 job if possible) that doesn;t involve holes in the tank.

Has anyone fitted one of these (whatever it is)?



....can anyone help me by telling me whether and how it attaches to coolant tank? Know my way around a 110 but lost when it comes to Freelander!

thats the one to go for - or a simple float switch from RS to trigger one of the warning lamps....

Can't find and piccies of it. How does it attach? Via the cap?

via a nole int side - easy to do tho.

here is one.

Sorry MHM, I meant do you know how the LR OEM one attaches (this one PDA500360?? as I an't find any piccies.

Thanks for the float info although I don't really want to drill the tank as mine is almost spherical and am worried about leaks under pressure.

Bewildered sassanack said:

Sorry MHM, I meant do you know how the LR OEM one attaches (this one PDA500360?? as I an't find any piccies.

Thanks for the float info although I don't really want to drill the tank as mine is almost spherical and am worried about leaks under pressure.

Click to expand...

a) nope
b) none that I have done have leaked!

The Mad Hat Man said:

b) none that I have done have leaked!

Click to expand...

.....perfect. I am in Edinburgh, how soon can you get here?

I guess you could also fit a temp sensor in a simular way, in the water res. Buy one with a digital readout to go on the dash.

Wrong place for temp sensor, hippo - see my posts on k 6 fred. It needs to be on exit of coolant from head.

The Mad Hat Man said:

Wrong place for temp sensor, hippo - see my posts on k 6 fred. It needs to be on exit of coolant from head.

Click to expand...

Agreed. Yep saw the other post. I should be measuring the temp going into the rad, rather than the temp out of the rad. I forgot that whening thinking it would be easier to fit it to the water res, as opposed to the rad intake.

Would be a good back up for my off roading so I can watch for the right temp to cook me spud.

Has this been done and written up? If not I can do it when I add my switches.

Get the temp sensor as close to, if not in, the outlet connection from the head. You want to measure the coolant at its hottest point if you can. Both petrol freelanders have a convoluted cooling system with take-offs and branches for all sorts of things such as oil coolers and heater by-passes, so you dont want the temp readings to be confused by any other heating/cooling source.

Ok, got one of these fellas to fit as a low coolant sensor PCF500060:



Got no instructions. Has anyone got a photo of one of these installed? I presume it fits this was up (i.e. vertical) in the header tank outlet, but at what height is the top placed at. Just below the low coolant line or down level with the header outlet pipe (or alternative).

Did you get anywhere with this? I'm interested in the outcome if you get it to work. Cheers.

Scuppered by the dark at the moment. Had it wired up to battery in garage, seems to work fine in vertical position. Using small size blade connectors on the plug pins as I don't have the fancy main plug.

Aiming to plumb it in this week and attach my Maplin buzzer to it if I can get home early enough for daylight!

I’ve had a go at fitting my coolant level sensor and come across what you may call a slight snag. It snapped. :doh: I only tightened it up a little more as it was slowly leaking. I ordered this part Cynergy3 | Process Control | Fluid Management Control | Level Sensors and Switches | Horizontal Float |RSF74Y100RN as it has a higher temp rating of 100degrees - well it is a k series engine. I put it together as the photos show below, one with the light blue background. The rubber part bends to form a seal as you tighten up the nut. Have you lot fitted yours the same, or did you fit the parts in a different order? Any ideas on how to stop the new one leaking? The hole is clean cut with no burrs.

data sheet > http://docs-europe.origin.electrocomponents.com/webdocs/00b9/0900766b800b98be.pdf


levelsensor1 z4iIKyd


levelsensor2 JeUvSL0

1 Bolt, 2 washers and 2 bath tap washers to the resuce.


levelsensorfix pYRTll1

have a look here, Hippo - this is the sort of thing that I use.

Thanks. Same switch I used, just I picked the higher rating temp version. Suppose I just got unlucky.

Will order a newun and have another go. The bath washer set-up fix will go in the boot, just incase it fails in the future.

There are a number of water sensor circuits on the web if you are into a little bit of electronics including one that works outside a plastic container.

The one I saw was two coils, one below the level one at the min level point. The lower was fed an fixed AC signal the other into an op amp to give an output. When both below water level the receiver would pick up the wave from transmitter but when the level fell the signal would drop.

I wonder if those securty labels with the spiral track would do it

I’ve had a look round at the different options and have decided to go for the same switch again, but bought for less from rapid. As well as horizontal level sensors, you can get vertical versions. These need to be located nearer the level of the water, so they’re a crap option really. I did look up some circuits but found most of them to be capacitive sensing versions. Similar to the coil pick up mentioned above. A good idea but a little too complex when compared to the level sensor powering an LED on the dash, when ever the electric are on. So I’ve gone back to that idea. This time I’ll fit the switch higher up so if it snaps off, the coolant exit will still be lower so its priority won’t be to jump ship. I’ll put some more info up when I’ve done it. Thanks all.

Switch from rapid
http://www.rapidonline.com/sku/Elec...quid-level-sensor-fuel-and-oils/75150/61-1362