that's the low coolant sensor.

It could always be a bad sensor but...

I had the same symptoms as you. The light would come on and off, but my coolant was usually okay, though it always seemed to lose a little bit. Bottom line is is WAS losing some coolant...but I thought maybe it was just a small leak I will have fixed "in a few days".

Mine was a failing water pump that ended up take out my timing belt and rockers with it. I regret ignoring it every day, but it's too late now.

That's from my personal experience. Wait for some answers from the guys here that actually know a lot about vehicles and you might find out other things it could be.

Thanks for the reply, and that may be my case. The engine is at about 110K miles and has not had the t-belt/water pump replaced. I am in the process of getting quotes for that work to be done already and just need to scrape together the money to do it. So far $1300 is the best I have been told....as expected from what i have researched online.

Any body else out there with some knowledge on my issue?

It is entirely possible to keep it going for a while with no problems, but the bottom line is you are going to have to pay that money for a TB change eventually anyway. Do it now so you hopefully don't end up paying breaking your rockers too.

I'm not saying this is even related to the coolant light or not, but it needs to be changed anyway.

Also, check out the NOOB guide for things you might not know about the CRD. A lot of the people that don't post here aren't aware of the [almost mandatory] EGR delete/disable, GDE, 5w40, etc.

I appreciate it, and I'm following your logic behind the now or later TB change. Going to call the guy in the morning and get him ordering the parts so I can get the TB done next week. Also, I already stumbled across the NOOB guide (awesome by the way), and think the previous owner has all but the TB squared away, and the mechanic I spoke with about the TB knew about things like the heavier oil etc (he has worked on CRD's before).

There are a host of places where coolant can be lost and I cannot tell from the OPs comments how much if any is being lost. Best I can say on my 05 and stoutdog's 06 the coolant level (cold) sits essentially at the "casting" mid line in the tank (see NOOB guide 1s picture). External leaks can occur at any of the hose clamps, radiator core, heater core, EGR cooler, or engine oil cooler and UV dye combined with a UV light can be helpful in diagnosis (except for the heater core - for that look for drips from the HVAC drain to "taste" sweet like antifreeze or heated air to smell like antifreeze).

The one hugely problematic coolant leak point is the head gasket and, while there are ways to test for coolant in the oil and the reverse, one easy way is to start with a cold engine; run it at idle for a few seconds (I'll defer to others but like 10 seconds); shut off and remove coolant/radiator cap on the coolant tank on the firewall. What you are looking for is an immediate buildup of pressure in that tank from a leaky head gasket. Don't run the engine long or that tank will build pressure normally as the coolant warms up.

X infinity on not delaying on the TB job. There may be some reasonably local forum members that can help in which case get the IDparts pkg, the tools or reasonable substitutes (see for example http://www.beesvillebeefarm.com/jeep.html) and do the job with that member (NOTE just replace the front 1/2 of the water pump to make the job much simpler). An experience CRD mechanic should be able to do the job in 5 hrs to give you an idea of the labor charge if you pay to have the work done. While in there do a fan shroud mod to make future access easier (viewtopic.php?f=98&t=64278&p=709322#p709322)

You MUST diagnose even small coolant loss before TB job because you will incur MUCH additional cost if you have to do it all over again. Hopefully, it IS the WP which you will be replacing anyway, but you need to be sure.

DOC

Start working on it yourself. The mechanic is full of it on a lot of what he told you, and you just made him a bunch of free money.

The rear brakes can easily last 50k miles or more, so it is possible that the original owner never changed them, but I doubt that - they might have been just fine however. I had a mechanic tell me (when he was supposed to be working on the FRONT end) that my rear brakes were also 'very badly worn' and should be replaced immediately.

I told him first to concentrate on what I asked (and was paying him) to be working on. Oh, and by the way: I had replaced the rear brakes myself about 10k miles prior, so take your extra profit lines and shove them, thanks.

The pads I took off? Ok, they were into the rivets on one side, which was too low. But they had 80k miles on them!

As far as the timing job - There are exactly 2 "seals" that are part of the kit, and don't need to be replaced: The inner and outer timing belt cover seals. They seal out dust only, and don't usually fall apart. The water pump seals with an o-ring, if the mechanic replaced the entire pump rather than just the front half, then he never saw that o-ring, and he should have replaced a paper flat gasket.

Thats it. Nothing else has a seal.

Some water evaporation is possible, but refill the coolant and monitor the level. If it drops, you might have a head gasket problem, which won't be much fun to deal with, now that the timing has been done. All that stuff would need to come out again.

Since you are in Oregon, you are a bit far from the Western guru, but you might want to contact Sir Sam who is in Colorado for more 'local' assistance should you have any other problems. I hope it lasts for you!

Start working on it yourself. The mechanic is full of it on a lot of what he told you, and you just made him a bunch of free money.

The rear brakes can easily last 50k miles or more, so it is possible that the original owner never changed them, but I doubt that - they might have been just fine however. I had a mechanic tell me (when he was supposed to be working on the FRONT end) that my rear brakes were also 'very badly worn' and should be replaced immediately.

I told him first to concentrate on what I asked (and was paying him) to be working on. Oh, and by the way: I had replaced the rear brakes myself about 10k miles prior, so take your extra profit lines and shove them, thanks.

The pads I took off? Ok, they were into the rivets on one side, which was too low. But they had 80k miles on them!

As far as the timing job - There are exactly 2 "seals" that are part of the kit, and don't need to be replaced: The inner and outer timing belt cover seals. They seal out dust only, and don't usually fall apart. The water pump seals with an o-ring, if the mechanic replaced the entire pump rather than just the front half, then he never saw that o-ring, and he should have replaced a paper flat gasket.

Thats it. Nothing else has a seal.

Some water evaporation is possible, but refill the coolant and monitor the level. If it drops, you might have a head gasket problem, which won't be much fun to deal with, now that the timing has been done. All that stuff would need to come out again.

Since you are in Oregon, you are a bit far from the Western guru, but you might want to contact Sir Sam who is in Colorado for more 'local' assistance should you have any other problems. I hope it lasts for you!