My wife is 200 miles away this afternoon, says the low coolant light came on when she cranked it up and then went off when she got to level ground. Coming from dropping off our son at college yesterday, I ran our Denali hard through the mountains of I-85 in SW Virginia, was clocking 80-85 and her ZHP conv was right on my tail so she could get to meet up with her teammates for her state tennis tourney (they won, sectionals in 2 weeks & then nationals, she's serious about that little green fuzzy ball, and thus her vanity plate). We kept that hard driving up for about 2 hours then she headed east while i continued north, and she drove the speed limit after we parted. It's a 2004 with just over 39K miles, all original cooling system, I think it's original coolant too. I know, despite the low miles the age probably warrants a cooling system refresh but I was trying to stretch that to at least 50K miles.
When she arrived home tonight the engine was obviously hot, so dropped the belly pan and looked for signs of leaks -- absolutely none. (I routinely clean the belly pan so I can see if anything is leaking.) After 4 hours it had cooled off enough for me to open the expansion tank and I had to add about a quart. When I bought it with 9K miles 20 months ago I had to add half a quart. So no leaks, oil level is perfect, where is this coolant going??? Is it normal to burn/evaporate a little bit off from a closed cooling system?