Where is the coolant in Nomad Drive?
There isn't any in the demo. Fill the radiator with water; the radiator accepts water, and no coolant or antifreeze item exists in the demo's files.
Where Is the Coolant in Nomad Drive?
There is no coolant item in the Nomad Drive demo: when the objective tells you to fill the radiator with coolant, fill it with water. The demo's game files list no coolant or antifreeze among the items you can loot, and the radiator accepts water and nothing else you can find. A full Water Can holds 15 litres, exactly what an empty radiator takes, so one full can does the job.
Nomad Drive coolant: there isn't any, so use water
For what Nomad Drive is and every guide we publish, start at the Nomad Drive guide hub.
- Coolant item: none in the demo; water is the coolant.
- Radiator: holds 15 L and is always empty when you find it.
- What to pour: water from a Water Can, Bucket, Coffee Pot, Bottle of Water or Mug.
- What won't go in: milk, coffee, gasoline and oil.
- If it runs dry: the engine overheats and shuts itself off.
Nomad Drive radiator and coolant facts
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Coolant item | None in the demo. Evidence: The demo's game files (build 25361176) list no coolant or antifreeze among the items you can loot. |
| Liquids the radiator accepts | Water only. Evidence: The radiator's liquid settings in the demo's game files (build 25361176); a player's milk test in the official Nomad Drive Discord on June 30, 2026 matches. |
| Radiator capacity | 15 L, empty when it spawns. Evidence: The demo's game files (build 25361176). |
| Coolant use | 0.007 L per second while the engine runs; a full radiator lasts about 36 minutes of running (estimate). Evidence: The demo's game files and code (build 25361176). |
| Empty or missing radiator | No cooling from the radiator at all; an empty one counts the same as none. Evidence: The demo's game code (build 25361176). |
| Overheating | Engine damage above heat 85; at 95 the engine shuts off and restarts once it cools to 55. Evidence: The demo's game code and engine settings (build 25361176). |
| Objectives | "Fill the radiator with coolant" and "Top up the radiator coolant". Evidence: In-game objective text in the demo (build 25361176). |
Every row describes the demo, Steam build 25361176, read from its files and code on October 9 and 10, 2026.
The Early Access build arrives on October 20, 2026 and will be checked on launch day.
How to fill the radiator in Nomad Drive
The radiator is one of the parts the demo's first objectives walk you through. "Build your first RV!" includes "Attach radiator", and the next objective, Power Up and Start the Engine, begins with "Fill the radiator with coolant" before "Turn the ignition". Radiators are always empty when you find them, so this step is never skipped.
- Get water in a container. A Water Can is the best tool: it only ever holds water and carries 15 L. Cans you find usually have some water in them already, anywhere from a quarter full to full, so check the level and carry two if the first is light.
- Pour it into the radiator. Players fill the radiator straight from a Water Can or a bucket, standing at the RV with the container in hand.
- Keep pouring until it is full. An empty radiator takes 15 L. The objective watches the radiator's fill level, so filling it to the top is the reliable way to tick it off.
How many pours each container needs to fill an empty radiator:
- Water Can: 15 L, water only. One full can.
- Bucket: 10 L, any liquid. One and a half buckets.
- Coffee Pot: 1 L, any liquid. Fifteen pots.
- Bottle of Water: 0.5 L, any liquid. Thirty bottles.
- Mug: 0.4 L, any liquid. Thirty-eight mugs.
The radiator drains while the engine runs, about 36 minutes of driving for a full 15 L by our estimate from the demo's settings, which is why the later Keep It Running objective asks you to "Top up the radiator coolant". Keep a filled Water Can in the RV so you can top up at the roadside. Finding more water and refilling empty containers is a separate topic from the radiator and is outside this page.
What you can and can't put in the radiator
Only water. The demo's radiator is set to accept two liquid types: water, and a Coolant type that no item in the demo contains. Everything else is refused: milk, coffee, gasoline and oil will not go in. A player who emptied their radiator on purpose to test it reported in the official Nomad Drive Discord on June 30, 2026 that milk cannot be put in, which matches the radiator's settings.
The container matters as well as what is in it:
- Water Can: accepts only water, so whatever is inside is safe to pour.
- Gas Can: accepts only gasoline, so it can never carry water for the radiator.
- Bucket, Coffee Pot, Bottle of Water and Mug: accept any liquid. Make sure the one you grab holds water and not coffee or fuel, because the radiator will refuse anything else.
Players report keeping fuel in water bottles and coffee in spare bottles, so a container's name tells you nothing about what is inside it. Check the contents before you walk back to the RV.
What happens if the radiator runs dry or is missing
An empty radiator gives the engine no help at all; in the demo's code it counts exactly the same as having no radiator fitted. The engine sheds a little heat by itself, but while it runs it builds heat faster than that, and the radiator is what makes the difference. By our estimate from the demo's settings, a full radiator in good condition keeps a healthy engine below the overheat point even at full power.
Here is what the demo's engine does as it heats up:
- Above 85: the engine starts losing condition, and the hotter it gets the faster it wears.
- At 95: the engine overheats and shuts itself off. The dashboard shows "Engine is overheated", and the ignition will not start it again until the heat falls to 55.
- With the engine off: it cools by 2 every second, so a shut-down engine is ready again in about 20 seconds (estimate).
How long you can run on an empty radiator, estimated from the demo's settings and starting from a cold engine: about 10 minutes idling, about 4 minutes at full power. Real driving sits between the two. The June 22, 2026 Steam patch notes describe this as an intended change: the developers reworked engine heat and radiator cooling so the engine "actually reaches its overheat point under real conditions".
Some players skip the radiator and drive in bursts, coasting with the engine off to let it cool. It works in the sense that the engine restarts, but every stretch above 85 costs engine condition, so you will spend repair kits you would otherwise keep.
If your RV refuses to start rather than stopping on the road, overheating is only one of the reasons the dashboard can give; the others, from a dead battery to the handbrake, are covered on our guide to why the RV won't start.
Where to find a radiator
Most players get their first radiator at the start: every version of the Starter House loot table in the demo includes one. After that, radiators are a rarer find. Some loot tables at the shipping container area and the factory include a radiator with roughly a 15–16% chance, and radiators are also in the loot pool of common chests (about 8% of draws) and rare chests (about 1%).
Treat those as odds, not promises. Each location picks one of several loot tables for your playthrough and then rolls each spot, so two players on different seeds will find different things. If the dashboard says "Radiator is broken" rather than "Radiator is out of coolant", the problem is the part rather than the water level, and a spare from one of the places above is the safe plan.
Why the objective says "coolant"
"Coolant" is the game's word for whatever goes in the radiator. The demo's liquid list does include a Coolant type with its own name, and the radiator is set to accept it, but no item, container or pump in the demo holds any. Water is the only thing you can actually put in, so water is what completes "Fill the radiator with coolant".
That wording is what sends players looking. In the Steam discussion "Searching for Coolant" from June 28, 2026, a player spent days walking and looting before others answered that water works, and another said they had expected coolant to come in its own bottle like the water and gas cans. The same answer has been given in the official Discord every few weeks since June.
The developers have not announced a coolant item for Early Access. They have said that Early Access lets you set how plentiful loot categories such as water and fuel are when you start a new game, which changes how easy the radiator is to keep full. What else the Early Access build adds is tracked on our Nomad Drive roadmap page.
Version notes and limits
Three items are still open: the exact fill level the objective checks (filling to the top always works), how a damaged radiator's condition changes its cooling, and whether the Early Access build adds a real coolant item or changes the radiator.
Launch day, October 20, 2026, triggers a fresh read of the Early Access build's files; any change to the radiator, the objectives or the heat settings is added with the date it was checked.
Nomad Drive coolant FAQ
Is water the same as coolant in Nomad Drive?
Yes, for the radiator. Water is the only liquid you can find that it accepts, and it completes "Fill the radiator with coolant".
Can I put milk or coffee in the radiator?
No. The radiator refuses milk, coffee, gasoline and oil. A player confirmed the milk case on Discord in June 2026.
How much water does the radiator need?
15 L when it is empty: one full Water Can or one and a half buckets.
Can I drive without a radiator?
Yes, but an empty or missing radiator gives no cooling. The engine overheats and shuts off in about 10 minutes idling or about 4 at full power (estimates), and loses condition above heat 85.
Why does my engine keep overheating?
The radiator is low, empty or missing. Top it up with water; if the dashboard says "Radiator is broken", swap in a spare radiator.
Will Early Access add a coolant item?
The developers have not announced one. Early Access will let you choose how plentiful water is when you start a game.
Sources and version history for this guide: Nomad Drive sources and versions.
Spot an error or a post-patch change? See how we label evidence and handle corrections in the Editorial Policy.