Anti-Freeze

[crouse]

When should I change my anti-freeze? I have the yellow stuff. It was built in 7/02 and I purchased it used in 6/03 with 7500 miles. I now have about 38,000 miles. My cheap prestone tester shows it's good but with 4 years on it, should I go ahead and change it just to be safe?

[MM2004]

When should I change my anti-freeze? I have the yellow stuff. It was built in 7/02 and I purchased it used in 6/03 with 7500 miles. I now have about 38,000 miles. My cheap prestone tester shows it's good but with 4 years on it, should I go ahead and change it just to be safe?

FWIW, I would change it. Better safe than sorry, and stay with the 'yellow stuff.'

Mike.

[MarauderMark]

I make my own antifreeze and change it once a year.:D

[RoyLPita]

If it is green, change it. If it is the yellow formula, leave it till the vehicle is 5 years old or has 100k.

[SergntMac]

I just made this decision last week, and I flushed the system, changed to a 180 stat and switched over to the gold.

It's an '03 I bought in December of '05 with 72K on the odo. Every day I discover evidence of what the previous owner did not do in routine maintenence, and I am just about caught up at 82K miles.

This car need to be reliable, and I have no problem changing stuff a bit earllier than necessary. IMHO, it's cheaper to be proactive in maintence, than stuck without transportation.

[David Morton]

It doesn't matter what kind of coolant you use , just change it frequently and never put anything in there that isn't coolant or good water.

Additives break down into bad things that corrode the insides of your cooling system. And remember that when you add water, you can be adding a significant amount of chlorine and now in most municipal water supplies, chloramines, a mixture of chlorine and ammonia. Even the small amounts found in drinking water start the corrosion process. I don't add more fuel to that fire.

What I do is use the cheapest stuff and change it every year, just drain and fill. One gallon ethylene glycol and distilled water to top it off. I don't "flush" because I don't want to add those chemicals or chloramines to the system. I've seen lots of rotten cooling systems in my day, plenty from just using the city water, but lots of additive fanatics. And I've also seen a few radiators that looked like new on the inside with 150,000 miles and never been replaced, never had a pump replaced, did the thermostadt once and without exception it was those customers that did a "drain and fill" every summer.

Fluids, fluids, fluids. Can't say enough about using the cheap SAE approved and manufacturer recommended fluids and just replacing them frequently.

[kartherma]

Finally a topic in which I have a little bit of knowledge about...

In the absence of a chemical environment that attacks the metals/surfaces of the cooling system, plain old corrosion is probably the worst factor to worry about (right after sludge deposits forming in low flow areas and areas of high heat transfer).

The factors that control the rates of corrosion we are experiencing (on most metals we own...the cooling system, the metals of the frame, our bikes, toasters, tools, etc) are surprisingly few:

Oxygen
Chlorides
Temperature

Any potable water that you add to your cooling system will be more or less high enough in oxygen content that it would have enough to sustain the corrosion process for extended periods of time.

Potable water from the tap should normally have in the ball park range of about 35ppm Chlorides. Again, enough to sustain that reaction for long enough to cause pitting/surface corrosion to occur. (at which point other types of corrosions can take place)

Try as you may, our cooling systems operate at elevated temperatures that are pretty much not going to change. (higher temps tend to accelerate that corrosion process)

So we have an environment that will sustain the general corrosion processes. But we can do a few things to get out from underneath this problem.
We can add chemicals to the system to suppress the corrosion...but not stop it. We can also encourage specific types of corrosion to take place when we intially build the system and hope that we can form a protective layer on the surfaces that will more or less shield the metals from the coolant. (these two concepts are from my understanding what we are doing with our cooling systems).

The additives in the anti-freeze help to form an ablative coating on the surfaces in our systems and also help to suppress the general corrosion processes.

What does this mean to us? (well what it means to me anyways)
It is necessary to monitor the quality of the coolant and to change it out when it appears that it is in need of service. We WILL NOT stop the rust monster...no matter how hard we try (or how much we spend either)...
Our systems have a never ending supply of air via the over flow tank vent line and unless you build the system in a chemically clean environment and flush it etc., we will have those chlorides present also.

The chemicals in the anti-freeze we put in does just fine for the corrosion process...until we start draining/flusing and not adding enough to replenish...in essence diluting it.

The real concern I would have is the formation of deposits. The mineral content of the water you add can and will plate out on surfaces. (anyone ever have their shower head clog up? You look inside it has clumps of white calcium like build up in the tiny pasages? That is in the water in your garden hose...)
Those minerals along with any of the additives that settle out will plate out and tend to reduce the heat transfer capabilities of the surfaces.
To me this is a larger concern and is easily combated by a simple change of fluids at regular intervals to keep the fluids fresh and clean.

In the end, I agree with the Master Tech above...simple and cheap manufacturer approved fluids changed at prescribed intervals will do the trick...but getting your band saw out to cut an arm off to trade for the next great thing in coolant systems treatments is a bit off target. Save that for your super chargers!!!

[Marauderman]

Speaking of "color" stuff-----where do you find/get the "GREEN" colored stuff---which mine has.............

[AstroVic]

Speaking of "color" stuff-----where do you find/get the "GREEN" colored stuff---which mine has.............

Around here - Houston area - you can find it at O'Reilly's Auto Parts, NAPA Auto Parts, and sometimes at Walmart.

I'm not sure about AutoZone or Pep Boys as I don't ever shop there (due to crappy parts and unknowledgeable staff). Advance Auto might be another place to check, but there aren't any within 40 miles of my house.

[Marauderman]

Around here - Houston area - you can find it at O'Reilly's Auto Parts, NAPA Auto Parts, and sometimes at Walmart.

I'm not sure about AutoZone or Pep Boys as I don't ever shop there (due to crappy parts and unknowledgeable staff). Advance Auto might be another place to check, but there aren't any within 40 miles of my house.

hummmm,,,NAPA.....yeay..they seem to be repetable folks......mine will be do soon.I'll check there..thanks for the tip.......