So I'm driving home with the missus and see a young kid lifting the bonnet of his VW Polo on the opposite side of the road with loads of steam rising from the engine bay and i knew what he was going to do before he did it-thats right he undid the radiator cap unleashing steam all over his face and hands.
At that stage I was more concerned with the possibility that the boy had burns on his face and hands so with limited knowledge of first aid thought we needed to pull over to help. Luckily he seemed ok with just some minor burns to his hands-offered to take him to casualty but he declined as he was keen to sort his car and get to work.
He said he didn’t understand why the car had overheated when it was so cold so I explained about the fact that the water in the radiator was icy mush and this stopped the hot coolant from the block circulating through the radiator. He didn’t know if the car had any anti freeze in it as he only had the car for a month but the previous owner had told him he had replaced the radiator so my guess is when the radiator got replaced he saved some money by refilling with water knowing he was going to sell the car shortly-what a low life!
Anyway drove him about ½ mile to an auto parts shop and picked up 2 litres of G30 coolant-we managed to get most of the coolant in the car and the car started and seemed to run ok with no obvious leaks. Advised him to check the level when cold before he left work and to get it into a garage to check the anti freeze strength in case we continue to get -10c night temperatures as he said he knew nothing about working on cars.
My guess is he wont take my advice and will drive it until something else goes wrong but I felt good that I had helped someone with the bit of knowledge I’ve picked up over the years.
We rightly get concerned about using the correct type of coolant for our cars but in his case any type of anti freeze at a 50% concentration would have been better than a boil up with possible head gasket damage.
At that stage I was more concerned with the possibility that the boy had burns on his face and hands so with limited knowledge of first aid thought we needed to pull over to help. Luckily he seemed ok with just some minor burns to his hands-offered to take him to casualty but he declined as he was keen to sort his car and get to work.
He said he didn’t understand why the car had overheated when it was so cold so I explained about the fact that the water in the radiator was icy mush and this stopped the hot coolant from the block circulating through the radiator. He didn’t know if the car had any anti freeze in it as he only had the car for a month but the previous owner had told him he had replaced the radiator so my guess is when the radiator got replaced he saved some money by refilling with water knowing he was going to sell the car shortly-what a low life!
Anyway drove him about ½ mile to an auto parts shop and picked up 2 litres of G30 coolant-we managed to get most of the coolant in the car and the car started and seemed to run ok with no obvious leaks. Advised him to check the level when cold before he left work and to get it into a garage to check the anti freeze strength in case we continue to get -10c night temperatures as he said he knew nothing about working on cars.
My guess is he wont take my advice and will drive it until something else goes wrong but I felt good that I had helped someone with the bit of knowledge I’ve picked up over the years.
We rightly get concerned about using the correct type of coolant for our cars but in his case any type of anti freeze at a 50% concentration would have been better than a boil up with possible head gasket damage.
