Change your coolant!!! Yes change it!

[The motor guy]

I honestly don't know of anyone that changes their coolant. It's very annoying when you buy and vehicle and then find out they were running water in it for the last 10 years. I always find it hard to check because usually the vehicle isn't totally cold when you go to look at it, so it makes it hard to pull the radiator cap off because well obviously, you'll get sprayed in the face from the pressure. Every 5 years, change it! Okay, thanks good night

 

[atikovi]

Every 5 years, change it!

This isn't the 80's anymore and old style green hasn't been spec'd for decades. Many modern coolants in cars from the last 20 years are good for 10 or even 15 years.

 

[mr_boring]

This isn't the 80's anymore and old style green hasn't been spec'd for decades. Many modern coolants in cars from the last 20 years are good for 10 or even 15 years.

Meh. Most top shelf mass produced oils are good for 10k+ (per said oil manufacturers and IOLM's), but somewhere around 94.24% of this forum says to never take them to 10k.

My owners manual says change coolant at 100k (miles) then every 50k. I wouldn't run blinker fluid for 15 years, let alone coolant.

 

[BHopkins]

You must live in a very mild climate. No one I know runs water in their car's cooling system. Doing so would result in destroyed blocks when freezing winter weather gets here.

 

[The motor guy]

You must live in a very mild climate. No one I know runs water in their car's cooling system. Doing so would result in destroyed blocks when freezing winter weather gets here.

My dodge has heavy rust on the coolant passages looking at it from the thermostat housing. Not sure if that's from not changing the coolant or a large quantity of water being used compared to coolant

 

[2010Civic]

No worries of someone running straight water here in MN.

 

[The motor guy]

People seem to forget coolant does more than cool the engine

 

[BHopkins]

People seem to forget coolant does more than cool the engine

With all the attention that modern advancements in engine coolant technology have made, all for the purpose of better protecting engines from corrosion, it is hard to imagine how someone can be unaware of the importance of maintaining the right coolant at the right concentration. I suspect that cars with weak coolant, happens when people top off a low coolant level with water, thinking that doing it once or twice won't hurt. Then, instead of fixing a small leak, it becomes several times of topping off with water.

But I can't buy into the old time idea of frequent coolant changes. Except for the old green ethylene glycol based coolant, Most all modern coolants are capable of lasting easily 10+ years.

 

[Tomioka]

If you have vehicles that consume coolant then that's half the job done for ya.

 

[CharBaby]

I change the coolant on my vehicles regularly. I don't go further than 5 years.

 

[fantastic]

I do agree that changing the coolant in 5 years time could be beneficial to keeping your coolant system clean. I flushed out my 75k mile truck & there was brown rust scale like stuff in the collection pan. Although it wasn't bad I still added HD OAT w/coolant filter. Plan on doing a change on the Volvo too since it appears there's dex-cool in there now which is not proper. Additives deplete in antifreeze over time. Erring on the side of caution is good. It's not like oil where we are constantly changing it & the ease of it is not bad. Call up your local city toxic collection for recycling.

 

[zfasts03]

I know that I do not like changing heater cores. I have done more than my share in my lifetime (mostly on other people's cars).

Whatever reduces the chance of me having to replace a heater core is good maintenance in my experience.

 

[TomYoung]

People seem to forget coolant does more than cool the engine

Like what?

 

[silversport]

there are ways to check the pH level in coolant/antifreeze as well as the electrolysis...plus there are those testers for freeze temp, boiling temp and the coolant water ratio to help you decide if your coolant/antifreeze should be changed...what am I missing???...

Bill

 

[TomYoung]

My dodge has heavy rust on the coolant passages looking at it from the thermostat housing. Not sure if that's from not changing the coolant or a large quantity of water being used compared to coolant

Both contribute, but long term use of a mixture that is far too high in water is probably most impactful. High quality, premixed antifreeze in spec, and maybe some cleaner and some quick changes *might" help. Long coolant change intervals and long OCI's are equally unwise and abusive.

 

[TomYoung]

there are ways to check the pH level in coolant/antifreeze as well as the electrolysis...plus there are those testers for freeze temp, boiling temp and the coolant water ratio to help you decide if your coolant/antifreeze should be changed...what am I missing???...

Bill

Great advice. But I would say that in November, in Chicagoland, if you are even asking the question, it would almost never be wrong to change to new coolant, ahem, anti-freeze.

 

[silversport]

the last few I've had changed were at the 10 year mark and only because it was 10 years...they have shown within the proper pH, no excess electrolysis and show as new on my Prestone bulb gauge for boiling temp and freeze temp...

Bill

 

[nobb]

Not questioning the importance of coolant changes, but sometimes we tend to be too OCD here and not appreciate how there's often way more safety factor than we give credit for.

On an interesting note, in many 3rd world countries in hot climates where a poor guy is keeping a 30+ year old beater car/truck on the road... they often times just top up the radiator with whatever water they can find. They'll leave the radiator cap off as to not build any pressure which would be hard on the various seals, but of course will have to top up before every trip.

 

[BISCUT]

Count me as a member of the OCD crowd. I routinely change the coolant in my vehicles. No substantive evidence to base this on but to date, I have experienced no engine issues associated with the coolant system. This is over a dozen vehicles which almost all have gone over 200k with my maintenance schedules. To date never had had to change out a pump or radiator, etc... If it's a false sense of security, for the low cost and general ease of performing: I'll take it.

The only caveat would be a 2008 BMW 328X where I preemptively changed out the water pump as they were plastic and would simply go on you at the worst possible time.

 

[The motor guy]

Count me as a member of the OCD crowd. I routinely change the coolant in my vehicles. No substantive evidence to base this on but to date, I have experienced no engine issues associated with the coolant system. This is over a dozen vehicles which almost all have gone over 200k with my maintenance schedules. To date never had had to change out a pump or radiator, etc... If it's a false sense of security, for the low cost and general ease of performing: I'll take it.

The only caveat would be a 2008 BMW 328X where I preemptively changed out the water pump as they were plastic and would simply go on you at the worst possible time.

Yeah the thing is a coolant change won't keep the seal on the waterpump from hardening and leaking. That's what happened on my other dodge diesel that has a maintained cooling system. Basically a flat gasket like on an oil filter that turns hard as a rock. The bearing was still fine. I assume every pump has a different sealing setup, because I don't see how not changing the coolant would cause wear to the seal on that concentric brand water pump.