Tested 15 year old Nissan leaf coolant.

[oil pan 4]

I always heard "Nissan leaf coolant doesn't go bad".
My leaf was made in 2010 I've had it since 2018. Prior to 2018 there would have been no reason to change it.
Well it's still good.
Coolant in a leaf does 2 things, cools the charger, inverter and drive motor system and moves heat from what's basically a hot water heater element to the heater core, on different coolant loops.
Test strips show 70% glycol and dark green pH. Green being good, dark green is usually only seen on new in the bottle coolant and yellow being bad.
So no need to change the coolant. It will probably easily last another 15 years, even then I could drain it and use it in something else.

 

[fantastic]

Coolant itself may be good & my reason to change/flush coolant is contamination within the cooling system that can develop over time.

 

[JRay’07]

That’s really impressive. Older ICE vehicles would develop problems when engine blocks and radiators were made of dissimilar metals separated by aging, acidic coolant (the effect of a battery). I’m assuming that the heat exchanger and drive unit are both made of aluminum on the Leaf.

 

[Lockasiam]

engine blocks and radiators were made of dissimilar metals

what about when you have a cast iron block and aluminium heads? i don't reallly understand the dissimilar metals thing

 

[JRay’07]

what about when you have a cast iron block and aluminium heads? i don't reallly understand the dissimilar metals thing

Tighten a spark plug in an aluminum cylinder head without anti-seize compound, run the entire interval as outlined in the maintenance schedule and report back when you try to remove it.

 

[Lockasiam]

Tighten a spark plug in an aluminum cylinder head without anti-seize compound, run the entire interval as outlined in the maintenance schedule and report back when you try to remove it.

yeah but why does it do that

 

[JRay’07]

yeah but why does it do that

Galvanic corrosion.

 

[Silverado12]

yeah but why does it do that

We called it galvanic or "dissimilar metals corrosion" when I was an aircraft mechanic in the service. Don't know why it happens but it does. Fun fact was in the early 1970s (more years were involved but this is just what I know) the aluminum gooseneck on the Chevy Small Block motor was sort of like an anode which attracted the corrosion and basically sacrificed that part.

 

[Lockasiam]

We called it galvanic or "dissimilar metals corrosion" when I was an aircraft mechanic in the service. Don't know why it happens but it does. Fun fact was in the early 1970s (more years were involved but this is just what I know) the aluminum gooseneck on the Chevy Small Block motor was sort of like an anode which attracted the corrosion and basically sacrificed that part.

Was that just a service item at that point then

 

[slomo]

Tighten a spark plug in an aluminum cylinder head without anti-seize compound, run the entire interval as outlined in the maintenance schedule and report back when you try to remove it.

Modern plugs have a coating to not do as you describe anymore. At least NGK does.

 

[JRay’07]

Modern plugs have a coating to not do as you describe anymore. At least NGK does.

Are you referring to nickel plating? My car’s service manual says to apply a small quantity of anti-seize compound to the plug threads before installing them.

 

[AKhan87]

Tighten a spark plug in an aluminum cylinder head without anti-seize compound, run the entire interval as outlined in the maintenance schedule and report back when you try to remove it.

reporting back, ZERO issues removing spark plugs from Toyota/Lexus aluminum cylinder heads, none had anti-seize on them, and most were run the outlined maintenance interval or longer.

 

[AKhan87]

Modern plugs have a coating to not do as you describe anymore. At least NGK does.

Exactly...even the Toyota OEM manual specifies not to put anti-seize.

 

[Silverado12]

Was that just a service item at that point then

Yes, you could get them and they always seemed to be in stock but the replacements were cast iron. Supposedly you would lose the anode capability of the thermostat gooseneck but I didn't know that at the time.