Is Old Coolant better or worse than water?

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My home-made-from-garden-hose radiator hose has done a few hundred K without any sign of failure, but had a slight leak under pressure where it joins the radiator, perhaps because its a little too wide, and/or isn't as soft/compliant as the real thing.





Since I've now got the right hose, and there was rust where it was leaking, I flushed the system (forgetting to do the heater, so I'll have to do it again, DUH!) replaced the coolant (with "green stuff", possibly RT-Mart own-brand. labelling all Chinese with no recognisable specs on it, so I'll have to regard it as short-life) and replaced the hose. There was fine rusty sludge in the coolant, and a few scale flakes flushed out of the bottom of the radiator.





While I was doing this I noticed another teacher here with the bonnet (hood) up on her Skoda. This is so unusual in Taiwan I went over to see that she was topping up with plain water. She said it'd had a slight untracable leak after being hit by a motorcycle. They replaced the radiator (can't imagine anything else would be vulnerable to a bike strike) but the leak persists. Since I think I saw her doing this about three years ago, it seems likely that the system has been running plain water for some time. Of course there's no need for anti-freeze here, but I'd think there'd be a risk of long term corrosion damage.

If I had an unfixable leak on a truly disposable car I might put a pinch of washing machine powder in it from time to time, but its hard for me to regard a shiny 10-year old Skoda as quite that disposable, even though that's as old as Taiwan cars usually get.

Might offer her my old coolant once the rust has settled out of it (hence the question). The shock-horror-disgust effect of that might induce her to get the leak fixed.
 
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Usually if you get involved trying to help out someone who does not know what is going on, they will come back at you accusing you of causing some major problem that happens later on.

Like if the vehicle ends up over heating or blows a head gasket because of too much rust she will say that what you put in her vehicle caused the problem. And she will seriously want you to pay to have it fixed.

Sometimes you are much better off not trying to help them out.
 
[censored] if you do...
Only thing I offer is advice. What people do with it is their problem not mine. It's nice that you want to help her out though!
smile.gif
 
Better off with water than old coolant. Best would be topping off with fresh coolant for lube and corrosion resistance. My old clunkers weep coolant from places unknown. I keep a gallon of 50/50 mix in the "boot". If the weep gets worse, I'll carry water.
 
Originally Posted By: JimPghPA
Usually if you get involved trying to help out someone who does not know what is going on, they will come back at you accusing you of causing some major problem that happens later on.

Like if the vehicle ends up over heating or blows a head gasket because of too much rust she will say that what you put in her vehicle caused the problem. And she will seriously want you to pay to have it fixed.

Sometimes you are much better off not trying to help them out.


Good point, and one I hadn't really considered (DUH again) though I had thought of it in the context of offering to try to find the leak, which I decided not to do (though they'd be unlikely to trust me to do it anyway). This is a newish car so access would probably be a lot worse than I'm used to.
 
.....sad but true.

Simply looking can suck you into the above mentioned 'vortex of blame'.

It hurts because we all have had cases where a problem was there to be spotted.

Also, if you work on/fix someone's car you're frequently assumed to be sleeping with that person. That can negatively impact the social order.
 
Find someone who knows Chinese to read the label and tell you what you bought.

In places where the weather does not freeze, you might be able to buy a corrosion inhibitor to add to water to make it into coolant. This would be less expensive than glycol-based antifreeze. Never use plain water or old spent coolant, there will be serious corrosion issues.
 
Red Line water wetter claims to have the necessary corrosion inhibitors. I used RL WW + 90-100% demineralized water during spring to fall on some older muscle cars. Though, not enough mileage and years to prove if they controlled corrosion or not. Can say that I never got anything out on my annual changes but pretty clean looking fluid.
 
Originally Posted By: mk378
Find someone who knows Chinese to read the label and tell you what you bought.


This assumes that the label says anything meaningful, which I rather doubt. If it does say anything meaningful, most English-speaking Taiwanese I know (most likely to be female English teachers) and probably most Taiwanese, wont understand it, and certainly won't be able to translate it into English.

Chinese is a problem, but its not the only problem.

Best I can do is to look for something with a spec. number on it. IF I can find that, the rest of the labelling doesn't really matter.
 
I have actually seen Peak branded stuff here which was labelled in English and I believe is US made, but couldn't, of course, find it when I needed it.
 
Back in 1977 I took my grandmothers 1964 rambler from her house a hundred miles away to my house for two weeks to tune it up, change the oil and filter, put a new air cleaner on it, replace all the brakes including new drums (which were hard to find), fix a broken spring in the automatic transmission, put a new battery in it (it died while I had it), replaced the shocks, fixed some front end parts, and got it aligned.

Ten years later she called me up and said her car died, I must have done something to it when I had it.
 
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Originally Posted By: JimPghPA
Back in 1977 I took my grandmothers 1964 rambler from her house a hundred miles away to my house for two weeks to tune it up, change the oil and filter, put a new air cleaner on it, replace all the brakes including new drums (which were hard to find), fix a broken spring in the automatic transmission, put a new battery in it (it died while I had it), replaced the shocks, fixed some front end parts, and got it aligned.

Ten years later she called me up and said her car died, I must have done something to it when I had it.


Well, you did, didn't you? And now you've finally come clean. Bet it felt good to get that off your chest.

I think I can speak for the BITOG Band of Brothers when I say we forgive you. Can't speak for your GM though.
 
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