…instead of draining the radiator, and then putting it in? Am I hurting my car when I skip the draining part? I just had my cooling system flushed this past August.
Thanks
Q
It depends upon how much you’re adding (which you need to find out why you have to add it). If you’re only adding a small amount (say a few ounces or so), then there’s no real problem. If you’re dumping in a half gallon or so, then you need to dilute it with distilled water.
Anti-freeze is also anti-boil, so if you’ve got too much of it in there, you run the risk of overheating your engine. You can, for a couple of bucks, by a doodad at autoparts stores which will let you test your antifreeze to make sure that it’s neither too concentrated or dilute.
Don’t use too much antifreeze! You want to save some to add to your wine!
It’s more properly called coolant. When more is needed, it is best to simply add a 50/50 pre-mix of glycol and water. Interestingly, pure “antifreeze” alone has a higher freezing point, it is the addition of water that extends the freeze point lower.
?? Why do you want to add antifreeze? ??
The following assumes conventional ethylene glycol antifreeze.
There are two concerns with engine coolant. One is antifreeze/antiboil protection. For most climates, this is best achieved by having a 50/50 mix of water and antifreeze. This will give freezing protection to -34’ Fahrenheit, and provide sufficient antiboil protection and heat transfer. Pure water freezes and boils out too easily, and promotes excessive corrosion; pure antifreeze doesn’t protect against freezing and boiling as well as the 50/50 mix and doesn’t transfer heat well enough. Mixes of from 30% to 70% antifreeze may be suitable (or in the latter case, necessary) depending on the temperature range the car will see.
The second concern is corrosion in the cooling system, which includes the radiator, engine block passages, cylinder head passages, heater core, and sometimes pipes and/or miscellaneous fittings. Antifreeze includes anticorrosive agents, however these get used up doing their job. Hence the recommendation to flush and fill the cooling system about every 30,000 miles or 2-3 years. The antifreeze protection is permanent and won’t change unless the mixture proportion is altered, the anticorrosion protection is not permanent and is the basis for recommendations to drain/flush the system.
With a flush just 4 months ago, you’re a long way from needing to drain or flush the system for maintenance purposes. Presumably a 50/50 mix would have been used to fill the system, and if so you shouldn’t have to do a thing.
If just water, or an insufficient proportion of antifreeze was put in, then you should add antifreeze. If the system is full, you’ll have to partially drain it to make room.
If the system is low, it’s already partially drained, but you’ve got a leak (assuming it was indeed filled after the flush). The best thing to top it up with (again assuming it was filled with a reasonable mixture of water and antifreeze) is 50/50 mix. Fixing the leak would be wise.
So it all comes down to, why do you want to add antifreeze?
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I drank antifreeze when I was a kid. It actually tastes JUST like it smells. Like melted suckers. I got about half a swallow down when my dad walked in, saw me, freaked out, and Heimliched me almost to death.
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Gary T and others: Well, I do have a small leak, because when I checked the reservoir just to see what the level was, there was barely enough coolant to cover the element. I recently had a heater coil replaced on this car (93 Grand Am), and when that coil went bad all the coolant ran out. They replaced the coil, and replaced the coolant, but did not check for other leaks at the time.
I usually have my car’s fluids changed and checked at one of those oil changing places, but the last time (October) they must have just topped off the coolant and didn’t tell me that I might have a leak.
So that is why I’m adding the coolant. After the holidays, I will have it repaired.
Thanks
Q
You can buy pre-mixed antifreeze and add it at will.
Another part of anti-freeze that wears out is the lubrication part. You can go several years without changing the coolant, but you need to add a can of water pump lube/anti-rust every year.
Just so you know, it’s a heater core, not coil. Hard to tell sometimes when it’s spoken.
W A R N I N G
Ethylene Glucol is POISONOUS.
Read the label. Some times mean spirited people leave an open dish or shallow open container out to destroy a neighbor’s dog or cat. It is sweetish tasting, animals love the taste, and the pet will die a very uncomfortable is not horrible death.
“Beware of the Cog”