[neil hostetler]

if you are adding fluid or changing out the antifreeze make sure you mix only with distilled water. tap water causes deposits on cooling system parts like the thermostat etc. i cant tell you how many used cars i bought where the previous owner used tap water in the cooling system. tap water from boiling can clog small passages like radiator cooling passages that are very thin. if the thermostat gets stuck closed the engine can overheat. if you buy antifreeze get 100 % antifreeze. most of the stores only sell 50/50 but you can buy the concentrate online. for $5 more

 

[DARKART]

50/50 is more convenient.

 

[JTCJTC]

50/50 is more convenient.

AND is the only way Honda coolant is sold in the US. At least in my 2005 EX manual, it states only Honda coolant should be used, unlike, for example, brake fluid where the Honda brand is merely reccommended. Coolant is not changed that often, so will stick with the Honda option. With 245K and counting on a 4-cyl, the option seems to work well.

 

[chris918]

Good thing you posted. I always used cheapie wally world concentrate and old stagnant brown well water. I'll go drain it right now

 

[0dyfamily]

Use of distilled water in automotive cooling systems ... the only positive is that it's "really clean water." I've never used distilled water to mix into pure coolant, just plain old water that has been through a household filtering and softening (ion exchange) system.

I'm not good at explaining activity of metals wetted by a polar solution (like water) in a way that everybody can understand, so I borrowed this from Rislone's web page:

• During the distillation process, water is vaporized into its gaseous phase, so all its impurities are left behind. These impurities include a number of minerals, including “calcium” and “magnesium,” the two components of water “hardness.” The water is then condensed back into its liquid phase, so the resulting liquid is pure water – in fact, some of the purest water on earth. But the problem is that when water is distilled, or “stripped,” of its minerals and impurities, the resulting solution is composed of chemically imbalanced “ions.” This leaves distilled water “ionically hungry,” so it will actually strip electrons from the metals in a cooling system as it attempts to chemically re-balance itself. As it chemically removes electrons from the metals of cooling system components, distilled water eventually does extreme damage that could lead to cooling system failure.
• So what’s the answer? Softened water. During the water softening process, the same impurities and minerals are removed from water as during the distillation process – but with one very important distinction. Rather than STRIPPING the impurities from water, softening EXCHANGES the impurities with a sodium ion. The resulting solution is chemically and ionically balanced, making softened water very stable, very pure, and non-threatening to cooling system metals.
• There seems to be a perceptual issue with regard to the usage of softened water in cooling systems by auto enthusiasts. Many mistakenly believe that because salt is added to water softeners, then softened water must contain salt, a substance of course known to be very corrosive. Nothing could be further from the truth. The salt you add to a water softener is NaCl, or sodium chloride.
• During the softening process, only the sodium ion is exchanged into the water. Therefore, softened water does NOT contain corrosive salt.

Using distilled water mixed with coolant is an avenue toward pitting of the engine water jacket, and most importantly the "plates" in a radiator, which can ultimate result in reducing the lifespan of the radiator. My previous-previous home had a filter-to-ion exchange water softening system which produced exactly the type of water that Rislone talks about.

Since my current home does not have one of these, like @DARKART and @JTCJTC , I'm a 50/50 guy as well.

I've never had a cooling system component fail, ever, when using softened water produced by a conventional filter-to-ion exchange household system.

OF

 

[greg1c]

Wow, a discussion on water in cooling systems. How about we go to the real world, where the vast majority of failures were caused by NOT changing the coolant.

If you change the coolant on the proper schedule and flush the system, it does not matter what water you did or did not use.

Most manufacturers recommend only using deionized water.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

 

[0dyfamily]

Yes, most cooling system failures (where they die "before their time") are due to rocks.

Most manufacturers recommend only using deionized water.

Man, you've got to show me a few owner's manual excerpts on that one. I have never seen that. Then again, I haven't really looked, either, sooooo......

I do know that Ford pre-loads their concentrated (100%) coolant with cations with a higher activity in solution than the aluminum commonly used in casting blocks and heads, so using distilled water is appropriate there. Ford's concentrated coolants are made for using pure water.

Other than Ford, since nobody really divulges what their proprietary pure coolants do have in them, why even mess with this?

Just get Honda Type 2. It's not that expensive, and you only have to service this blue coolant once in a blue moon.

I've seen people just forget about modern coolant servicing for the entire life of a vehicle, and the cooling system was fine on the original load of the stuff (with occasional top offs due to the slow, but still present evaporation).

I spend more on beer in a month than I do on once-every-six-years-or-so coolant servicing, ergo, it's 50/50 for me.

OF

 

[WiiMaster]

and you only have to service this blue coolant once in a blue moon.

So you're saying if I have a car that runs green coolant I only have to service it once in a green moon? AKA never?

 

[0dyfamily]

The moon's made out of green cheese ... right? If not, then green coolant is "forever coolant."

Then there's the occasional "blood moon." That's when you service that Toyota red/pink stuff.

OF

 

[Dr. Acula]

Won’t mixing the distilled with the sugary coolant “de-ionize” it?

also… wouldn’t a commercial manufacturer of 50/5 be using DI water in their solution to begin with?

 

[0dyfamily]

@Dr. Acula , it depends on what their chemical engineer says when building a continuous manufacturing process. From a cost-per-gallon standpoint I'm almost 100% sure they'd use DI water.

That doesn't mean we should use DI or distilled water when concocting coolant from pure stuff-in-a-jug and water unless the antifreeze manufacturer says so. This is addressed at the end of this post.

DI water is water treated to remove ions, usually dissolved mineral salts. DI water can still have organic contaminants.

Water heated, steam collected, condensed ... that's distilled water. That process addresses most impurities.

My guess is that any plant first receives water from a municipal water supply, performs mechanical filtration, then runs it through a DI system with ion exchange resins (both types). Now, they can add whatever is needed: glycol as antifreeze, and everything else needed for corrosion protection, pH range stability, and appropriate metallic salts to address the ionic balance that the Rislone people mention in layman's terms.

If they did that very last part to pure antifreeze, they would tell you to use distilled water on the jug (just like Ford does).

Again, given how few times I ever service any cooling system, I'm just going to buy 50/50 Honda Type 2 and account for the extra cost by not drinking beer that week.

OF

 

[qman]

AND is the only way Honda coolant is sold in the US. At least in my 2005 EX manual, it states only Honda coolant should be used, unlike, for example, brake fluid where the Honda brand is merely reccommended. Coolant is not changed that often, so will stick with the Honda option. With 245K and counting on a 4-cyl, the option seems to work well.

Na, wally concentrate for me and I only use toilet water. Why waste good stuff on a car? Bought my 2005 five years ago and the coolant that was in there is still in there. I just use the old antifreeze tester from time to time and all is still well.

 

[fazio767]

Urinate into the antifreeze to create the 50/50 mix. That is truly the most effective antifreeze.

 

[TX Accord]

 

[Dr. Acula]

Wtf did I just watch??!!! Was that pron?

from time to time

Playing with fire

is Brawndo unavailable in your market?

you know what it has.

 

[TX Accord]

Wtf did I just watch??!!! Was that pron?

It's a scene from Red Dawn. Their truck's radiator was low on coolant so they had the boy pee in it.

https://search.yahoo.com/search?p=red+dawn+movie&fr=srp-dd-share&fr2=p:s,v:w,m:sb-movie,ct:copy-link

 

[Dr. Acula]

It’s the voice watching “yeah Danny” that had me creeped

 

[The_K_Man]

When I was young n dumb back in the 1980s, backyard flushing the coolant in my '81 Buick Century, my dad noticed me adding water to my coolant reservoir.

He asked me, "What're you adding water to it for, dummy?!"

Moral of that story: Coolant/anti-freeze/whatever you call it, has sold in premixed form through at least seven Presidents now! No need to over think it - just use what your car's mfg recommends or specifies, and don't worry about diluting or anything.

 

[0dyfamily]

... No need to over think it - just use what your car's mfg recommends or specifies, and don't worry about diluting or anything.

Bingo.

.. is Brawndo unavailable in your market?

you know what it has.

Yes. My plants crave it ...

... and Honda sells it in a 50/50 pre-mix.

OF