Anti-freeze - Help!

spaceylou

I am not totally clueless when it comes to my car in general BUT I will admit I am somewhat when it comes to winter-proofing the car!

Numerous people have told me I need to put anti-freeze in the car - none of these 'helpful' people however have been able to tell me where it goes! So where does the anti-freeze go, and do I really need it, I mean will the engine running not heat up and defrost anything that gets frozen? Or is it something that would stop the car from starting?

Thanks

Tom Slick

Not trying to be a smartass or anything, but if you're that clueless I would advise taking the car to a garage & get it checked out. Also, if it hasn't suffered frost damage by now, it probably has the right coolant mix.

flower tattoo

Seriously!!!
Well if your cars still going you probably have some in there. It mixes into your water tank and stops it freezing.

jimmyw

The purpose of antifreeze is to stop the water in the engine freezing up.When it freezes up, it expands and can crack the block.Hard to believe, but it can.Usually you mix it up at the manufacturers quantity and pour in at the plastic water tank in the engine bay, and sometimes as well into the rad,and bleed out the air. It can also stop the system silting up too.

beam99

More than likely it has antifreeze in it, what year and make of car is it? when was it last serviced? Was the water pump or radiator replaced recently, if so it should be ok.

cnocbui

Most cars have antifreeze in the engine cooling system as standard. It is usually a mixture of ethylene glycol and water. The glycol raises the boilng point of the coolant so it works better at doing it's main job of cooling the engine by taking heat from the engine and dissipating it via the radiator.

Glycol also has a secondary function of lowering the freezing point of the coolant so in cold weather it hopefully doesn't freeze, expand and damage the engine - as already mentioned.

In extremely cold weather, such as in Finland, you might need a higher concentration of glycol to water to lower the freezing point still further.

As already mentioned, if your engine has survived so far, it probably has antifreeze already. Most manufacturers specify a 50:50 mix of glycol:water. This lowers the freezing point to -34° C so if your car has such a mix in it, it shouldn't need any extra

Biglad

Maybe he or she is talking about anti freeze in the wiper fluid...

zilog_jones

Biglad wrote: »

Maybe he or she is talking about anti freeze in the wiper fluid...

Do people actually do this? Sounds mad...

cruizer101

In fairness the only way you really couldn't have antifreeze in your car is if you put water in there yourself. That is barring previous silly owners or dodgy garages.

Oh and in the wiper its not the same stuff as coolant but yeah the stuff you put in does lower the freezing point of your washer water.

dnme

so guys, coolant and anti-freeze are one and the same thing then ??

Nonoperational

Pretty much. Coolant is antifreeze mixed with water and sone other goodies.

spaceylou

thanks for all the replies - I guess what I was talking about was the coolant, given that it isn't water, and clearly says in the manuel not to put water in there, it didn't occur to me that that might be what people are talking about. And seen as it already is a mix of different ingredients, I wasn't going to go messing with the mixture that manufactures have come up with.

thanks again

Wildly Boaring

zilog_jones wrote: »

Do people actually do this? Sounds mad...

RE Washer
Got stuff like this last year in motorfactors. http://www.sonax.com/Car-Care/Products/Winter/Windscreen-Washer-System/%28so%29/1/%28node%29/12949/332300-SONAX-Antifreeze-clear-view-Concentrate
Syphoned out water that was in it, ran warm water to get working and then filled with "Anti-freezing" washer

Real anti-freeze I'm assuming would destroy wiper blades, paint etc