Coolant: A Cautionary Tale

[Will Owen <nashwill@domain.elided>]

C.M.Smith wrote: 

"Plain water is bad in a cooling system, as is plain
water/glycol without additives. These additives
include a sacrificial electrode, in essence, which
saves the aluminum but does so by being steadily
consumed. About one year for cheap coolant (never use
this in an Alfa, you'll regret it) and two years
maximum for good coolant."

I got a good, hard lesson in this subject when I
bought a Subaru Justy that had been sitting, mostly
unused, for over a year. The PO had stacks of
maintenance records showing everything ever done to
the car, including a coolant flush-and=replace more
than two years before. Three days after I'd bought the
car, it showed every sign of having blown its head
gasket...but it turned out to be the head itself that
had corroded away to dollrags. You could actually poke
your finger through the alloy right into some of the
coolant passages!

Mr. Smith and all the other correspondents are dead
right: changing that stuff every year is really cheap
insurance.

Will Owen
Nashville, TN
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