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Car Forum / Toyota / Toyota Cars / September 2007changing antifreeze
What is your opinion regarding diluting antifreeze with regular water? >What is your opinion regarding diluting antifreeze with regular water? My Opinion: If it's really nice soft spring water - no dissolved solids, no iron, no minerals - go ahead and use it with the coolant in the radiator. This covers maybe 2% of the population. For people living in the other 98% of the world where the tap or well water has enough iron in it to leave rust stains, or downright "Crunchy" with minerals, use either bottled distilled or demineralized water to mix with the coolant if you want to get a bit more life out of the car. That way you don't add any mystery metals and minerals to the mix. Distilled is most expensive and is really only needed for topping off lead-acid wet batteries where any contamination can be really bad news. If you have a reasonably priced source, use it for the radiator fill also. They used to sell little resin-bed demineralization filters you hooked to a garden hose, but there was never a way to tell when it was used up and no longer effective. --<<Bruce >>-- >>What is your opinion regarding diluting antifreeze with regular water? > [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > news. If you have a reasonably priced source, use it for the radiator > fill also. Distilled is expensive? Not these days. I can buy a gallon for a couple of bucks at the grocery store. I can get five gallons for five bucks. You should ALWAYS use distilled or de-ionized water when filling a cooling system. Unless you're using premix of course, which is already mixed with distilled/de-i.  SignatureTegger > What is your opinion regarding diluting antifreeze with regular water? Not a good idea. That's what leads to those crusty white deposits that clog your rad. In the real world, almost nobody (even those on lake water) has water that's reliably soft enough for cooling systems. Go to the grocery store and get some distilled/de-ionized water. The stuff is cheap as anything, now that every grocery store sells the stuff. SignatureTegger I dont use regular water even on my windshield washer. > > What is your opinion regarding diluting antifreeze with regular water? > [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Go to the grocery store and get some distilled/de-ionized water. The stuff > is cheap as anything, now that every grocery store sells the stuff. Although my well-respected radiator shop uses tap water, which is damn hard around here, and swears that the chemicals in the antifreeze bind the minerals in the water and prevent them from being deposited anywhere in the cooling system. Apparently the "no tap water" precaution was well founded fifty years ago but is no longer applicable. >> > What is your opinion regarding diluting antifreeze with regular >> > water? [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > precaution was well founded fifty years ago but is no longer > applicable. I'd like to see proof of the "binding" thing. Toyota still prefers that you use distilled or demineralized water. SignatureTegger >> > What is your opinion regarding diluting antifreeze with regular water? >> [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > in the cooling system. Apparently the "no tap water" precaution was well > founded fifty years ago but is no longer applicable. Perhaps your "well-respected" radiator shop is simply trying to guarantee that its customers will be back sooner rather than later, needing repairs to their cars' cooling systems? > >> > What is your opinion regarding diluting antifreeze with regular water? > >> [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > that its customers will be back > sooner rather than later, needing repairs to their cars' cooling systems? I'm going to look into this a little more. It really is the best shop in town, and I have the utmost regard for them. The guy just sort of shook his head at me when I brought in my own bottle distilled water for them to use on my car. Seems like a weary debate he keeps having with many people. For the moment, I'm willing to believe that "old information" dies a hard death. >> >> > What is your opinion regarding diluting antifreeze with regular water? >> >> [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] >people. For the moment, I'm willing to believe that "old information" >dies a hard death. Your well respected guy is wrong. Well respected guys can be wrong. SignatureScott in Florida >>> > Although my well-respected radiator shop uses tap water, which is >>> > damn hard around here, and swears that the chemicals in the [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > > Well respected guys can be wrong. For five frickin' extra dollars we're arguing about using distilled or not? Five bucks? Five bucks means the difference between the possibility of deposits and the certainty of their absence, and there's still a debate? C'mon now. SignatureTegger Boil a cup of tap water on a saucepan until all the water dried up. What's left on the pan will be circulating inside your engine. Ever since I saw my very unfortunate water pump from my previously owned Honda Civic, I'm never going back to regular water. >>> >> > What is your opinion regarding diluting antifreeze with regular water? >>> >> [quoted text clipped - 26 lines] > > Well respected guys can be wrong. Present company excluded, eh? >>> >> > What is your opinion regarding diluting antifreeze with regular water? >>> >> [quoted text clipped - 26 lines] > > Well respected guys can be wrong. Especially DEMONrats. Wait, there AREN'T any well-respected DEMONrats to begin with. > > What is your opinion regarding diluting antifreeze with regular > > water? [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > stuff is cheap as anything, now that every grocery store sells the > stuff. How do you get the tap water out when flushing the block? Or do you flush with distilled? >> > What is your opinion regarding diluting antifreeze with regular >> > water? [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > How do you get the tap water out when flushing the block? Or do you > flush with distilled? When I flush, I just use the garden hose. With the block and rad drains removed, just about all the tap water drains out. Any that's left is not sufficient in volume to affect anything. Water pump housing, bottom of water jacket, all other collection points combined, I'd say there's no more than a cup of tap water left behind after draining. SignatureTegger > >> > What is your opinion regarding diluting antifreeze with regular > >> > water? [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > points combined, I'd say there's no more than a cup of tap water left > behind after draining. How do I remove the block drain? I have a 97 Camry 4 and a 2000 Sienna I want to do this weekend. > How do I remove the block drain? I have a 97 Camry 4 and a 2000 > Sienna I want to do this weekend. '97 Camry: Block drain is at REAR of block, immediately above the woven exhaust flex pipe. I think it's a 14 or 15mm hex. '00 Sienna: TWO block drains, both at the rear of the block. Tighten to 9 ft lbs only. Check your email. SignatureTegger >> > What is your opinion regarding diluting antifreeze with regular >> > water? [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] >How do you get the tap water out when flushing the block? Or do you >flush with distilled? I flush with distilled. Drain the radiator, refill it with distilled and drive the car about 3 miles around the block. I do that 5 times and then add Toyota Red. If I do it in the summer with the heat on full bore, it gets a bit hot in the car....LOL SignatureScott in Florida The minute trace minerals added to distilled "drinking water" can leave a white powder coating on rubber parts inside. Probably no big deal. But tap water is loaded with that stuff. I'll say use only distilled water with no minerals added "for taste". So do read the fine print. The newer Toyota Pink coolant, which uses a major component from the GM Dexcool longlife coolant, is already prediluted. You can only flush such a system with pink coolant as suggested in the manual. Otherwise you'll get less than 50% concentration!! This Pink coolant lacks the 2EHA acid, which is a plasticier. It's not a problem with newer US and European cooling systems designs, but just don't convert the Toyota system to Dexcool, even though some people who used it said it was ok. The Pink is supposed to last longer than the Red, but the Red is the better corrosion fighter. On Sep 27, 7:25 pm, "badgolferman" <REMOVETHISbadgolfer...@gmail.com> wrote: > What is your opinion regarding diluting antifreeze with regular water? johngdole@hotmail.com wrote in news:1191020373.123170.75830 @y42g2000hsy.googlegroups.com: > The minute trace minerals added to distilled "drinking water" can > leave a white powder coating on rubber parts inside. Probably no big [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > such a system with pink coolant as suggested in the manual. Otherwise > you'll get less than 50% concentration!! That's true in a very precise sense, but if you remove the block drain(s) as well as the rad drain (and a few more if you've got an MR2), the amount of leftover plain water won't be enough to matter. > This Pink coolant lacks the 2EHA acid, which is a plasticier. It's not > a problem with newer US and European cooling systems designs, but just > don't convert the Toyota system to Dexcool, even though some people > who used it said it was ok. The Pink is supposed to last longer than > the Red, but the Red is the better corrosion fighter. The pink stuff is only supposed to be used in those particular very late- model vehicles that originally came with it. Your Owner's Manual will say. All other cars should stay with the red stuff. SignatureTegger |
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