How to Check Your Antifreeze Strength
- 1. Buy an antifreeze tester at your local auto parts store. They are $5 or less.
- 2. Suck some antifreeze into it from your coolant expansion tank under the hood of your Volvo.
- 3. Read the result (where the pointer points) and determine if the winter temperatures in your area dip below that number. ...
How to check your antifreeze strength?
How to Test Antifreeze
- Test antifreeze coolant before any maintenance is performed.
- Radiators are under pressure.
- Do not remove the radiator cap on a hot engine.
- Before removing the cap, wait until the temperature is below 50° Celsius (120° Fahrenheit).
- Failure to wait may result in personal injury from hot coolant spray or steam.
- Remove cap slowly to relieve all pressure.
How to check your coolant or antifreeze level?
Part 2 Part 2 of 2: Checking the Coolant Protection Level Download Article
- Squeeze the hydrometer bulb. This forces air out of the hydrometer.
- Insert the hydrometer's rubber tube into the coolant.
- Release the bulb. This draws coolant into the hydrometer, so it floats either the needle or the plastic balls inside the hydrometer.
- Remove the hydrometer from the coolant.
- Read the freezing or boiling point level on the hydrometer. ...
How do you check antifreeze?
- Rather than open the cap on the radiator, just check to see whether the liquid reaches the "Full" line on the side of the coolant reservoir shown here. ...
- Coolant is usually red, green, blue, or yellow. ...
- If the coolant has a sludgy, oily surface, immediately take the vehicle to your mechanic to check for internal head gasket leakage. ...
Do you check antifreeze hot or cold?
You'll also see markings on the side telling you the low and high levels to work with. Always check your coolant level when the car is cold. If you happen to have an older vehicle without a visible overflow and fill tank, you'll have to check the antifreeze/coolant level by looking into the radiator. There is no dipstick or another meter to ...
Can you put too much antifreeze in a car?
Most of the time, excess coolant is expelled from an overflow hose. You'll likely see a puddle of coolant beneath your car if this has happened. In worst case scenarios, overfilling your antifreeze tank can lead to electrical damage if overflow comes into contact with engine wiring.
What happens if you run full strength antifreeze?
Filling a Cooling System With Pure Antifreeze Can Also Damage the Engine. Not only does pure antifreeze have a higher freezing temperature than coolant, but a couple of issues will also arise if you use only it in your cooling system: The engine gets more prone to overheating.
Is it better to use 50/50 antifreeze?
A 50/50 mixture of antifreeze and water is the standard recommendation for most applications because it provides the best all-round cooling protection and performance for most applications. Premixed antifreeze is 50/50 and takes the guesswork out of correctly mixing antifreeze and water.
What happens if I don't dilute my antifreeze?
Pure antifreeze does not have the same ability to transfer heat that a mixture of antifreeze and water does. Using pure antifreeze inside your vehicle's cooling system causes that system to lose about 35 percent of its ability to transfer heat versus a proper mixture of antifreeze and water.
What will antifreeze do to gas tank?
If you would still like to use gas-line antifreeze, doing so is simple. The next time you fuel up, simply pour an entire bottle into your gas tank. The product sinks to the bottom of the gas tank and absorbs water. This prevents moisture from entering your fuel system and potentially freezing.
Can antifreeze be detected in an autopsy?
An autopsy determined that the victim's kidneys contained a substance suspected to be ethylene glycol, a chemical found in antifreeze. If taken in small doses, ethylene glycol will crystallize in the kidneys and eventually kill a person, police said in court records.
How much antifreeze should be in the reservoir?
Your coolant reservoir tank should be at least 30% full. Most reservoir tank has a min and max mark drawn on the side of the container. What is this? The most common cause of a coolant leak is a bad radiator cap, bad radiator fans, and loose radiator hose clamps.
How much coolant should I put in my radiator?
There should be a MIN to MAX scale on the side of the coolant container. If the coolant has fallen below the MIN line, you'll need to add coolant. If you need to, mix your coolant with water as directed by the packaging.
What is antifreeze, why do you need to check it and what are you looking for? We've got answers to all these questions
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Introduction
Even if you're not interested in how cars work, you need to be aware of certain maintenance requirements. Knowing how to check antifreeze is one of those.
Project step-by-step (6)
Your owner's manual is the best place to find the exact type of coolant your vehicle needs. If you don't have the manual, try looking it up online, or call a certified dealer to determine what type and formula of coolant you need.
What is a MVS newsletter?from matthewsvolvosite.com
The MVS Volvo Newsletter is a once-a-month email delivered to your email. It’s simple to unsubscribe at any time if you change your mind.
Why do we need antifreeze?from matthewsvolvosite.com
Thus we have antifreeze. It drastically reduces the temperature at which water freezes, so that we don’t have to buy new engines every year.
Can you run all coolant with antifreeze?from matthewsvolvosite.com
If it gets colder than your coolant is good for, you need to add antifreeze without over-filling, or flush all of it and start over. Follow the owners’ manual recommendation on type and concentration. Modern engines are very sensitive to the brand of coolant you add to them, and the concentration vs. water. Never run all coolant or all water. It’s always a blend of the two.
Does antifreeze crack an engine?from matthewsvolvosite.com
It’s water-based. The problem is that if it’s pure water, it freezes at 0C or 32F, and it will literally crack your engine. Yes, freezing water is stronger than iron or aluminum metal.
What is a MVS newsletter?
The MVS Volvo Newsletter is a once-a-month email delivered to your email. It’s simple to unsubscribe at any time if you change your mind.
Why do we need antifreeze?
Thus we have antifreeze. It drastically reduces the temperature at which water freezes, so that we don’t have to buy new engines every year.
Can you run all coolant with antifreeze?
If it gets colder than your coolant is good for, you need to add antifreeze without over-filling, or flush all of it and start over. Follow the owners’ manual recommendation on type and concentration. Modern engines are very sensitive to the brand of coolant you add to them, and the concentration vs. water. Never run all coolant or all water. It’s always a blend of the two.
Does antifreeze crack an engine?
It’s water-based. The problem is that if it’s pure water, it freezes at 0C or 32F, and it will literally crack your engine. Yes, freezing water is stronger than iron or aluminum metal.
What does pH mean in coolant?
The pH value is a way of expressing the relative acidity of coolant. Acidity does cause corrosion. There are even reported instances of old coolant becoming so acidic that it turns the entire engine into, in effect, a battery, affecting electronic engine controls.
What is the pH of 50-50?
Here’s the pitch: water has a pH of 7.0 and antifreeze has a pH of 10.5, so a 50-50 mix has a pH of 8.75, and that’s too acidic to protect the cooling system, so the pH must be modified to something around 10 to protect the dissimilar metals in the modern cooling system.
Does antifreeze have a pH?
But, do you need to worry about your coolant’s pH, as well? Many mechanics claim that testing the pH level of antifreeze is an effective way of determining its condition. Some professional repair shops offer additives ostensibly intended to insure a proper pH in your antifreeze.
How to test coolant mixture?
Taking the Coolant Sample. To test your coolant mixture, you'll need to take a sample from your radiator or coolant reservoir, whichever's easiest. Be sure to let your engine cool down before you remove your radiator or coolant reservoir cap. Once the engine is cool, open the cap and suck a sample of coolant into the test tube.
How to read coolant test results?
Reading the Results. Once you have an adequate sample of coolant in the test tube, hold it up to any light source so that you can see through the tube of coolant. The sky works best if you can be outside. Give it 30 seconds or so to stabilize, and then look to see how many balls have floated to the top of the tube.
Who is Matthew Wright?
Matthew Wright has been a freelance writer and editor for over 10 years and an automotive repair professional for three decades specializing in European vintage vehicles. Keeping a proper coolant mixture and the correct level are vital to your car's health.
What happens if your coolant is over 4 volts?
If it’s greater than .4 volts, the electrolysis additives are exhausted, and you may be in the market for a new radiator, a water pump or a heater core in the future. All of those are far more expensive than a simple coolant change.
How to check if coolant conductivity is high?
Here’s a quick way to check it. Begin with a cold engine. Remove the radiator cap and start the engine. Set your digital multimeter to DC volts at 20 volts or less. When the engine reaches operating temperature, insert the positive probe directly into the coolant.
What does a volt reading mean?
Reading the multimeter. A reading of .4 volts or less means the coolant is good. Replace the coolant if the reading is higher than .4 volts. If you think the only job of antifreeze (coolant) is to cool the engine during the summer and prevent freeze-up during the winter, read on.
Is coolant a good conductor?
In fact, worn coolant becomes a pretty darn good electrical conductor, accelerating internal electrolysis. The good news is that it’s pretty easy to check the conductivity of your coolant with a digital multimeter that acts as a coolant tester. If the conductivity is high, it’s time for a coolant flush and fill. Here’s a quick way to check it.
Does coolant have additives?
Coolant has additives to prevent all of that electron swapping. But, as coolant ages, the additives are depleted and can’t do the job anymore. In fact, worn coolant becomes a pretty darn good electrical conductor, accelerating internal electrolysis. The good news is that it’s pretty easy to check the conductivity of your coolant with a digital multimeter that acts as a coolant tester. If the conductivity is high, it’s time for a coolant flush and fill. Here’s a quick way to check it.
Does coolant help with electrolysis?
Coolant also plays an important role in preventing corrosion caused by electrolysis. Electrolysis occurs when two dissimilar metals start swapping electrons, causing the metals to corrode. Since an engine has aluminum, copper, cast iron, steel and magnesium alloys, electrolysis will slowly eat away at its innards.
