Today a friend and I changed the coolant in my 2002 Mazda Protege ES. My friend is a mechanic and directed me how to do everything. I bought some Prestone 50 % coolant/50% distilled water to complete the job. We drained it and then flushed the radiator with water. Everything went fine. We added the Prestone with some water, started it up and let it run for 10min with the heat on. So far so good as the car is running fine.
Question is, although I am told that it was fine to use the Prestone 50/50 by two mechanics -- incl. one at Mazda. I have some reservations, either that or a blonde moment. I am worried that I don't have enough coolant? Am I being foolish or is there something I should do?I changed my coolant and have some questions...I used Prestone 50/50. Did I do something wrong?Personally, 50/50 is a waste of money. you save like $2.00 and get a half gallon of water. where's the savings??
OK.. you flushed the system, cool.
Can you guarentee you got all of the water out of the engine block? The answer is no. So you have straight water still in the engine block. you fillled with 50/50 antifreeze. you're supposed to have an antifreeze mixture of 50/50.
so with the extra water, you're now 25% antifreeze, 75% water.
the 50/50 is good for topping off if you aren't sure how the mixtures are.
the 2 mechanics assumed that 100% of the water would be removed and that simply isn't possible by regular means.
what I'd do is buy a gallon of concentrate, drain the radiator only, fill it back up with the concentrate antifreeze. you'll rebalance yourself and would be fine.
If you don't get the 50/50 mix, it's really OK.. a little more concentrate won't hurt anything, but less can.
Buy an antifreeze tester, prestone makes them, they're like $5 and it's accurate enough to see what the percentage is.I changed my coolant and have some questions...I used Prestone 50/50. Did I do something wrong?I am not sure just what you mean by enough coolant. If it is full and the expansion tank is up to the mark that part is fine. If you are asking about the mix strength yes 50/50 is correct.I changed my coolant and have some questions...I used Prestone 50/50. Did I do something wrong?if you used a 50/50 anti-freeze you should not add any water.
buy a cheap anti-freeze tester and test to see what you
haveI changed my coolant and have some questions...I used Prestone 50/50. Did I do something wrong?If you flushed it with water, and didn't remove the drain plugs in the radiator AND the engine block, then it might be a little weak. You can buy an antifreeze/coolant tester for a few dollars at an auto parts store, and it will show your level of freeze protection. Any repair shop should be able to test it for you, if you don't want to buy a tester, but it's a good tool to have.I changed my coolant and have some questions...I used Prestone 50/50. Did I do something wrong?a 50/50 mix is the proper ratio of water to antifreeze. This is NOT wrong. The only time you would ever want to change that ratio is if you lived in a climate where the temperature is always -30 degrees below zero or more.
Under normal conditions, you want a 50/50 mix. If you have too much antifreeze, you can make things too corrosive for the internals of your engine.
And too much water in the ratio would make it possible for the coolant to freeze if it got too cold.
You did the right thing.
