clear antifreeze

[marinabrid]

Evening all
Just pottering around the engine bay today of new car, took cap of to see if it used any water in the week of owning,  always a worry !    looked like clear water in the bottle,  popped round to local garage who tested it,  protected down to minus 40  says the man. i says  but its clear !  he says its antifreeze.
i was selling car parts and stuff for 15 years and i know things change but this is a new one on me. i expected  blue green or red orange but not clear. i see on here there is some info about pink  but how pink is it ? i dipped me finger in the liquid and it was still clear.

[steveo59]

Hi,
I've never heard of clear antifreeze. Like you I'd be worried it was just water. If your not confident in the first garages assesment, take it to one of these who do free antifreeze checks and get a second opinion. I would have thought any manufacturer of antifreeze would have forseen this problem.

[Chrispb]

Nothing to stop you draining and flushing out the system then refilling with a suitable all year round anti freeze, it should be changed every few years anyway, you can buy an anti freeze hydrometer from most accessory places.
Maybe someones put clear alcohol in it

[marinabrid]

it could be very pale see through pink  but the garage chap is a 1st class one, he could have said  no   none in there just to get the job but he was quiet confident it was protected to minus 40. i have a tester for glycol but isn't the newer stuff a different chemical,  I'm well out of touch since i sold the motor shop.

[Chrispb]

Hi Martin
Yes I have the ethylene glycol hydrometer and I used to have one for methanol which as far as I know is extinct as an anti freeze but your right there is this propylene glycol stuff which is suppose to be safer than ethylene but needs some fancy refractory gadget to test it.
I have always used the universal blue ethylene glycol in mine since it was a year old, it's now 11 with no problems.
Of course it's not going to be the recommended type but my own personal opinion is if you flush it out every couple of years and refill with new stuff you won't go far wrong.

[insanitybeard]

In my time as a mechanic I do recall seeing a few suspiciously clear looking coolant solutions in header tanks which to my surprise, according to the tester were ok and providing adequate protection! I can't explain the lack of colour though, and it's true to say that most modern antifreeze that you will buy and that new vehicles are filled with will be pink in colour, for safety reasons as much as anything I can't imagine any manufacturer can legally produce clear antifreeze, so that's certainly not how it comes when new.

I changed the coolant on my Galaxy recently using the Ford stuff which is pink in colour, diluted 50/50 with water. The below picture, although not ideal does show the colour of the solution (click on the image to enlarge for a better view). Interestingly, the bottle states it contains Ethanediol (Ethylene glycol), I thought Ford had moved away from using it.

[attachimg=1]

[marinabrid]

Think i must have had wrong glasses on    today in the daylight   i undid the cap and the liquid was against the clear plastic bottle  and def had a pink tinge. A sidelight was out  so having found the little flap under the wing tried to get in. Who thought of this mad idea  you need hands like a child but with mr muscle strength to unclip the bulb holder., i think it turned 90' coming out   but no way could i get enough leverage on it to get it back that far ,  is this normal ? or is there some magic trick to turning it fully ?
also got the dreaded broken wires in rear pass door , central locking didn't lock that one door,   6 broken wires to do another day,  12 years with mk1   and not one broken wire in that car.

[Chrispb]

I had a piece of wood shaped to fit in the slot on the end of the bulb holder but to be honest it's just as easy to remove the headlamp (4 torx head screws)
The o/s lamp is worse to access through the flap as the air intake pipe is on one side of the opening.

[marinabrid]

thats a great idea !    i read somewhere if i remove headlamp it messes alignment up    xenon type.

[insanitybeard]

You could if you have any try some silicone spray on the sealing O-ring at the base of the bulb holder, that should reduce the amount of effort required to turn the bulb holder home.