Buying radiator coolant online

[orientalist]

I just discovered that the gf has been putting plain water in her Honda Jazz radiator since she bought it (when she bothers at all!). I see from the manual it's supposed to be Honda All Seasons Type 2 pre-mixed coolant. B-Quik quoted me 790 baht for their own (green) coolant but that seems expensive. Many shops on Lazada have what they claim is the real Honda stuff for around 180 baht. 

So, is the cheap stuff genuine or at least ok to use? 

[transam]

12 minutes ago, orientalist said:

I just discovered that the gf has been putting plain water in her Honda Jazz radiator since she bought it (when she bothers at all!). I see from the manual it's supposed to be Honda All Seasons Type 2 pre-mixed coolant. B-Quik quoted me 790 baht for their own (green) coolant but that seems expensive. Many shops on Lazada have what they claim is the real Honda stuff for around 180 baht. 

So, is the cheap stuff genuine or at least ok to use? 

They quote for the job. Water will be near boiling at the shop, they must do their thing. 😉

You can do it yourself, evacuate the whole system without getting burnt, you will have to get underneath the car to empty the water.

 

Has the car a water leak....?

 

[orientalist]

I don't want to flush the system at present. Right now it's 100% water so I want to start topping it up with the correct coolant so it at least has some antifreeze in there. I assume 5 or 10 percent antifreeze is better than none at all. 

[transam]

That will do nothing. All aluminium engines/heads must have a corrosion inhibitor, if not, the thing will rot/oxidize from the inside out, "coolant" is that protection. 

 

Pay the money and get it done properly to avoid a really big bill in the future....🤔

[ningnong]

If she's been adding water to the radiator since she bought it I assume it was a second hand car and it already had a problem when she bought it.

 

I would do as transam suggested and get it done professionally. The shop should notice if any coolant is leaking externally.

 

After that carefully monitor the level of coolant in the coolant reservoir. If you find that you need to continually add coolant to the reservoir that indicates there is a problem somewhere. Depending on the age and condition of the car and how fast it goes through coolant it may be cheaper to just keep buying and adding coolant mix rather than getting major work done.

[orientalist]

The situation is complicated. We don't live together and 2 years ago after telling the gf repeatedly we couldn't afford a car she got a second hand one behind my back with repayments supposedly to be made by her daughter. I vowed not to put any money into it. But recently the daughter reneged on the deal and we've become dependent on the car to get the granddaughter we're raising to school. 

The car had about 35k on the clock and we are now at 70k. I remember her occasionally putting water in the radiator... and then she didn't. So last week the engine overheating light came on, smell of burning, steam, etc. Then she filled it up with water again. That's when I looked in the manual. My last car was a used Cortina in the 70s and in those days you just used plain water. Antifreeze was for winter, so this is all new to me. 

We had the same problem with oil. She never checked it or changed it (magical thinking) and we had warning lights come on one day - luckily close to home. After reading about the damage that can do I've insisted on having proper oil changes at B-Quik. They usually check a whole bunch of things. I had to pay for new brake pads and rear shocks this year but they haven't mentioned coolant so far. 

I suppose I'll have to ask them how much coolant flushing would cost. 

[transam]

5 minutes ago, orientalist said:

The situation is complicated. We don't live together and 2 years ago after telling the gf repeatedly we couldn't afford a car she got a second hand one behind my back with repayments supposedly to be made by her daughter. I vowed not to put any money into it. But recently the daughter reneged on the deal and we've become dependent on the car to get the granddaughter we're raising to school. 

The car had about 35k on the clock and we are now at 70k. I remember her occasionally putting water in the radiator... and then she didn't. So last week the engine overheating light came on, smell of burning, steam, etc. Then she filled it up with water again. That's when I looked in the manual. My last car was a used Cortina in the 70s and in those days you just used plain water. Antifreeze was for winter, so this is all new to me. 

We had the same problem with oil. She never checked it or changed it (magical thinking) and we had warning lights come on one day - luckily close to home. After reading about the damage that can do I've insisted on having proper oil changes at B-Quik. They usually check a whole bunch of things. I had to pay for new brake pads and rear shocks this year but they haven't mentioned coolant so far. 

I suppose I'll have to ask them how much coolant flushing would cost. 

If it hasn't had a corrosion inhibitor in the engine for a long time, and corrosion has occurred, then you maybe losing water internally, which would be bad news, in modern-ish cars you rarely have to top up the water...

[ningnong]

26 minutes ago, orientalist said:

My last car was a used Cortina in the 70s and in those days you just used plain water.

If your last cars was in the 70s I recommend you read this to understand the modern cooling system. You should never need to take the radiator cap off or add coolant directly to the radiator except when doing a coolant drain and change or if the coolant reservoir goes completely dry. It sounds like your GF needs to be educated about how to check coolant, have the mechanic show her.

 

https://mechanicbase.com/coolant/how-a-radiator-coolant-overflow-tank-works/

Edited March 30 by ningnong

[orientalist]

Thanks. Since I'm being sucked into car maintenance I suppose I'd better educate myself about it. The gf is a lost cause as far as this is concerned. 

[proton]

12 minutes ago, orientalist said:

Thanks. Since I'm being sucked into car maintenance I suppose I'd better educate myself about it. The gf is a lost cause as far as this is concerned. 

 

She needs spanking! almost all of them are bothered about is if the car is clean or not. Oil, coolant,tires, brakes, battery,maintenance- they seem to think is just some foreign obsession and they don't need to do anything until car stops going😄

Edited March 30 by proton

[Korat Kiwi]

When I was working in Iraq, the truck drivers went with the motto... 

 

If it ain't broken, don't fix it. 

 

That included preventative maintenance.  As a result a lot of the trucks were buckets of do dos, held together with string and a prayer. 

[orientalist]

On 3/30/2024 at 9:42 PM, proton said:

 

She needs spanking! almost all of them are bothered about is if the car is clean or not. Oil, coolant,tires, brakes, battery,maintenance- they seem to think is just some foreign obsession and they don't need to do anything until car stops going😄

 

Exactly! That is exactly how she thinks! But woe is me if I don't fork out for the car wash every week. I told her people who love their cars clean them themselves, but she didn't buy it.

[orientalist]

In the end I bought some coolant online and keep it in the back of the car. Checking the water/coolant level regularly now, it doesn't seem to be going down, so perhaps no leaks.