Bleeding radiator

[iandromiskin]

Can anyone tell me, or point me a thread, how to bleed and re-fill the radiator with the correct ratio of water and anti-freeze ? Need to change the water in mine as it's not in proportion.

[PSL184]

Depends how cold you want want the protection to be. A hydrometer will tell you what temp you are currently protected down to. A 70/30 mix should be OK for -20 but no harm in a 50/50 mix if you want to either. Pre mix in a watering can before puring in the rad.....

[bmcecosse]

I reckon winter is past - so don't worry about it !

[JOWETTJAVELIN]

erm... just bung a few glugs of antifreeze in and make the rest up with water.

remember that antifreeze is also a coolant and helps prevent corrosion, as well as being poisonous and detrimental to paintwork.

[alainmoran]

When I lived in Arizona they used pure anti-freeze (I suspect pre-mixed) in their cars, except they called it 'summer coolant' ... they do it this way because of the better thermal transfer characteristics you get from using anti-freeze.

[David53]

Coolant also manages to find all sorts of little leaks that plain water doesn't...

[bmcecosse]

There are 'improved' coolant liquids - but I have in my mind that antifreeze is actually NOT as efficient as water as transmitting the heat from block to rad - although I doubt there is anything significant in it. Especially as the Minor has a relatively huge rad anyway.