truculent

It is freaking cold in Chicago right now. WIndchill is negative 15F.

I wanted to ad washer fluid for my washer blades, but I was in such a hurry that I put the fluid in the antifreeze container instead! It was completely empty for some reason and I took it for the washer fluid container. I don't know what I was thinking. I am not sure I was thinking at all.

I must have added like 1.5 liters, may be even 2, koz the tank was empty and then I over filled it, thinking it's the other one.

Now what da *** should I do? I saw on the bottle this **** contains methyl alcohol. Is that any danger for the gaskets in the block? Koz I'am really not worried about freezing the engine, koz this **** is antifreeze itself, even works as deicer, and on top of that when I changed my fluid in the summer I had like 60% concentrate and 40% water, even less water..

I am really pissed off right now at myself. This is the kind of thing my girlfriend would do and then I would nag at her forever.

But now I am the idiot : (

advise

!PrjctMax!

iTrader: (38)

I'm assuming you drove your car with it in there already?

Either way, try to drain as much as possible and then get the real stuff...Anit-Freeze

truculent

Yes, I drove like 10 miles already. It's too cold to do anything on the car myself.

If I have to pay a mechanic for a flush and refill, we are talking $80, and I dont want to pay that if I don't have to..

Again, I am only worried about the effect on the headgasket..

nlmaxima

iTrader: (10)

You can try sucking as much as possible out of the tank with a turkey baster.

markd248

iTrader: (8)

Couldn't you siphon out the majority of it? it'd be more efficient then a turkey baster and would probably be able to get the majority of it. It's just a guess. Good Luck!

mevjen

the head gasket isn't rubber, it's like a metal mesh, so it will be fine. your coolant system is designed to take ethylene glycol which is another nasty compound, so i wouldnt worry about it. Plus I saw mythbusters put in coca cola, bleach and some other nasty sh$t in the radiator with no effect.

Pearl93VE

iTrader: (14)

I would drain the radiator through the bottom drain valve/ take off the main hose. Get as much as I could out, and refill the whole system. It isn't exactly a fun job and you're going to be cold and messy... but hey, at least you're pretty much safe that way...

QNO_A32

iTrader: (7)

you should just take the overflow off the car,empty it out and just drain the radiator using the plastic screw on the driver side,than just top it off if you are really worried about it.should be fine.

ridersoftoob

i bet you are a tiki

andrei3333

here is what you should have done: not drive the car and turkey baster the fluid out of there

But since you drove it has now mixed in with the coolant...you should pay the 80 dollars if you care about your car, get a MACHINE Full flush with a coolant of your choice (nissan long life FTW!!!)

and about 100 to 120 dollars later you are done depending on how much the coolants costs you

njmaxseltd

iTrader: (19)

The bottle simply slides up and off it's mount. Simply remove the bottle, clean it out and put it back in the engine compartment, full of the correct fluid. Should take you no longer then a minute outside in the cold.

I wouldn't worry about the small amount of fluid that got into your cooling system.

Nightkid08

iTrader: (20)

If it was that cold here, I would just shell out the 80 bucks and get it done right without much hassle. You never know, 80 bucks now may save you $$$$ down the road.

Divewjason

I completely agree.

$80 dollars isn't so bad anyways. I'd pay $80 dollars if it kept me out of that cold weather.

ThurzNite

iTrader: (13)

I wonder how many miles the OP's got on that radiator, and what condition the system's in even before he made the mistake. There's people here who've had major issues after power-flushing their coolant system.

But as others have said, the amount of fluid sucked into the system, percentage-wise, is a pretty mall amount. Drain, refill, and repeat if paranoid... kinda like auto-tranny fluid.

Dr J

DrunkieTheBear

iTrader: (17)

Not to mention, if for some strange reason that it does effect your radiator or cooling system on the car. You could turn around and blame the shop for so they would have to fix it for free. I know it sounds low but thats the risk they take whenever they work on cars especially when they break your wheel studs (damn tirekingdom)

sascuderi

Driving 10 miles I would suspect likely not much got into the cooling system.

I would be more concerned as to why the overflow tank was empty to begin with. Could indicate you are loosing antifreeze?

truculent

Yeah, it was totally empty, and even after I started filling it took a while before I saw the tank starting to fill up. I am gona have some kinda repair to do in the spring.

If the gasket is metal I am going to leave it as it is.

Thanks for all the help guys, but the car is 97, although I just hit 100k miles the other day. There is nothing else in the cooling system that can get damaged and is expensive. My radiator looks terrible and should probably be changed anyway, and the other thing is the waterpump, but that I should change for regular maintenance also.

I decided to drive it like that and drain it later when it's warm enough to do it myself.

Thanks for all the posts guys

ThurzNite

iTrader: (13)

I have a 1997 with 215k miles. I replaced the radiator around 180k, but never had a problem w/the water pump. I don't plan on changing the pump unless it gives me problems.

Every year (about 20k miles), I use Prestone Radiator Cleaner.Throw it in there, drive 1 tank-full of gas (about 4 days), drain, refill with 100% water, bleed, drain, refill 50/50, bleed, test with Prestone Antifreeze Tester for exact 50/50 mix.

Dr J

mattynicks3

yep i totally agree. 80 bucks is better than a few grand for a motor. probly wont happen but you never know!

wpm3blackmax

I dont think it should do anything, but flush it or get if flused. Be sure to flush the whole system including engine block.

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

The first decent post in this thread.

It's frikken COLD there guys. he only drove the car 10 miles. and the overflow tank is simply that. it's very unlikely more than a couple of ounces of that stuff got into the radiator.
simply drain the overflow jug and fill it with 1/2 and 1/2 antifreeze/water and you'll be just fine.

505max94se

iTrader: (15)

Hey Matt, when did you become a mod? It probably would have happened a long time a ago if you hadn't been a sponsor... Congratulations!

Agent R31

it will be right i reckon, pull the bottle off and tip the **** out, then put some coolant back into it, nothing should get hurt, remember there are ****heads out there that run straight water, thats prob more damaging to an engine than anything else, (well mabey acid is worse LOL)

04BlackMaxx

I like my rims on the old max.

505max94se

iTrader: (15)

What?

clickclock987

He likes his rims.

505max94se

iTrader: (15)

What does that have to do with me?

hot_wax_tree

I wouldnt worry bout it to much man just get as much out by taking off the bottom line and you'll be fine. it's a VQ it can take just about any thing you can throw at it.

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

I've been a mod for a long time..
I was one of the original mods until I pissed off Sprint about 6 years ago and told him to stuff it. next thing I know, no more mod. oh darn.
they re-made me a mod back in '04 when I started planning maxus '05 ad have slowly been adding to my reign since then. they just gave me forum mod privelidges- couldn't ban anyone... until about 3 weeks ago.


...... don't **** me off. I'm itching get get my on again.