We've had discussions about washer bottles, but do radiators ever freeze and crack any more?
It was -10 degrees in Warwickshire yesterday when my Father started his car for the first time in 8 days. It's garaged, but garage is unheated. He was just wondering on the likelihood of a frozen radiator - needless to say it isn't.
I remember a short pre-dawn run in 1985 or so in an MG Metro on a freezing morning. Pulled up and switched off but could hear this crunching sound... it was the icy slush melting in the radiator header tank!
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Engines now use anti-freeze all year round for it's corrosion inhibiting properties, so cars go into winter with it already present. In the old days people used to run on plain water during the summer and if they neglected to add the anti-freeze in time that's when they had problems.
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Reading a couple of the Corsa B online forums (useful source of info for my daughter's Corsa!) it would seem teenagers buy their first car spend loads on customising it but don't realise it's running on just water as a coolant. Several cases of frozen solid motors recently and how do I defrost them on these sites.
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>> teenagers buy their first car spend loads on customising it but don't realise it's running on just water as a coolant.
Or is it the coolant colour doesn't match their radiator hoses, HT leads and whatever other colour coding they've done under the bonnet so they just use water?
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Chap i see quite often finally got round to putting some anti freeze in his 307 2 weeks ago, several times it overheated driving to work, he'd stop for a while let it thaw out and carried on.
How he got away with -8 without serious damage i shall never know, mind you i haven't seen him since the day after he put anti freeze in, so quite possible any resulting damage hasn't yet showed, indeed may not till the weather gets warm.
It goes to show just what can be lurking about in the classifieds just waiting for the unwary, he intends to sell it soon anyway.
I really could not neglect a vehicle in this fashion, and quite beggars belief that computer savvy younger bloke's can be so mechanically ignorant with the information now available.
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Years ago my friend, for reasons no-one could ever fathom, refused to put anti-freeze in his Austin Cambridge. He filled it every morning in winter and drained it again when he got home at night.
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It's one of those mysteries about the old days that I suppose will never be solved - why on earth did they .....?
Old motoring books often warned about the dangers of a radiator freezing before the thermostat had opened causing the apparent paradox of the engine overheating. The only logical answer seems to be that they hadn't invented antifreeze, and when they did, some people went on being stubornly prejudiced against it.
A bit like dishwashers.
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Going back to my rookie motoring days in the seventies I can remember people who were frightened to put anti-freeze in because of it's propensity to find any weak spots in the system and leak. Back then seals and hoses were not as good as they now are and more people ran old nails on poverty budgets so I suppose it had a sort of logic.
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>>..to find any weak spots in the system and leak>>
I recall always having a bottle of Bar's Leaks handy.....
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Didn't BMC or British Leyland or whatever fit a leak stopper as standard during build? I know you could get it in solid (stick) form from dealer parts departments. Things have certainly moved on, I was on first name terms with the staff in those days, now I cant remember the last time I was in a parts department.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sun 26 Dec 10 at 16:22
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We used the block type one's and called them dog turds.
Pat
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>> We used the block type one's and called them dog turds.
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>> Pat
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Excellent description !
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My recollection is that old cars never had expansion reservoirs for the radiator. Water would be added directly to the rad. When the car ran hot the water would expand and be lost from the system thus requiring to be topped up from time to time. This would of course tend to dilute the anti-freeze. It was therefore necessary to check and replace the the anti-freeze as necessary in the autumn.
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I cerainly remember on the Ladas they often needed new radiators. Overheating was a very common problem with them but it never seem to hurt the head gaskets, I made a thread about that on HJ a couple of years ago.
Same with my dads iron block it over heated three years ago due to a failed thermostat but it never hurt the HG.
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Rattle,
There was probably so much play between the mating surfaces on those old things it didn't matter how much the metal expanded they could never seize ;-)
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I recall back on a bitter January morning sometime in the early 90s a friend called me round to his house one morning to see if I could work out why his mk2 Cavalier wouldn't start. Not only were the rad hoses completely solid, but the water pump had been forced an inch or so from the block on a lump of solid ice. Cambelt had obviously been stripped of its teeth too.
The engine was scrap.
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>> mk2 Cavalier.. rad hoses completely solid.. water pumped forced on a lump of solid ice
That's harsh. A friend of mine left his MkI Astra over a sub-zero Christmas in the early 90s with only water in the cooling system and all it did was push out the core plugs.
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I recall a Winter journey with my now late father-in-law in his Cambridge (or Oxford). He'd stop at almost every lay-by to wipe his screen with a filthy old rag. When I asked him why he didn't use the windscreen washers, he couldn't reply. He didn't know what they were!
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Do radiators ever freeze these days? - Robin O'Reliant
