It's been suggested to me by someone in the field to do a coolant flush sooner than recommended to prevent various engine & parts from internal corrosion. A simple test is to stick a volt meter across the neg terminal and coolant. Ideally there should be zero (0) voltage across. In reality this is not the case, but as coolant ages its electrolytic properties increase. Left uncheck, the coolant itself can become a battery and eat away at the various surfaces it's in contact with.

On my car at ~16K miles, 3 1/2 yrs old I got a reading of .23 V. From some online research done this is within the acceptable range. Goal is to do a drain/fill sometime this summer which should refresh some of the coolant.

Thoughts?

 

Someone watched Motorweek today.

Coolant Check | MotorWeek

 

You learn something new every day!

Would be cool if you can light a small LED with this new found power source haha

 

Motorweek was a contributing factor . This was actually suggested to me sometime last year but I never got around to it until now.

I should see what our brand new honda measures out at. Car has less than 500 miles and is really practically brand new.

What values are others seeing?

.2 - .3V isn't really enough to drive an led as those typically need ~2V. If the coolant is producing that much, you've got _big_ problems.

 

I have 9 year old coolant in the wife's Volvo. Going to check right now.

 

.11xV in the brand new honda. So much for 0V from the factory.

 

Just did a drain and fill. Immediately prior, the voltage was 0.15V, after it was 0.05V

 

How much coolant did it take to just do the drain & fill rather than a flush?

 

What year is the car, how many miles on the coolant?

 

Following a drain and fill as outlined here, post #14, the new voltage level is ~.04 - .06V. Big difference from the .23V I had earlier.