Distilled Water In Car Radiator

Distilled or steamed water is best as it is void of any type of metals that can promote rust from the inside of the various systems it flows through.

Distilled water in car radiator. Older car radiators used to be made from copper and nickle and would last a lifetime but cost too much to use these days. Thus the best mix for a climate like ours is a 10 90 or 20 80 mix of antifreeze coolant and distilled water. Taking that for reference with quite high temperatures in our tropical climate philippine car owners may use a proportion of 20 80 coolant and distilled water or even higher of 10 90. As it chemically removes electrons from the metals of cooling system components distilled water eventually does extreme damage that could lead to cooling system failure.

Even worse it is sweet to the taste. If you are faced with low coolant levels in your car s radiator do not just pour in pure coolant. Remember that the 50 50 mixture of the two is recommended in the extremely cold weather so that the water won t freeze. But to answer your question distilled water does not contain sediments that can clog or corrode radiator cooling tubes such as calcium and lime.

Ethylene glycol is extremely poisonous. Continue reading below we want to use distilled water and not ordinary tap water that has minerals to prevent lime scales from forming inside the cooling system. For it to achieve its necessary thermal range coolant must be mixed 50 50 with water. Most if not all cars manufactured in the past 10 years do not recommend using water in the radiator but use specialized coolants that supposedly never need to be replaced.

While this is good in theory what this does not take into account is the distillation process. This leaves distilled water ionically hungry so it will actually strip electrons from the metals in a cooling system as it attempts to chemically re balance itself. The thought process here is that distilled water has had the minerals stripped from it and will not leave build up deposits in your hoses and radiator. Mineral free distilled water is a safer bet but you still run into the problem of rust and corrosion forming on metal cooling system components.