I recently bought a 2000 Eldorado. Today I had the coolant changed, since I had no idea whenit was last done.I have read where flushing can be bad, so I took it to Sears and had them do a coolant exchange, not a flush. Their machine mixed the coolant and water at a 50/50 ratio. I am now reading where I should have used distilled water instead of regular water. What damage am I doing to my engine by using regular water instead of distilled? If I need to drain it, will it hurt waiting a few months?

 

Go back and ask Sears if they used distilled water, probably not, but I'm not sure.
The biggest difference between distilled and deionized water is that the deionized water may have some nonioinic contamination like bacteria or other types of microbial life forms which will not be present in distilled water. These nonionic contaminates can also be removed by filtration through a small enough pore size membrane. Do not use tap water.


Use distilled water.I don't THINK anyone will tell you that you can't wait 3 months this time, but we will see what others have to say regarding that.

 

BY THE GM SPECS, Sears must use distilled water.
IF they didnt, you got recourse .. Sears works by the Mfg Specs - Ask them.
Sears doesnt mess around trying to save a penny here and there - usually.

If you use tap water, it may be fine or it may be terrible. it all depends on the
mineral content of the local water supply. the minerals either deposit onto the
engine cavities as metallic scales or use up the corrosion protection in the
coolant. Either way, you lose. If you are not sure, change out the coolant in
12 months and you should be OK.

Unfortunately, many shops dont care or dont believe on the distilled water use.
A practice from the old days of the hose and iron engines. However, in these aluminum
cars, the condition of the coolant seems to be one of the most important items that determines
the life of these engines.

it didnt use to be that way, but with the intro of the alum engines, all the
rules have changed. The mentalities of the shops, well, that is another story.

 

so stealth...... at some point i read, "its not good to flush, exchange is better" or close to it....... . agree? and what are (pellets)....?
thanks
rickyd

 

it is the belief of this writer that the easy and perfectly fine procedure is to drain whatever
amount comes out, refill with a 50/50 coolant mix (with distilled water) .. i dont even try
to get all of the "old" coolant out. there is not point to that, except more profit for the shop.

you do that every 24 months and you should not have any corrosion or scaling problems with
any, and i mean ANY, cooling system of any Detroit engine. Alum or iron, or any combo of that.

THAT is what i practice and have been for many years. My days of "flushing" came to
an end when i stopped and thought about the ACID in the chemical flushes.

Chemical flushes are for engines in poor shape, mostly to clean out the badly corroded
passages, not for clean and well maintained engines. Between my cars, all of them in excees
of 100,000 miles, NOT ONE FLUSH .. simply drain and refill every other year.
I would not flush the coolant system any more than i would flush the crankcase.

Pellets .. i add one to every gallon of refill .. other have different opinions, i just tell you
what i do with my vehicles that are ran well beyond the normal speeds and conditions,
year after year. Either very high speeds, heavy traffic manuvering, towing, mountain driving.
Often in 110F heat, sometimes closer to 120F (Baja).

A/C always running once the ambient hits 85F.
The A/C or AMBIENT CONTROL always OFF, below that.
I dont like to run the compressor full time, there is no point to be wearing down the compressor
like most everyone i know that has ambient control ON all of the 365 days / year - every car i got
has operational A/C - the OEM original.

I also do run the A/C compressor once a month, even in winter time - keeps the seals and parts
well oiled and flexible.





AND, for those that question that, I lived in Syracuse and Schenectady also.
Same coolant maint i used there .. never, never a problem.