The freezing winter conditions experienced this year has seen a vast increase of the usage of engine coolant to help motorists’ vehicle engines run smoothly. There’s also been a huge amount of people choosing screen wash to enable good visibility and help them get to their destinations safely.
Kwik Fit conducted research into the amount of customers using screen wash and engine coolant over the winter, and their findings discovered that a large proportion of motorists are confusing the two liquids, which is causing major damage to cars’ engine systems and bodywork.
Not everybody will know this, but screen wash has a much higher freezing point than engine coolant. As a result of this, motorists can cause significant amounts of internal damage to a car engine, potentially costing the car owner hundreds of pounds to rectify the problem.
When mixing screen wash up with engine coolant, you can cause serious damage to paintwork if the chemicals come into contact with vehicle panels, and not only that; it has negative environmental effects too.
A high percentage of motorists are completely oblivious to the fact that choosing the wrong liquids to use in their car could be a costly mistake. Both liquids contain anti freeze but in very different measures, and this is attributed as potentially being responsible for the confusion caused. 3 million motorists stated that they have added the mixtures without even reading the bottle to find out how much the neat chemical product needs to be diluted by prior to administering the correct amount, and the majority do this without diluting the coolant at all. In doing this, the consequences could result in a failed water pump.
With regards to the coolant colour, two thirds of the people who were asked question were unaware that different colours represented different specifications of coolant. Not only that, the vast majority of companies who produce the coolant are not always consistent with the colouring of the product.
Ian Fraser, who is the Chief Executive of Kwik Fit, stated that it’s a very easy mistake to make as the two liquids often have similar consistency and colour to each other. He noted that the most worrying thing was that customers were unaware of the level of damage they could be doing to their vehicle should the wrong type of coolant be used, or the wrong product added to the reservoirs of their car.
I was about to top up my coolant (very low) and windscreen. I was aware of the difference but in a senior moment put the windscreen stuff in the coolant chamber on top of the boiled (cooled) water I’d already put in there. Should I have it pumped out before turning on the engine as the weather is very cold right now?