The coolant is essential for the operation of the engine of our car, since in addition to making it not hot, it allows it to work at optimum performance.
More common, cheaper, we can find it anywhere … Can You Use Water As Coolant In a Car ? The answer in 99% of cases will be no, in this article we will tell you why.
Differences between water and coolant
Water is good coolant, but it is not explicitly made for cooling a car. Can You Use Water As Coolant In a Car ? Here we tell you what characteristics the cooling liquids have that water does not have:
- It absorbs much more heat and has the highest boiling point (water has it at 100ºC). All this allows to increase the cooling capacity of the system avoiding overheating and other problems. In addition, we avoid the change of size due to the changes of the parts due to the change in temperature that can lead to wear.
- The freezing point of refrigerants is lower . Water freezes at 0 ° C and its surface expands, which can cause problems and breaks inside the engine.
- They have components that help regulate temperature such as monoethylene glycol, monopropylene glycol or glycol.
- Contains additives that stabilize the product, protect against foaming and even help identify leak points.
- Unlike water, it does not have corrosive or harmful elements for the car’s cooling circuit, such as oxygen itself or lime.
But, then, it is not possible to pour water into the refrigerant circuit? In an emergency, yes. If we have to drive and there is a loss of coolant it is better to pour water than not to add anything and end up breaking the engine. In fact, it is better to add water than coolants of other properties to which we have.