Car's just over 4 years old, wondering if it is wise to change coolant/ antifreeze, anyone have any idea how long it keeps it's antifreezing properties. Battery is also orignal, so probably on it's last legs.

Probably wise to change the battery, they always fail in the cold
re the antifreeze, take a small sample from your radiator, place it in a jar in the freezer overnight, and see what happens.

Thanks Charlie, I did try that freezer trick last year.

Um....service? Shouldn't that have been done at each service?

Ethylene/Propylene Glycol should be right, it shouldnt go 'off' but if you are getting some corrosion through your cooling system you might want to just change it over. Manufacturing specify anything between 40-80,000km to change your coolant.

I personally wouldnt worry too much about the battery, just inspect it and make sure there is fluid in there and she should be right. Take some jumper leads or a powerpack if you have one and are worried, but the crap that mechanics and the RACV spin about batteries only lasting 3-4 years is rubbish, IMO.

It's been seviced regularly at a Subaru dealer, I am sure if it was part of the schedule they would have done it. I'm sure the coolant's fine, I was just think about it's antifreeze properties below up at the snow.

Anti-freeze/coolant should be checked with a anti freeze tester (hydrometer) which will show the temperature range that the coolant will work to.

For maximum protection it is important to allow for the wind chill factor as well as the ambient temperatures, especially at Mt. Hotham.

This video link shows the test procedure

http://www.ehow.com/video_2328529_test-antifreeze.html

Anti freeze testers are available, at relatively low cost on ebay

http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_from=...-All-Categories

If you're wondering about your battery you can do a load test. Mechanics can do it or you can buy the gadget pretty cheap. Except if you're in Australia where nothing is cheap. Oh well. My experience is 5 years works for most automotive batteries, and that's in a cold climate compared to Oz.

Thanks for that, I work in a lab so have access to density measurement, just have to find out what the SG should be. It might just be easier to change the coolant, don't think it's that expensive as long as you avoid the "Subaru Coolant".

It just doesn't get that cold in Aus, seriously pretty much anywhere you are allowed to drive / park a car in Aus is below the snow line. The whole windscreen wiper / antifreeze / whatever else you see or hear about from alpine regions overseas just doesn't really apply here. Chains being the one exception

And I say this as someone who has lived and worked in the snow here and O/S. The worst problem I ever had, was being unable to start my V8 ford in Crested Butte after 2 nights of minus 40. (and we were living in it at the time) Turns out the engine oil from Arizona wasn't really suitable for those Alpine temps.

Sorry, I would have to disagree as someone who had to be towed of Hotham by the RACV. We had walked to the MUMC hut near Feathertop one Anzac day weekend and it started snowing on the last day on the way back to the car. We got geographically embarrassed in the snow and mist along the razorback and found that the car wouldn't start when we finally got back to it. We planned a night in the Diamantina hut but after a quick phone call to Hotham resort ( no mobile phones then, must have been a landline) one of the Hotham guys picked us up and took us back to a lodge that was being renovated. Can't remember paying for the accomodation and we had a gourmet breakfast provided by one of the guests. Turned out to be the chef from Howquadale, Marieke. Got the the car towed off next day to Bright and it turned out that the Welch plugs were blown, could have been much worse. The car was my old mans, I was driving it while he was O/S so didn't think of antifreeze, but in these day coolant/antifreeze was not standard. So what is minus 40 in Celsius?

I've also got to add that all the resorts in OZ AFAIK are above the snowline!

Engine antifreeze is inexpensive and virtually all modern engines are designed with it intended for use as a coolant. Follow manuf specs, typically it is diluted 1:1 with water. I would want some windscreen antifreeze too if I was parking overnight at a resort or around snowline, even in mild Aussie temps. The water lines to the spray nozzles are small and it would be easy for them to freeze. Roads above the freezing mark are always sloppy and there is a constant spray of gunk coming from other vehicles. Washer fluid will be needed and it's no use to you if it's frozen.

Are you serious? Really?

Wind does not make the temperature of metal any colder than the air temperature. It only makes the metal cool down faster until it reaches air temperature.

yup, ignore this, you have no idea what you are talking about...
ive had my windscreen wiper bottle freeze more then a dozen times, and ive been involved in 2 cars of which the engine failed due to coolant freezing, one the block cracked the other it blew the intake manifold gasket, water pump gastket and cracked the radiator, that was in my own car at falls, and the block in a friends car at buller.... both car parks are above the significant snowline, and both carparks get WELL below 0.



This situation has always bothered me, metal is highly conductive with temp, meaning it can gain, and lose heat very easily.. im not sure about the wind issue, but have you ever been out to your, when it hasnt dropped below 0, say 2-4 degrees, a normal winters night in melbourne, and your car is covered in ice?

how has this happened if the car hasnt dropped below out side air temp?




and inregard to the coolant, it should be fine, but if your worried, take it into subaru and get them to swap it, i think suabaru do it at the first "major" service, then one before 100k where they do the belts.
200 bucks for peace of mind.

in saying that, i havent changed my commodores antifreeze for 6 years (150000kms). It is still green and it still passes the freezer test.

Good question. My guess is black-body radiation. The same reason warm slushy wet spring snow freezes rock hard on clear nights even though ambient air temp had not dropped below zero overnight. Snow absorbs lots of day-time long-wave radiation. As that long-wave radiation leaves the snow on clear nights it cools to below ambient temps. The same could apply to your car surface?

Either way, wind will not cause the metal in your car to cool below ambient air temperature. Metal and wood etc are not influenced by wind chill.

And yes, water in cars will freeze in Australian mountain areas based on my limited experience. I rented a camper van and the water in my sink pipes froze overnight in the NP at a lower altitude that the Perisher carpark.

The reference to wind chill was to highlight the effect that it has to reduce a warmer engine to the lower ambient temperature very quickly, similar to a Blast Freezer when used for vegetables, prawns etc.
The wind chill factor can not reduce the temperature of the engine cooling system below the ambient temperature, no matter how great the wind velocity. Temperature testing with hydrometer is important because it accurately shows how low the temperature can go before the coolant will freeze and is much more accurate than a simple “sample in the freezer test” as winter alpine temperatures will often be in the minus range.

Wouldn't your freezer be at -18

Temperatures are measured in a Stephenson screen, not on the surface of your car. Both will always be different.

And by the way, I add methylated spirits as well as washer solution to my windscreen washer bottle, and it works.

Well I'll be stuffed!
The things you learn here!

Generally the engine isn't exposed to the wind. The body panelwork protects it - at least it does in mine.

-40F = -40C

Conversion formula is:
(where c is deg C, & f is deg F) f = c/5*9 + 32
-40 is the only temp where they have the same value.

Yes. Frosts are caused by black body radiation to space. It is why you do not get a frost on surfaces that cannot see the sky (eg. Under a tree). But it has nothing to do with "long wave radiation" or anything during the day, radiative heat transfer is a function of temperature. It would not matter whether it was a warm cloudy day, you could still get a frost at night if the sky is clear and local air temps cool.

"wind chill" is simply a human term it has no impact whatsoever on car radiators when a car is moving the wind created by the movement of the car in general far exceeds the external wind speed anyway. at any reasonable speeds (say 10km/h + the airflow through the radiator is turbulent and convective heat transfer is limited primarily by the internal heat transfer coefficient, not the external one ... Therefore wind has SFA impact.

Wind chill is actually an impact of evaporation of sweat on human skin which is why it is related to the velocity.

So to sum up..........
Put a sample of your coolant in the freezer!
KISS

RACV reckons av. battery life is about 3.5 years.

Have just replaced mine after 4 years cos it got flaky last winter. Went for max cold cranking capacity anticipating a good few sub-zero starts this winter (and this month in the outback).

Coolant I change every year. Nulon make one that they claim is good for two years.

Subaru say you should use their stuff; dunno whether this is a sales con but for a few bucks extra I won't risk losing a claim.

I'll do that, it did get a bit complicated, didn't it?

Ziggy, what battery did you get for your Subaru? I was looking at Repco but open to suggestions, also might just change the coolant wouldn't do any harm. Have read that you should use 1 part coolant and 1 part distilled water which seems ridiculous but I can get RO water from work.

Yep do that! it will work perfectly well

Yep. In Norway we used to buy bottles of washer fluid every time we filled up, but you can use metho in a pinch.. We used to go through mother loads of washer fluid!

Weerab, dunno the brand I'm afraid. I get the RACV to swap them over in my driveway and they also do a basic health check. IIRC std is 450 amps; RACV max was 600 amps but you can find 650 or so from retailers.

After the swap you may have to give the ECU a chance to relearn about idle speed. It can die at low revs and leave you without power steering and brakes in the middle of a roundabout; a pain. I did that by starting cold and letting her idle to op. temp twice.