Duh! Dumped a gallon of washer fluid into coolant reservoir. (2016 Ram 1500)

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atreides

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I know I'll catch hell from a number of you for saying this, but going to say it anyway. Poster can use Prestone universal and will have zero issues with existing fluid. :cool:
Yup. As long as you flush the system out when switching coolant, you’re good to go.

Mixing some coolants (for example HOAT and OAT) is where the problems arise.

I think Mopar calls for MS12106 OAT coolant in these trucks? Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.
 

turkeybird56

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I know I'll catch hell from a number of you for saying this, but going to say it anyway. Poster can use Prestone universal and will have zero issues with existing fluid. :cool:
Typical NJ kid, lmao. FTR, I am a Shore BOIRD, lol.
 

Jeepwalker

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I think the guys gave decent advice. Sounds like it's time to replace the coolan anyway. Pull the lower radiator hose and drain ALL the coolant out, and install new (with distilled water). Or buy pre-mix. Try to get as much out of your heater core as possible. Changing fluid is routine maintenance and yours is a '16.

But it won't kill your engine even if you were to run it. My brother ran his 68 Mustang on 'beer' for several days ...and it ran fine. No 'hiccups' at all ..pardon the pun. Well, none we heard! LOL. He was meeting me at a car show, hose clamp wasn't tight (or something like that ...I wasn't with him)... and all he had with him was a case of beer. He tightnened the hose, put most of it in..I'm sure he kept a couple for himself & ran it (cap on the 'lose' position) till he had time to change it. It worked and the car seemed to like it :waytogo:

Edit: It was cheap beer though (you gotta know my brother)

.
 

turkeybird56

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I wish I was a kid again, living in Margate and walking a block to the beach everyday. Doesn't get much better than that.
You way South. I did work at Original Harrah's on Brigantine for a Bit. My beach time: Seaside, Point, Asbury, Manahawkin, that area. (Steel Pony Rocks !!!)
 

turkeybird56

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I think the guys gave decent advice. Sounds like it's time to replace the coolan anyway. Pull the lower radiator hose and drain ALL the coolant out, and install new (with distilled water). Or buy pre-mix. Try to get as much out of your heater core as possible. Changing fluid is routine maintenance and yours is a '16.

But it won't kill your engine even if you were to run it. My brother ran his 68 Mustang on 'beer' for several days ...and it ran fine. No 'hiccups' at all ..pardon the pun. Well, none we heard! LOL. He was meeting me at a car show, hose clamp wasn't tight (or something like that ...I wasn't with him)... and all he had with him was a case of beer. He tightnened the hose, put most of it in..I'm sure he kept a couple for himself & ran it (cap on the 'lose' position) till he had time to change it. It worked and the car seemed to like it :waytogo:

Edit: It was cheap beer though (you gotta know my brother)

.
Milwaukee's Best or Pabst? roflmao. (My wife was from WI, she drank that Milwaukee's junk, lmao).
 

indept

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I think the guys gave decent advice. Sounds like it's time to replace the coolan anyway. Pull the lower radiator hose and drain ALL the coolant out, and install new (with distilled water). Or buy pre-mix. Try to get as much out of your heater core as possible. Changing fluid is routine maintenance and yours is a '16.

But it won't kill your engine even if you were to run it. My brother ran his 68 Mustang on 'beer' for several days ...and it ran fine. No 'hiccups' at all ..pardon the pun. Well, none we heard! LOL. He was meeting me at a car show, hose clamp wasn't tight (or something like that ...I wasn't with him)... and all he had with him was a case of beer. He tightnened the hose, put most of it in..I'm sure he kept a couple for himself & ran it (cap on the 'lose' position) till he had time to change it. It worked and the car seemed to like it :waytogo:

Edit: It was cheap beer though (you gotta know my brother)

.
I can top that, 5 teen guys coming home from the beach ( in the late 70's), started running way hot about a mile from the toll Bridge into Pennsylvania so not having anything to put in it we each took turns peeing in the radiator. It got us home.
 

David James

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I know, I'm stupid. I got the truck last year (2016 Dodge Ram 1500 5.7 liter express quad cab)and so far I havent been under the hood much except changed the oil and filter (Royal Purple and replaced the fuel level sensor in the fuel tank) , You would think I could add washer fluid into the proper reservoir without screwing up. Anyway I dumped a gallon of rain x winter washer fluid into the radiator reservoir (which i guess needed checking too as it too was low,the coolant was at bottom of the dipstick.) Now what? I haven't driven it yet. I was thinking I can maybe drain the reservoir or try to pump it out? I'm not used to newer model cars.Normally I would leave it in there but from reading posts it seems the coolant has to be very specific and I worry this might cause problems. I did buy a "specific" gallon of coolant at autozone when i got the truck to have some coolant on hand to add. The guy looked up the type I need rather than the one kind fits all brands on the shelf. So i have a gallon of that at home. Anyone have any tips on draining it?
I’d suck it out with a MityVac or whatever means you have to pull it out. ShopVac would probably work
Good too. Then, I’d get to nearest reputable shop that does a radiator flush and refill. I’m a stickler anyway but this would be a great time for you to baseline a clean block, radiator and heater core, proper OEM spec fluid, and peace of mind. Brown coolant sounds not copacetic to me.
 

David James

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You can run it with the overflow bottle empty with no issues. Overflow bottles have only been used since the late 60's,before that they weren't used.Instead of dumping in a non-compatiable anti-freeze you'd be better off leaving the overflow empty.
Agree. But get down to a shop that will properly do a fluid flush or exchange ASAP.
 

Dusty

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Anti Freeze ...............................
2013 & newer Rams all use MOPAR OAT Coolant

If you have not yet changed anti freeze since you bought the Ram
To me the truck is a mystery .........

rely on the color of the coolant

The very best MOPAR OAT Coolant is suppose to be good for 10 years
But is that coolant in your Ram
What ever is in there may be 7 years old

Coolants to me should never be mixed, like if HOAT & OAT are mixed, you could very well get a radiator full of GEL

I don't know if what Autozone sold you is compatible with what you currently have in your Coolant System
I believe the change over was in 2014, but yes, newer Rams now use OAT coolant.

And like GTyankee recommends, coolants should never be mixed. I've seen a couple of cooling systems in the past few years that were pretty ugly, and in both cases coolant types were mixed. I wouldn't recommend using aftermarket types, either. It may say "OAT" on the bottle, but you have no way of knowing what other ingredients are different that could cause a chemical destabilization.

If you order on line be sure what you're getting. The most recent Mopar 10-year coolant is purple and is MS-12106 (PN: 68163849AB pre-diluted). A friend recently clicked on "MS-12106" and received the incorrect coolant from Amazon. The coolant matched the picture, but not what he wanted.

Regards,
Dusty
2019 Ram 1500 Billet Silver Quad Cab 2WD, 5.7 Hemi, 8HP75, 3.21 axle, 33-gallon fuel tank, factory dual exhaust, 18” wheels. Build date: 3 June 2018. Now at 83966 miles
 

rvance

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I put a half gallon of the cheap windshield washer fluid in the overflow tank 3 years and 30k miles ago. I realized that I had made a mistake, but I was on the road moving, pulling a trailer and under a deadline so I couldn't do anything about it. I looked at the coolant after the move and it looked OK. I need to schedule a service soon anyway. But it wasn't the end of the world.
 

terroraz

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I had a friend who would purposely put windshield washer in the radiator of his vehicles. He said it helped clean the radiator lol. He never had issues as far as I know mind you but certainly not something I would try unless I was stranded in the middle of nowhere and had to.
 

sam darakjy

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See if there is a specialty shop in your town, that only works on Automotive Radiators & Air Conditioning

They will do an excellent job & your coolant system will be almost new
Dealerships just do a quick job & it usually comes out good, but they don't seem to care as much
& the dealer charges more
I would not even play around with this and old coolant ect.. flush the whole system and add with proper coolant from Mopar. I would not take the chance of any rain ex in the system.
 

Jeepwalker

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As a thought, if you go to a small-town local dealer, some of the parts departments will pump OEM fluid out of their 55gal barrels into your container ...at a much lower cost than buying Mopar Coolant over the counter. Then you get the 'right' chrysler product. Our local Chrysler outfit does that.

My local GM garage does that too (for my GM vehicles). I mean you have to talk to the parts guy a while. It's real cheap and the right stuff. My GM buddy there says Shell is the only manufacturer of DexCool (regardless what brand a jug has on it). I haven't really researched it though. I just buy mopar coolant from Chrysler. They have a mini-mountain of clean milk jugs in the corner their workers bring in LOL. Easy to keep track of what's in what vehicle.
 

Rbertalotto

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A few years ago, my mother did this. We ran that car for near 100,000 miles with an Anti-Freeze / Windshield Washer Fluid mix......Never an issue.
 
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Lavictoire

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$5.00 batt. operated transfer pump from h.f is how I emptied my overflow tank when I did my flush.It worked great.
I used a Harbor freight jiggler siphon I had bought but never used yet. it worked great! What a cool but simple invention.I refilled with water to rinse and siphoned that out too. Then I added some OAT coolant. Watched the video on removing the bottle but decided not to. I would have taken it off if I had trouble siphoning the fluid.Still gotta get the flush done but I think I'm fine for now. You guys are awesome.
 

GlennRH

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I want to make the OP feel better. Somehow I put oil in windshield washer reservoir once! I found out when it started leaking on the driveway days later. The shop spray painted the oil fill cap. I still don't know what posted me to do that unless I had both caps off and wasn't thinking when I added oil.
 

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