Wrong Fluid in Coolant Tank

[FPrice]

"A friend of a friend" made a little mistake. This person was trying to top off his windshield washer tank and accidentally poured about a quart of washer fluid into the coolant before realizing his mistake.

One quart in an 18+ liter coolant tank. Is this a problem? Should he be concerned? Other than taking a refresher course in reading the caps on the various tanks under the hood.

 

[22hemi13]

Dang. Curious about this one too. I triple check cause it seems easy to do.

 

[tron67j]

Well, if friend did not run engine yet you could suck it out. But if it ran, it may have no long term impact. It is made up of a fair amount of alcohol so some may dissipate over time. They are about 6% diluted from pure coolant, but will probably see a need to add more coolant as alcohol will be removed, so percentage will drop even more.

 

[Usmc341]

No worries. Tell "your friend" water is actually a more efficient coolant than antifreeze. The alcohol content is negligible, as is the total amount he mistakenly poured in.

 

[huntergreen]

My wife did the same thing to our 4 month old grand cherokee. This was in 2004. Realized her mistake didn't start it. I sucked it out with a shop vac and sent her on her way after refilling. No idea how these new antifreeze formulas react to the windshield fluid. If he started the engine, I would have the cooling fluid flushed out and replace.

 

[buddy guy]

I put about 1 quart of washer fluid into my 2018 Eam antifreeze overflow over a year ago. No change in protection lvl or rad temp and thats after our hard winter as well. Too many yrs of vehicles with washer fluid tank there.

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[tap4154]

I almost made the same mistake the first time I put windshield washer fluid in my Ram. I'm not a fan of these goofy symbols. Also the coolant tank on the Ram is where the windshield washer tank was on my Ford, a vice a versa with the coolant tank. So tell your friend of a friend that he doesn't have to feel too bad about this

 

[kmrtnsn]

Alcohol, an ingredient in windshield washer fluid should never be mixed with the new coolants. So yes, it is a problem. Drain and flush the reservoir. If the engine has drawn from the reservoir have the cooling system flushed.

 

[John Jensen]

That coolant is probably 95% water. If so, that would mean 1.6oz of nonwater. I wouldn't worry about 1.6 oz in an 18 liter system.

I believe you have nothing to worry about.

And as far as the above statement, "Alcohol, an ingredient in windshield washer fluid should never be mixed with the new coolants". Google says: Add 70 percent isopropyl alcohol to your washer fluid to prevent ice on your windshield.

 

[SitKneelBend]

I will pile on...I would remove it. I say this because these newer coolants do strange things when mixed with other fluids. I've seen them look like they coagulated when mixed with something other than the same coolant (especially when mixed with other coolant types).

That being said, you'll "probably" be ok, but if it were me I'd be thinking about it every time I drove... wondering if today will be the day I found out I was wrong...oh so wrong.

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[Goram17]

I did I mean a friend did that on my I mean his truck very upsetting , I pulled the grill breaking two of those snapon"keepers"made me more upset drove to 3 different dealers to get replacements first one didn't have it but gave me part number and found one at another and the other one at another what a pain so I just throw water at windshield now hahaaa

 

[Sandevino]

@FPrice what vehicle is your friend working with? There may not be any immediate chemical reactions depending on what coolant is in there.

Washer fluid has alcohol in it which boils at 180*. This will dilute your coolant and %it will not hold up to the upper and lower temperature extremes.

Like others, I recommend flushing it.

 

[FPrice]

Based on the various replies, we are going to have the coolant drained, the system flushed, and re-filled with MOPAR anti-freeze.

I plan on keeping this truck for a long time, might as well invest in good maintenance.

Thanks for all the advice.

 

[Daddyhas2boys]

Proper flush and fill should mediate the problem, but due to tge fact that its almost all water/alcohol it shouldn't be to detrimental, regardless i would flush and fill in the front yard for a couple hours

 

[Scottyshortbus]

When I did my flush and fill I wrote the coolant type next to the cap, partly to avoid doing what your friend did.

 

[TRINK]

The garage where I get my oil changed told me the last time I was in they had top off my washer fluid and on my way home after using the washer to clean my windshield the low washer fluid light came on when I got home I checked and the mechanic had top off my coolant with the washer fluid its been over a month now haven't had any issues as of yet.

 

[SitKneelBend]

The garage where I get my oil changed told me the last time I was in they had top off my washer fluid and on my way home after using the washer to clean my windshield the low washer fluid light came on when I got home I checked and the mechanic had top off my coolant with the washer fluid its been over a month now haven't had any issues as of yet.

They owe you a flush and fill...

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[NY_Sparky]

Been there, done that, with my 2010 Ram. I goofed early on in ownership with that truck and did the same thing. I agree with the "it's not a big deal" crowd. I drove that truck for about 100,000 miles before I traded it in, never had an issue.

I do blame Dodge/Ram though... its a poor design choice, focusing more on aesthetics then functionality, as is clearly identified by everyone here who has made the same mistake.

 

[TMyers]

Contaminates in the coolant is not good. There are seals, o-rings and gaskets this could effect. It may not be an issue today but it could cause problems down the road.

Here's an issue I had. My CTD 2500 had a recall on the water pump. I took it in and had it replaced. That winter, I had almost no heat in my truck. A while later, I went to the dealership's parts department to get some antifreeze. They tried to sell me HOAT coolant, my truck uses OAT. I am convinced they added HOAT to my system when they did the water pump recall. With advice from this forum, I flushed my heater core and it was full of a thick creamy like slime. I think it was the HOAT's negative reaction in my coolant. After the flush I had heat again. I guess the fins in the heater core weren't large enough for the slime to freely pass through.