rev up your engines,
today I'm going to help you answer the question, do I need to change the coolant
in my car, and to answer that question correctly I'll give you a little history
lesson, in my grandfather's day, they actually used alcohol mixed with the
water to keep it from freezing in the winter, but then when it got above 32
outside, the alcohol would boil off and then the car would overheat because
there wasn't enough cooling inside the radiator, so then they came out with the
first real antifreeze, which was ethylene glycol based, the classical green stuff
but again in my grandfather's day, they said oh that's a permanent
antifreeze you don't have to worry about it like the alcohol boiling off, so they
left it in, well they found out it wasn't permanent, over time it would corrode
and it would destroy the engines, so they had to change it every three years, because
the additives would break down, but that was called inorganic acid technology
IAT, but the inorganic acid technology has it's
downfalls, you still have to change it every three years, because the additives
break down and being inorganic, it conducts electricity better and there's
galvanic response inside that eventually it'll start eating up parts
of the metal of the car, but then in the 90s they started to come out full blast
with organic acid technology coolants, which can last five years one hundred
and fifty thousand miles, and some of the newer ones can last even longer
the newer oats or organic acid technology coolants, they last longer
they're less corrosive, they're less poisonous to animals if you spill some
and they drink it, and it's meant to be changed about every five years or
100,000 miles or so, so if you're the type of person that only drives their car
a hundred thousand miles or less, and gets rid of it, you don't have to
change it at all then, and to finish the history lesson, there's HOAT coolants
which stands their hybrid organic acid technology, like this pink toyota one
these HOAT coolants are the creme de la creme, they add silicates to protect the
aluminum, which the oats don't have, so it actually is best for modern aluminum
based engines, and some of them you can change them every seven years or 150,000
miles, now the reason these Hoat coolants can last so long, is that they
contain less electrically conductive materials
then the older coolants did, so it leads to less degradation of the rubber hoses
and the metal parts, because it doesn't conduct the electricity that the other
coolants did, now this might sound a bit crazy to you, but you can actually get a
voltmeter, you can measure the voltage in the coolant in your radiator system, when
it gets old and dirty and especially if it's an inorganic acid coolant, it will
conduct electricity that starts to eat things up and it can even mess with the
computer sensors of your car, and that's why I've gone to this hoat coolant, not
only does it last a long time, but it doesn't conduct electricity all that
well, so it doesn't mess with your electrical system and it doesn't cause
any kind of galvanic responses that are going to eat up the aluminum in your engine
but of course everything eventually breaks down, even the hoat coolant, they
say you should change it every seven years or 150,000 miles in a lot of
these models, check with your own make and model just to make sure when you
have to change it, but you can go a long time before you have to change it in a
modern car, and the important thing to remember is, when it is time to change
your coolant use the correct coolant, now the Hoat is the best, so if you want to
keep your car lasting longest in any car, if you flush the whole system out, you
can then replace it with Hoat coolant and you'll have the best protection
available, but whatever you do, do not mix the inorganic acid old green stuff with
the organic stuff or mix the organic stuff with the hybrid organic acid
technology, you want to use one type in your car and like I said, if you flushed
the whole thing out, then you can use whatever one you want, but the hoats are
the best, they're going to last the longest, so do that and I know people are going to say,
but Scotty the hoats cost so much money, they don't cost that much money
anymore, they did originally but now there's many aftermarket companies that
make them, and you might pay an extra three or four dollars a gallon, what's
that to the life of a car, and since this is mechanic Monday's, I'm going to give away
a gallon of hoat coolant, if you want to try to win just place a clean
non-offensive comment on youtube comments below and a computer will
randomly pick the winner, so if you never want to miss another one
of my new car repair videos, remember to ring that Bell!