what i heard is house pipe water got clorine that can make our radiator rusty..
better use mineral water orr wanna a cheap one the water from machine rm0.30 per litre

errr.... this i dunno wor... never bother even my radiator is rusty inside... as long as not overheating can adi la...

No it's not the chlorine it's the ions/minerals in the water that cause corrosion because engines are made of different metals and when these metal come in contact with each other or a conductor eg. water contacts both metals one or the other will corrode, it's a chemical reaction. Using mineral water will also not help only distilled water a.k.a battery water is totally inert.

Strictly speaking, the battery water u can get from the stores nowadays are not distilled water. It's actually diluted acid.

Distilled water = Reverse Osmosis water.

So for the best mixture, one should premix the coolant with the correct ratio of RO water b4 filling up the radiator.

And the brownish residue is calcium.

Can't be diluted acid bro, it's too dangerous even in dilute form and also adding acid will upset the specific gravity of the acid in the battery which will kill it. Only distilled water doesn't do that. Maybe some do add some acid into it but i doubt it as it's sold for 1-2 ringgit per bottle, the cost of having equipment to add acid at the right amount safely will be wayyyy to expensive

my car has this problem b4 and i didnt bother it untill 1 day the engine overhaul. i think lake of engine oil or maybe the oil mixed with water.. the workshop said the gasket leak.. they he said changed it and show me its like a piece of thin layer thing im not sure.. cost me around 4-5k including changing the piping and pump or wad i also dunno.. so exp.. after change ok, fine.. used for few week then i open the radiator cap and i saw still alot the brownishhh oil.. WTF? i call and asked he said those oil is from previous one and stuck at radiator need time to slowly fill and pour it out? my question, is it true? or anything should i do now?

edit: btw my car is a 1999 benz A160 Auto

This post has been edited by vailance: Jan 27 2009, 12:36 PM

Look, for only RM1, u can guess how 'diluted' it is. Btw, they don't add, they mix b4 filling the bottle.

Don't believe? Get a bottle, pour some into ur hand. Does it smell & felt like distilled water? It's kind of oily.

Further, if ur hand has a tiny scratch or wound or whatever, once in contact with battery water, u'll feel pain.

Try it.

Better still get a bottle of battery water that is being sold and pour some on lime stone and see the action. Battery water should be dislled water which we can drink without without any side effect.

i wanna see u try drinking some battery water :

i belanja u

What are you talking about? diluted acid cant cost rm1-2? read the contents of your battery water bottle,most do come with acid added in it.Squirt some on the road,you can see it fizzle.Water doesnt do that.

Mineral water has minerals.

RO,air suling,distilled water is pure.Even rain water is not considered distilled nowdays..

Go to Carrefour and get the green colour labeled bottles
called "Process Distillation".

I've filled my radiator with that and it seems to run a little
cooler, with the temperature more stable than before, even
though I am driving a very old car.

The most beneficlal effect of using distilled water in your
radiator though, is that there will be much reduced scaling,
since there are no minerals in it.

Less scales and somewhat lesser rust = less corrosion and
blockages.

i'm sorry. a newbie question here. can we flush the full aluminum radiator?