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Water instead of coolant?

14K views 32 replies 16 participants last post by  Strange Mud 
#1 ·
My waterpump started leaking today pretty decently and I'm also burning coolant a little I think, I can smell it out of one of the tips and not the other so maybe a headgaskwt, it's not smoking though? I can't I get my car Into any dealership in the lower mainland for warranty work for 3 weeks, unless I want to pay 50 dollars a day for a rental. Which I don't. I was wondering how bad it would be to drive with water in the coolant system instead of coolant. Because by the looks of it the way im leaking I'll be all out of coolant in like 2 days. I live in Vancouver so the weather is like 30degrees Celsius all day.
 
#2 ·
Water can work in the short-term (so you can hobble to a garage). If it's going to be three weeks, why not just buy a couple of jugs of the pre-diluted stuff from your local Ford dealer and dump that in as needed?

Also, is your car still under warranty? The water pumps are known to fail, so it may be covered under warranty. When they do replace the pump, make sure they replace the degas bottle hose with the upgraded one that has a check-valve in it to prevent air from being sucked into the water pump and destroying it.
 
#3 ·
I wouldn't run the coolant system on just water. The boiling point would be too low and you'd get steam if that's all you had in there. Then there's buildup from the evaporated water in your system depending on where your getting your water. For the meantime you could just run cheap antifreeze or you could check another dealership. Water will get you to where you need to get it fixed but not as a daily driver.
 
#4 ·
I second this motion!! Trust me you don't want to run just water for 3 weeks. Either a mix of coolant and water or pure coolant but definitely not pure water. I would even watch it with the water coolant mix.... those water deposits are a killer to radiators!!!! And just a fair warning, that steam that he is talking about can crack your block, not to mention the radiator and the rest of the damage. Save yourself the trouble, follow advice from above.
 
#5 ·
ditto the above, get some cheap coolant and also distilled water and put in x amount of one the first time then x amount of the other the second time and keep alternating so you don't have a whacked out balance of either until u can get it in a shop. check to c if there is another dealer that can get u in quicker.
 
#9 ·
You guys are funny...... Water is great coolant but it's corrosive look it up. Water doesn't have lower boiling point than anti freeze. Anti-freeze doesn't really raise boiling point like you think maybe only 5-7 degs. IT'S pressure cap that raise's boiling point because you raised the pressure. Just like putting something under vacuum it lowers boiling point. Yes you can boiling water at room temperature under vacuum.


Yes straight anti-freeze will freeze
 
#11 ·
What this guy said.

Running straight water is perfectly fine minus the corrosive part. Antifreeze is not there to keep the water from boiling, it does raise the boiling point slightly but that is not its purpose. It is there to keep the water from freezing in the winter and to keep water from corroding the parts inside your engine. What keeps the water from boiling is the pressure in the system. As pressure rises so does the boiling point. At 15psi the boiling point of water is around 250*. This is the reason why if you pull a radiator cap on a hot engine you get instant steam. You released the pressure and suddenly the boiling point drops below the current temperature of the coolant, instant steam.

It should be perfectly fine running water for the short term, if you are going to run it for more than a couple days or do a long trip add some antifreeze to it.
 
#10 ·
I would run h20 only w/o worrying about it for a short period of time. It used to be done a lot in the south to save $. Yes, corrosion can occur but for a few days...relax.

5.0coyote has it correct with the % changing freezing/boiling point.
 
#13 ·
Okay thanka for the advice guys. Is 3 weeks too long to be running water? Because from yesterday to today I drove about 50km and had to fill up my rad about 3L when I got home, and antifreeze ain't cheap. I don't have another vehicle and I have to get to work somehow
 
#16 ·
If it wasn't leaking so much I'd go for it. I would be afraid it'll just keep getting worse. Did it go through 3L in 50Km or did that include leaking overnight? If it's just driving I doubt it will last 3 weeks. I've seen pumps so bad they throw the belt which can cause collateral damage. If you decide to run it make sure to fill it often and carry lots of h2o
 
#14 ·
I would pay the $50 per day. Letting that aluminum engine get low on water can cost you a lot more. You could run a water pump lube and anti rust additive. Just make sure you get one that is compatible with aluminum. That would be a lot cheaper than antifreeze. I would not let it get 3L low.

jim
 
#18 ·
Yeah I went through the 3L while driving, when the cars off it doesn't leak since I guess there's no pressure? But yeah I keep water in my car now and lots of it. You can smell burning coolant out of only one exhaust tip and the other smells just like exhaust, which is why I thought maybe a head gasket. But I don't know how a leaky waterpump would cause that? It's not smoking but you can certainly smell it out of one. I couldn't be bothered to pull my plugs and see if they're all shiny from steam.

My dad has a bmw and my brother a Dodge and they've been able to drop their cars off and get a courtesy withing a day, I'm pretty disappointed aha. Do you guys have to usually wait at the dealerships you go to for warranty work? I'd totally understand if like I had a cosmetic problem, but this could potentially cause my engine to seize.
I called Ford just to see if they'd comp the rental car if I went with that dealership and they said no =(
 
#22 ·
I can say Sean Varone (Internet Sales Mgr) at Estabrook Ford in Pascagoula, MS. always gets me a loaner if my car needs to stay overnight. If I buy another new mustang, he's my guy! :grin:
 
#19 ·
^ Have you PM'ed Deysha, the Ford social media rep on the forum? She can help get someone from Ford Corporate involved and perhaps get the dealer to comp you a loaner/rental.

Otherwise sad to hear you are having the "Ford Dealership Experience" that many of us have shared.
 
#21 · (Edited)
Antifreeze or water alone are no good the overall fact of it is that a functioning coolant system needs pressure to work properly. If your leaking and have no pressure your engine is getting hot no matter what's in there. I work with large Diesel engines and have seen them fail just from a faulty rad cap. I'd say bite the bullit and get the cheapest rental you can if its going to cost you 3L a day then it's going to be expensive anyhow so I bet you can probably get a rental for cheap before you cause damage to your engine. An unpressurized system causes your water or coolant to become oxygenated and creates bubbles which wreak havoc on a motor. I know it's only three weeks but running something that doesn't work properly is always a bad thing.
 
#24 ·
No, that was my point. Cooling systems as they are used today require pressure ONLY because the addition of water lowers the boiling point of the ethylene glycol to a point that is too low to handle the heat generated by the engine. Adding pressure compensates for that lowered boiling point of the mixed coolant. If you could ignore the other reasons for not using pure ethylene glycol, its 387 degree boiling point would be more than sufficient without any pressurization at all.

Yes, a faulty radiator cap can wreak havoc with a cooling system that is running normal mixed coolant because its boiling point is only about 230 degrees at normal atmospheric pressure. But if that same vehicle ran pure antifreeze instead of a mix, the bad pressure cap wouldn't matter.
 
#29 ·
It's a v6 Yeah I'm positive you can smell the difference and I pulled the plugs too on that side and they were shiny. I don't know why it's not smoking though?
 
#30 ·
http://www.allfordmustangs.com/foru...57088-mustang-v6-2011-water-pump-leaking.html

the above is one of the threads about the V6 pump leaking....idk about lack of smoke but if it is a head gasket (or worse) if all of a sudden you get a deluge of water into the cylinder your motor will be toast. Are you still under wtty? It is a risk you'll have to decide but I would try hard to get it to a shop sooner than three weeks. If it's out of wtty replace the pump yourself (or pay someone) and see what happens. Not in the above thread about the degas hose and replacing it with the updated version depending on what yours is.
 
#31 ·
Hey guys, um I was driving my car today and I have no leak..... My rads full and I drove it for like a solid half hour, temperature gauge stayed right in the middle.... I have no idea what happened you can still smell the old coolant that did leak out and see where is leaked I swear I'm not an idiot aha. Anyone have any idea at all as to why all of a sudden it stopped leaking? I ran it in the garage too to make sure and yah there's nothing.
 
#32 ·
That is odd.
Try warming the car up so the cooling system is pressurized and then turned on the interior heating system.

Maybe coolant is leaking onto the exhaust, not coming from it?

Since this leak is a bit of a mystery, I am just walking through the possibilities process of elimination.
 
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