What engine do you have? This is the general car talk section.

 

My car has no antifreeze in what so ever by looks of it, I also used an antifreeze tester, one of them floating ball things and none of them floated.

My question is can I open the expansion tank, remove a litre of the just water I assume is in there, and then put a litre of antifreeze/coolant straight into it.
Thanks

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you could do that but it would probably have to be more like 4L out & then top back up again to get the right mix etc.

its a 50/50 mix of anti-freeze & water normally so loads has to come out, you might as well disconnect the bottom radiator hose, let the current water drain out & maybe even let loose with the garden hose & flush out some crap from inside the engine etc too & then properly refil with the correct mix of stuff completely.

( the coolant in the engine is supposed to be changed out every 10 years anyway for the OEM stuff & most mk3 mondies are now reaching that age so best doing it anywhoo

 

imo, if you're in any doubt as to the concentration of antifreeze in the engine, change it so you do. You do not want to go out in the middle of winter at -12 degrees, trying to defrost your cooling system, and the water pump has frozen. I found out the garage i got the car from had done a "full fluid service" which included changing the coolant for tap water the hard way.

Needless to say, in my bloody cold pursuit of a working cooling system, which took probably a bath full of hot water, taken backwards and forwards out to the car in watering cans, it now could probably sit parked up in yellowknife, alaska and not freeze.

 

Good advice thank you!
And haha I wish mine could sit in Alaska too and not freeze.
The car was my dad before I owned it but he only had it for a few months, which is when it did snow last January..
The car never froze on him he told me, yet I checked it and there doesn't seem to be any antifreeze in it, bit weird.
Not sure what I'll do yet!

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My car has no antifreeze in what so ever by looks of it, I also used an antifreeze tester, one of them floating ball things and none of them floated.

The floating ball thingies, which work on specific gravity, aren't totally reliable - they work well(-ish) with normal antifreeze, but give wrong readings with propylene glycol stuff (which is obscure, I'll admit). For reliable readings on any antifreeze, you really want one of the refractive index thingummies (although, that's probably all irrelevant, because you probably do have naff all antifreeze, if you can't smell it).

its a 50/50 mix of anti-freeze & water

usually between about 1:2 and 1:1, AF:Water. The UK doesn't reach such peak low temps as some of Europe so you can probably get away with the lower conc (but see whatever the AF supplier recommends on the container), but you wouldn't get away with that in some of the more landlocked parts of Europe.

And also, some suppliers sell you pre-mixed AF, and you shouldn't be adding water to that, so read the instructions.

If you don't know what AF was previously used, you may want to try to get the 'compatible with either type' AF, otherwise you have to bet on what was previously used (probably the standard Ford OAT, but, in these circumstances, who knows?).

Also, be careful what water you use; hard water will deposit in the same way that it would in your kettle, and you really don't want an insulating layer inside your cooling system.