I'm going to The French Alps next week, paring outside where it will regularly be -15 or even colder. Car recently serviced by a UK main dealer (v expensive....) and the coolant/antifreeeze was checked as per their protocol.

Will this be adequate antifreeze protection, or should I supplement the radiator antifreeze with something extra? If so, what?

Thanks!

Sufe
If the service was done properly by an approved LR main dealer or service centre then you have no need to "add" anything to the coolant system. The specification is a specific gravity of 50% +/- 5% antifreeze solution (hydrometer reading giving approximately 1.068) which will given a protection down to minus 40°C.

Her Ladyship's FL2 stays outdoor all year round in these Swiss Alps and has had no problems. Lowest temperature we record for a cold start (from memory) was minus 27°C.

If you want a very simple check, just draw off a little bit of coolant from the header tank and put it in your freezer overnight. If it is not pure liquid in the morning you have a problem. If it is starting to go slushy, you know that -15 ish is going to cause you a problem. If it is an ice cube - do something about it now!
Disclaimer; This is not an absolute test but, without special equipment will give an indication of your coolant state.!!!! On the other hand it may just show that your freezer isn`t working very well Don`t drive faster than your angel can fly!

nicam wrote:

If you want a very simple check, just draw off a little bit of coolant from the header tank and put it in your freezer overnight. If it is not pure liquid in the morning you have a problem. If it is starting to go slushy, you know that -15 ish is going to cause you a problem. If it is an ice cube - do something about it now!
Disclaimer; This is not an absolute test but, without special equipment will give an indication of your coolant state.!!!! On the other hand it may just show that your freezer isn`t working very well

Cautionary Note
Putting a sample in the freezer overnight may well establish if you've got a sample fit for -15>20°C, but, if he's staying in any high exposed (i.e. parking outside) alpine resort you are not going to account for an inevitable extreme nightly wind chill variation.

That's why LR set the standard as protection down to minus 40°C. If in doubt pop into a friendly garage and get your coolant properly tested to be assured of protection

yes good point athelstan, never considered the wind chill factor in the equation.

Iain

But windchill does not have any effect on the actual measured temperature. It only affects the rate at which heat is removed from anything that is above air temperature - windchill normally refers to the effect the wind has on you - a warm object! You will feel colder on a windy cold day than on a still cold day as the air moves past you taking away your heat energy. An inert object just "tracks" the ambient air temperature and is not affected by windspeed. This is why weather forecasts often say "the temperature will be 6 degrees, feeling like 2 degrees in the wind"
So, your car engine and coolant will cool down quicker, after parking up, on a windy day than on a still day due to air movement (the same way your engine needs air moving through the radiator to lose heat whilst running, and if you are not moving it needs to artificially move the air with its fan), but it will still only drop to the same temperature of the air around the car, it cannot go any colder.
The only exception would be a wet object which would use some of the heat energy of the passing air to evaporate the water, but this wouldn`t apply to 1) a car radiator/ engine which should be dry and 2) in the Alps below freezing where water is not, normally, in its liquid state. Don`t drive faster than your angel can fly!

I'll go along with 'nicam', the car and it's components are inanimate objects and unnafected by windchill except to drop it more quickly.

Last edited by EYorkshire on 16th Jan 2012 5:33 pm. Edited 1 time in total

i'll go along with Sufe,


take me to t'Alps, and report back any findings when i pop out from the piste or pub

yes temp is temp, wind wont make it any colder, that is unless a cold wind blows and makes something colder then it gets colder not wind chilled if you see what I'm saying At work
At home

"I can't always believe facts I read on the web" - Charles Dickens

winner by default of the tractor vs caravan race

logically I would still think that a cold wind would cool an object to a lower temperature than if there was no cold wind blowing ??

Iain

Logically it would seem so, physically it cannot lower the temperature from the ambient. A car sat in -10 will still be -10 with a howling wind. A human body in -10 will be cold, add a howling wind and it will "feel" colder as the rate of heat loss is greater, hence wind chill.

iain cooper wrote:

logically I would still think that a cold wind would cool an object to a lower temperature than if there was no cold wind blowing ??

Iain

but the temperature will not be lower than the air temp of the wind, so no wind chill is involved At work
At home

"I can't always believe facts I read on the web" - Charles Dickens

winner by default of the tractor vs caravan race

The temperature is lower.

Don't believe me - that's okay.

But when the tempest of a winter storm on a January night blows (or any other night time in the winter) I'll not go outside at 02:00hrs dressed as I were the previous early evening just because you or anyone else told me that at 19:00hrs it was minus 10°C so it will be the same now.

Wind + winter + night = reduction in temperature over and above same altitude in daytime in calm conditions. You get hypothermia (or your engine block) - I and my engines survive.