cold weatherizing

[getyourgunn]

this may be dumb but does antifreeze go bad? if it does how do i know? also i changed my oil, and cleaned the throttle body, is there anything else that is necessary for winterizing my car?

[hill8570]

Antifreeze doesn't really lose it's antifreeze / anti-boil properties, but it will get corrosive over time. Worth changing out every couple-three years. If you're not sure you've got a good 50/50 mix of water / antifreeze, you can buy a little jiggy at the auto parts store that you can use to suck up a bit of coolant and it'll tell you what you're protected down to. Thermostat and radiator cap worth changing every 5 years or so (with OEM), but it's not necessarily a "winterizing" thing.

Oil...go with a bit lower viscosity if you're using dino oil, or just go with a synthetic that meets the oil cap specs (usually 10W-30 for the Gen3 / Gen4 rigs).

If your battery is getting close to end-of-life, you may want to change it out so you don't find out it needs changing in the middle of a parking lot. Even if you don't change out the battery, pop off the connectors, and give the connectors and the battery posts a good wire brushing -- maybe even slap a bit of conductive paste on the posts before you tighten the connectors back on.

Oh, and make sure the tires are in good shape. Ice skating with a car sucks...

Almost forgot -- make sure you've got a windshield washer antifreeze mixture appropriate for your winters in the washer tank...pure water or "protects down to freezing" ain't gonna cut it in Ohio...

[the_professional]

Antifreeze does go bad, it takes a while if it sits.

But, more often than not anti-freeze gets contaminated, by dirt, rust particles, condensation, stuff like that. & it looses effectiveness. You may just want a slightly more antifreeze mix for your car.

[mazdaverx7]

antifreeze is measured by its ability to resist freezing. there is a neat little tester you can buy to determine what its freezing point is. where in OH are you located?

[Hajoca]

The other purposes of anti freeze is to lubricate the pump bearing/seal, and also prevent corrosion.