The dealer is wrong about electrical charges in distilled water. In general, car dealers are not the best chemists! Distilled water has no impurities, either ionic or non-ionic, having been boiled and condensed. Deionized water has just the ionic impurities removed, like Ca++ (calcium), Na+ (sodium), etc. There would still be OH- and H3O+ ions, because these naturally exist in water. Either one is perfectly fine to use in the cooling system, provided it is mixed correctly with anti-freeze.

If I were being kind, I could give the dealer partial credit for their answer because it is true that if distilled water were used without the corrosion inhibitors present in the anti-freeze, it would corrode the metals in the engine faster than water containing the typical Ca++ ions. But I'm not going to go that far.

 

You rock man! I did not buy the maintenance manager's words. The guy wanted me to sign a paper that would be filed in my car's file. Stating the BMW is never resposible for any damages and/not providing any warranty on the cooling system, water pump or even the radiator. Now, I feel forced to keep and use BMW coolant. I know that BMW's coolant is the best out of all OEMs' but I'm still convinced that distilled water with water wetter is the best solution. I've started adding distilled water to the existing OEM coolant just to decrease the concentration of the anti freez and I'll add water wetter once received.

After all, I've only one concern:
Over years and extremly hot conditions like we run here in Saudi, we've found that all coolants are not suitable for cars. What happens is, the glycol or whatever inhibitor there, get's hard and forms some solid form like silicon. This blocks the radiator pipes and affects the efficiency.

Add to the above, the efficiency of water over coolant for heat transfer.


Any way, the bottom line is that I'm forced to keep using my coolant till the warranty expires, then I'm free to choose, as per the maintenance manager. I feel sorry for all the questions and posts here, but I'm pretty sure that someone else will find it so helpful.


Thanks guys.

 

This antifreeze/distilled water thread has gotten me a little confused. If the point of using distilled water is to make for better cooling, it fails miserably:

Water- freezes @ +32 degrees F/boils @ 212 degrees F
50% AF/50% water- freezes @ -34 degrees F/ boils @ 265 degrees F
70% AF/30% water- freezes @ -84 degrees F/ boils @ 276 degrees F

Above the 70/30 mix, it starts to head back in the other direction, no gain.

All antifreezes now, other than the old 'green' type, are OAT (Organic Acid Technology) additives, which increase anticorrosion inhibition from 50,000 miles to 100,000 miles- it's still just glycol,-green, red, pink, yellow or whatever. The color is a manufacturer added dye.

Some of the additives help prevent cavitation wear on aluminum; water just cavitates- look at and old aluminum boat propeller for an eye-opening example.

European antifreezes do not contain phosphates (their water is generally harder and can cause sedimentation) while American/Canadian/Japanese antifreezes usually do. Phosphate is a corrosion/acid inhibitor.

Glycol has lubricating properties that help wear and tear on the waterpump shaft seal.

What's the point in running pure water?

 

Pure water has 2.5/3 times heat transfer capabilities better than the 50/50 coolants. Pure water with water wetter is used for racing cars and for cars running in very high temps like here in Saudi, Texas, Afria and those very hot areas. Imagine that you get 2 times better performance from your cooling system just for chaning the liquid.

Actually, other opinions think that: Using pure water with water wetter just makes the heat transfer circle faster but does not reduce running temprature at all.

 

Another thought: race cars change and flush their cooling systems after every race. No chance of contaminant or acid buildup in the system.
True, water has roughly 2 times the thermal conductivity of glycols (.67 vs .25) and twice the heat capacity (4.181 vs 2.38) but with even the addition of a small amount of antifreeze, say 30%, you won't lose much in cooling capacity, but will gain a bunch in engine protection.
Add Water Wetter to help with heat transfer, and you get the best of both worlds, more or less.

 

Hey guys, I've been using Water Wetter for couple of days now and yes, it rocks! I feel the car more active and resposive. I drained about half of the coolant, added Water Wetter and some distilled water. I guess this is the perfect cobination since RedLine recommend at least 15% of the 50/50 for street cars. Man, I love it and I feel the difference. I'm gonna order the plate holder very soooon.

 

Hey k-huevo,
I've applied 100% of your recommendations. I've got the Water Wetter added to my BMW coolant and got the front license plate moved to the right side of the car. Results??

 

Nice balancing act: moved it far enough over to gain more airflow without quite blocking the foglight!

 

Thanks man!

 

Keith and the rest have steered you well. I run about 15% antifreeze, WW, and DI water in all my cars. Great combo.

Have fun.

Matt

ps, what happens if you don't run a front plate?

 

Haha, love the numberplate Marwan.

 

Yeah, I did drain abour 40% of the coolant, added distilled water and Water Wetter. I think I'm on the right track then.

For the front plate, it's not allowed to drive a car without front/rear plates. I live in Saudi and traffic rules are like that!! Sometimes they make me a problem having the plate on the passenger side and not the driver's. They claim that the plate should be on the driver's side since the policeman approaches from the driver's side and should see the plate clearly. I don't know, this is it over here!!!!

 

Thanks BPB, those are the ones in Saudi and they are written in Arabic
The first 3 characters on the far left are numbers, then a space then the far right 3 characters are letters. This is how we have plates over here.

P.S. You can never customize a plate here, they are provided by the government and you should run them "AS IS".