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Appreciation post: The $15 coolant tester that saved me $900
I hit 150,000 miles on my 2012 Honda Civic last Thursday and decided to check the coolant instead of just ignoring it like usual. Picked up a simple prestone tester for like 15 bucks at AutoZone and found out my coolant was basically water after 3 years of neglect. A full radiator replacement quote from my local shop was going to be $900 plus labor. Instead I spent maybe an hour draining and refilling with the right 50/50 mix (and a new thermostat for 30 bucks). Has anyone else gotten way more life out of a part just by testing fluids regularly instead of waiting for something to break?
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the_sean2mo ago
You mentioned "three years of neglect" - did you just get lucky with the coolant being basically water, or had you noticed any symptoms like the engine running hotter than usual that you just brushed off? I'm curious because my Focus has been running a little warm lately and I've been doing the same "ignore it until it breaks" routine, which is probably STUPID but also way easier. A fifteen dollar tester sounds like a no-brainer compared to dropping nine hundred, but I bet most of us would still rather gamble than spend the hour under the hood.
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dakotam172mo ago
Oh MAN @the_sean, you hit the nail on the head. I COMPLETELY ignored the warm engine thing, just figured it was the fan or something dumb. Turns out I got LUCKY, pure dumb luck. That fifteen dollar tester is a total no-brainer, I swear it takes like five minutes. But yeah, most of us would rather cross our fingers than pop the hood.
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