Hello Folks,

 

I want to test the strength of my engine coolant before the onset of winter. I have one of those testers which consists of a glass tube with a rubber bulb on one end and a float inside the tube which has a scale on it (rather like a thermometer). The coolant strength is determined by the point on the scale at which the liquid causes the float to float (if that makes sense).

 

My question is: Is this gadget suitable for testing the strength of VW G13-type coolant?

 

Thanks in advance for any help.

Yes! I have g13 and the hydrometer tester and it works fine on g13.

A simple device but very handy maintaining the correct strength coolant.

the device you're describing it's called densitometer.

it measures the density of the coolant.

problem is you don't have access to density-freezing point conversion table for each specific coolant.

service manual says 40% coolant + 60% water mix freezes at -25C and 50/50 mix freezes at -35C.

I trusted the manual and in Russia it's cold, really cold.

I had never had problems with the 50/50 mix.

Thanks guys.

 

I could probably calibrate by densitometer by testing it in pure water and then in a 50/50 mixture of water and G13. Then I should get a fair idea of what's in my car's system.

What do you think?

 

Winter here gets down to about -10C on a really cold night. On rare occasions I've seen it down to -15C.

Good video - thanks for posting that Dohnjoe.