Red Line Water wetter user review

[userfriendly]

I purchased red line water wetter during the last transshow in mega mall.

Cost 470 pesos, show price.

My Venture's temp goes up higher than I like. It creeps to half just past 1/2 on long uphill climbs or after getting stuck in traffic after a long highway run. I had the radiator Lavramoned last April 2008. Put in a fresh 50/50 mix of water and coolant. It helped a little. Temp maxed out at 1/2. I was still not happy.

Saw the water wetter and bought it. The lady that sold it to me insisted I use pure distilled watter with it. I read their documentation and it seems that water wetter is more effective when used this way. However, it is perfectly safe to use with coolant. So not wanting to waste fresh coolant, I dumped the entire bottle into my reserviour.

Note, it comes in 12 ounce bottles. They recommend 1 ounce of water wetter per liter of water in the cooling system. My car's cooling system is a little over 11 liters. And I have a huge reserviour so I was able to just put it in. If you have a samller expansion tank, or want to put it directly inside the radiator, you may have to remove some coolant.

Used it for a few weeks and about 600 kms. My temp guage has not reached 1/2 since i used it. Hignest it reached it one line below 1/2. I estimate each line in my temp guage to be about 3.5C give or take. This is spot on with the manufacturers claim. Route is the same. However, weather is different. Summer is over and its now raining a lot. So I'm not sure if weather has an effect. I'm very happy with this product. It seems to have solved my problem and would use it again. Maybe try it with pure distilled water.

http://www.redlineoil.com/products_c...ubCategoryID=4

[[archie]]

hmm havent heard about this product yet... siguro kung time to drain the radiator na ulit, ill take a look at it... do they have smaller bottles? like mga 5 ounces lang?

[userfriendly]

one size only

[speedyfix]

sorry for the shameless plug but RP's purple ice is available too. 16 oz container and similar to redlines product

[youngrider]

Pag napanis na ang 'glycol mix' ko change narin ako sa 'surfactant' parang mas matipid pa ata especially if distilled water lang ang mix.

Magkano kaya yung Purple Ice ng RP.

[userfriendly]

I might have written the review too early. last night my emp guage creeped to 1/2 again. 3 times driving from Lipa to Manila. Each time I was able to get the temp back in the normal by turning on the heater for a few mins.

Ano kaya ang problema? No detectable leaks, coolant level is ok, t-stat was tested last April 2008 and it was fine. Was not able to check the fans, will see next time i drive this car.

[mbeige]

If it's been raining lately the moisture traps a good amount of heat so your car might have difficulty removing the excess heat.

If it's any consolation, temp gauges of MB's fluctuate. Sometimes it's around 82-85C, sometimes it's around 90C, sometimes it's up to 100C but as long as it cools down once you get going you should be fine. If you're stuck in traffic and the temp keeps rising, then you have something wrong, but if it remains constant, then you should not worry about it.

[userfriendly]

Thanks Mbeige. You may be right. Its just I'm OC about engine temps. I get freaked out when I see the pointer going up to 1/2. I'll just keep an eye on it.

[speedyfix]

have you checked the radiator itself? might be clogged. baka time to have a lavramon type service done to it.

[userfriendly]

have you checked the radiator itself? might be clogged. baka time to have a lavramon type service done to it.

Here's my cooling systems history
April 2006 replace 50/50 mix of coolant
Aug 2006 stupidlly fell for a gas saving device messed up my car
Nov 2006 removed fuel saving device and replaced upper rad hose car normal again
April 2007 replaced rad cap and coolant sensor (thermoswitch)
May 2007 solder fan connector poor contact causing fans to run weird
April 2008 lavramon done bec car running hot during uphill climbs. t-stat checked and found to be good. New 50/50 mix put in.
May 2008 add redline water wetter

Throughout all this time, I have needed to add a little coolant every few months. No leaks detected. No sign of oil in coolant. No coolant smell from exhaust or from engine oil.

[mbeige]

Running hot on uphill climbs is normal especially if it is steep, if you have a heavy load, and combine that with harsh conditions, since it's more effort to run uphill than on level ground, just like walking uphill takes a considerable amount of effort compared to walking on level ground.

How's the water pump? Is the radiator original? Despite following routine maintenance, the chemical reactions that transpire when water runs through metal will still lead to corrosion, and prevents sufficient cooling. Sometimes instead of a lavramon, a citric acid flush is done to declog not just the radiator but also the water jackets in the engine. If you have a heater, running the car with the heater on allows this flush to also clear up the heater core and corresponding parts. I don't know if Lavramon is similar so I'm just throwing out the idea to you.

Also what kind of coolant do you use? Some generic ones like Prestone don't always have the necessary good stuff in it. By the way how many km/miles did you rack up during the course of your cooling system maintenance (April 2006 - May 2008)?

You mentioned you have a reservoir. I do know that the reservoir is not pressurized, so if cooling solution (50-50 coolant/water) were to pour into that bottle, it had the opportunity to evaporate, so when the radiator cooled down, allowing it to suck back the cooling solution it poured into the reservoir, the reservoir will seem to have lost some fluid, to which you just top up. Just a thought, because if it's a closed/pressurized system, and it still loses some fluid, then you have a real problem.

[userfriendly]

How's the water pump? Is the radiator original? Despite following routine maintenance, the chemical reactions that transpire when water runs through metal will still lead to corrosion, and prevents sufficient cooling. Sometimes instead of a lavramon, a citric acid flush is done to declog not just the radiator but also the water jackets in the engine. If you have a heater, running the car with the heater on allows this flush to also clear up the heater core and corresponding parts. I don't know if Lavramon is similar so I'm just throwing out the idea to you.

Have not checked the water pump but I do not notice wet spots in the morning.

Radiator is original. About 6 years old. The citric acid flush is similar to lavramon. lavramon is basically a chemical clean of the radiator and water jackets using an acid and a machine to pump it. They start by removing the t-stat and connecting the machine to your car. They then pump in water and pump out the old coolant. They did this several times until clean water came out. They then pumped in the acid and rinsed till clear. No sign of rust, just old coolant came out. It did smell pretty bad.

T-stat was tested, returned and a new 50/50 mix put in. Engine was off the whole time so I dont know if the heater core was cleaned out or not.

Also what kind of coolant do you use? Some generic ones like Prestone don't always have the necessary good stuff in it. By the way how many km/miles did you rack up during the course of your cooling system maintenance (April 2006 - May 2008)?

Used Prestone before. New coolant (after lavramon) made by Total. Just the green stuff. Manual says use dexcool but I'm wary of this stuff after reading a lot of horror stories on the net. Anyway, maunual did say that if I use other coolant, just change sooner. Dexcool is rated for 5 years service life. Did about 26.000 kms in 2 years.

Forgot to add in the maintenance history, I had the cooling system pressure tested around May 2007, no pressure loss. mechanic used a hand pump with a pressure guage. Dont know what the device is called.

[youngrider]

Coolant - ok
Radiator -ok internally, but do the air flows freely through its fins wala bang 'papogi' modifications na ginawa sa harap ng sasakyan.
(-) Leaks
Thermostat - di kaya napalitan w/ higher temp opening
Water pump - ??
Exhaust Restriction -??
Cooling Fans- ??
Lean burn- ?? lean mix in petrol engines is hotter while in diesel engines it
it is the Rich mix that shoots the temperature up, more black
smoke more power but hotter.

Di kaya ganito talaga ang original setting ng cooling profile of this particular car. Anayway, modifications can be made to make the car run cooler.

[userfriendly]

Coolant - ok
Radiator -ok internally, but do the air flows freely through its fins wala bang 'papogi' modifications na ginawa sa harap ng sasakyan.
(-) Leaks
Thermostat - di kaya napalitan w/ higher temp opening
Water pump - ??
Exhaust Restriction -??
Cooling Fans- ??
Lean burn- ?? lean mix in petrol engines is hotter while in diesel engines it
it is the Rich mix that shoots the temperature up, more black
smoke more power but hotter.

Di kaya ganito talaga ang original setting ng cooling profile of this particular car. Anayway, modifications can be made to make the car run cooler.

1. no mods. car is tock except for a sound system. no connection with cooling naman.
2. t-stat is original from car, not replaced.
3. H2O pump - needs to be checked
4. exhaust - stock
5. cooling fans - seems to be ok
6. lean burn - engine stock no mods air filter replaced last dec 07.

Anyway, I think and hope there is no problem. I drove from Manila to Batangas City to Lipa City yesterday around noon time. Very hot weather then sudden down pour at Star toll near Balagtas exit, then hot again. Temp only touched 1/2 once after exiting Star Toll. Went down to normall quickly.

I think that since I drive mostly on the highway, the airflow keeps the car cool. After exiting the highway, the stop and go traffic cuts off the airflow and this causes the temp guage to go up. The fans will then sense the hotter temp and blow at high speed, cooling it down again.

I'm just concerned cause this car model is known for overheating. Dont want to get stuck in SLEX or Star.

[mbeige]

Looks like you're OK naman, maybe you're just too paranoid. I've been there myself. You've done your HW anyway so enjoy the fruits of your labor for now. A little change is normal especially when coming to a stop from a highway run (imagine the hot oil circulating, that the radiator needs to cool down, in addition to the hot coolant, and the use of AC).

If you can't sleep because of this have the radiator replaced na. Check mo muna kung ok pa yung plastic niya, sometimes after a long time the plastic necks break, or yield at the weakest points.

[speedyfix]

check the fan connection. baka may problem ulit from there.