Yiou must have a better class of water butt than ours, John: I don't think the car would fancy some of the gunge in there any more than I would!

Thanks, Avant. I do clean my butt annually ;) and the tap is a good few inches above the gunge. On a dry day, all particles have either sunk or floated. And it is a slate roof, so no concrete contamination and certainly no corrosive chemicals as found in mains tap water.

I had a good lol at the comment about corroded steel impellors! The coolant would have long since turned from pink to the ferrous oxide orange one used to see 50yrs ago if that were the case. It's cheap plastic impellors that are the problem these days.

It seems folk don't realise that you need the oxygen in the air and water for corrosion to take place. Once it has been used up, corrosion will cease. There is virtually no air exchange in the expansion tank, it merely expands and contracts between the max and min marks according to the temperature and pressure. That is why my 16yr old pink coolant is still perfectly satisfactory.

If you wish to neglect your cars.......

.......according to what you write you do nothing apart from occasional fluid level checks and top ups.

I take great care of our cars - that's why they last for so long and have cost so little to maintain and repair. I do indeed do as little as necessary, but yesterday I replaced the front pads on my 36yr old 'unrestored' TR7, one of which was down to its last millimeter thickness.

Perhaps you should read what I write more carefully, Wackyracer.

Gentlemen, gentlemen, please. I'm dismayed that my innocent post has become the catalyst for so much unrest. :0(

My antifreeze is also pink and clear, but the level isn't what it might be, and its only going in one direction. I suppose I have two choices: stick a bit more of the same Ford fluid in the expansion tank to top up the level, or empty and start again with a compatible product.

I've more or less decided that I'd quite like to take the second option and have a go at changing the coolant altogether, and if air DOES get in during the refilling procedure then surely there must be a way of getting it out again?

Thanks very much for that.

I suppose there's also the potential, especially if this is the first time that the coolant has been changed, for the radiator drain plug to leak when refitted.

I'll cross that bridge (and probably return to this thread to ask for suggestions) if and when I come to it.

Sorry,radiator drain plugs went out with the Morris Marina.Circa 1970s !

Oh not they didn't!

1998-2004 Vauxhall Astra-G had a radiator drain plug, don't know about later models I haven't kept cars long enough since then to find out.

My 2007 Saab 9-3 has a rad drain point. And a block drain point. Very useful

True that lots of cars don't though.