My wife just put windshield wiper fluid where the coolant goes.

[brblx]

you'll be fine. if it was only a few ounces, there's not enough methanol in there to do any damage, i would think (assuming it would even have an effect on ethylene or propylene glycol at all).

my worry was that you had diluted your coolant with a gallon of water. fwiw i highly doubt your coolant overflow even holds a gallon.

 

[Doggiedog]

I second the siphon. I had that happen once too (got rid of the wife ).

 

[ecom]

Our mercedes has the coolant lines connected to the washer reservoir. Looks like if the car gets low on coolant, it will suck water from the washer tank

Are you sure that's what it's for? It could be to heat up the washer fluid.

 

[Cuhulainn]

Brblx - thanks, I hope you are right.

And you are correct that the overflow is not a gallon. Maybe a half gallon. I thought based on what she told me initially that she actually put the whole gallon in the radiator. Thankfully it wasn't that bad.

Dog- thanks for the input, but the wife isn't going anywhere. (Especially not anywhere near the car. )

 

[StageLeft]

Some of the newer cars from Mercedes and BMW actually have an elementary gender scan built into the hood latch under the dash. If you pull it and it detects you're female it literally will not open. They did this after an extensive poll found that women were putting in all kinds of things like windshield washer fluid where oil is supposed to go and pouring warm water into the brake reservoir in cold weather.

 

[randomlinh]

my worry was that you had diluted your coolant with a gallon of water. fwiw i highly doubt your coolant overflow even holds a gallon.

water alone will cool better, it just will corrode your system if left alone, heh. hence proper mixing.

But yeah, if you were able to fill up your reservoir tank w/o over filling it with a gallon of liquid, I'd be a little worried, heh.

 

[brblx]

water alone will cool better

not when it boils.

 

[StageLeft]

not when it boils.

Actually, I bet it cools really well then, just not for long!

 

[kornphlake]

I vote no harm done, windshield washer fluid is mostly alcohol so it doesn't easily freeze, which is the biggest concern this time of year, it may not cool quite as well as water + anti-freeze but again this time of year that's not a big concern. It's good preventative maintenance to drain and flush the cooling system periodically and now is as good a time as any to do so, normally it's recommended to flush with a little bit of dish detergent, which you shouldn't need to do now since the washer fluid has some detergent in it.

The procedure is dead simple, open the stopcock on the bottom of the radiator and wait for the coolant to drain, close stopcock, refill with clean water, run the engine until the thermostat opens, stop engine and drain again, repeat until water is clear coming out of the radiator. Refill with recommended mix of coolant and water and don't worry about it for a few more years. If you can't do this on your own you probably shouldn't be reading this forum.

 

[PricklyPete]

It is unlikely that much harm is done/will be done... but since this is the fluid that is routed throughout your engine block...I'd say get it flushed sooner than later. Getting the fluid flushed is generally inexpensive ($100 or less at most shops) and will be piece of mind that something didn't corrode and spring a leak because of the negligence.

 

[StageLeft]

Although I am quite sure your engine is going to seize within the next 100 miles, 200 at the most (honestly, I have seen this several times, the fluid is going to corrode your block faster than Oprah can down a donut and then into your cylinders and the engine is finished), on your next car the quick and easy way to replace this fluid yourself is to dump it out and refill it a few times. The procedure is a touch more detailed, so that you can be sure you have enough fluid to replace the old, but you can piecemeal replace most of the fluid simply with a bucket and a screw driver to take off the very easy to reach drain cap at the front. Then the bonus is you replaced your fluid, which you're supposed to do anyway per manual every 30k or so (in one of my cars it's after first 60k then every 30k thereafter).

I was joking about the engine, you're fine.

I was not joking, though, about the BMW and Mercedes gender sensor. Leave it to the Germans to do it right.

 

[Squisher]

I was thinking of this later that RV antifreeze is 100% alcohol (methanol IIRC).

I've never used it except as a solvent to remove die spotting blue.

 

[Nyati13]

Had the right fluid, wrong hole. (That's what she said.)

Can't belive noone has said this yet....

You should "right fluid, wrong hole" the wife in return.....

 

[Throckmorton]

Whatever you do, be careful. Coolant is VERY toxic. So is the methanol used for washer fluid.

For some reason, in this day and age, we are still using ethylene glycol instead of less toxic propylene glycol, and methanol instead of ethanol or isopropyl for window washing.

 

[brblx]

i don't think he was considering drinking it as a fix.