New answers tagged coolant-leak
0
I too have a 2006 Mazda3 with everything leaking. First the water pump was replaced, next a gasket or seal, don't recall the name, and a cap. Still leaking from a hose that is a 2.5-7 hour repair job. Second mechanic thinks it is a head gasket. Wish the first guy figured that out instead of running up my tab up 2K without fixing the source of the problem....
1
It very well could have had an air pocket which finally worked its way out. That would drop the coolant level a little. I'd see nothing wrong with adding a bit of 50/50 mix to top it off ... just pay attention to your owners manual as to what type of coolant you should be using. If you need to, call the dealership maintenance department. They can tell you ...
23
There's a very straightforward answer to this question: Water has a much, much higher capability to transfer heat than oil.
Even if you were able to overcome the safety and design issues brought up in other answers, you'd still have to overcome the fact that water has a huge performance advantage at transferring heat compared to other common fluids (...
5
Water has the nice property that it boils at a fairly low temperature, so the vapour pressure rises quickly with temperature and it is easy to design fail-safe over-pressure protection (a simple spring-loaded filling cap). Also, water is not flammable.
Oil does not have those nice properties, and a cooling system failure which released high pressure, high ...
3
Oil has been used as a heat transfer fluid in many applications (especially high temperature ones) but in engines the higher viscosity will require more pumping power, which means more driving power from the belt and so more power from the engine.
Then there are the issues of cost... and, of course, issues with replacing fluid if you are far from an auto ...
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