Thread: Frozen Coolant

I get home today and check on the G20 and find the coolant frozen. It has been -20*F at night and a high of -11*F today. It is supposed to be -15* tonight too, then warm up throughout the week. I put a tarp and blanket over the engine bay and put a heater blowing in under the bumper. What are the chances nothing is damaged? Anything else i can do? Would it be better to drain all of the coolant once it thaws?

damn son that sucks, im glad it doesnt get that cold here but i did check the mixture before it did start getting cold.

is it in a garage? not sure how much it'd help to have a heater on outside..

i guess you just gotta wait till it thaws man then i'd drain some out an get a jug of full strength and a antifreeze tester and adjust it accordingly.

Warm it up and find out which freeze plug blew out

id be afraid of messing up the water pump

I took the radiator cap off and it is not all the way frozen, and the hoses still crush so it might not be totally frozen. The overflow bottle is solid but that might be it. It is in a garage but not sure how well the heater will do. i have a few blankets over it and insulation packed under the k member, it should keep it from freezing completely.

If its in the garage the heater will help but if its not completely frozen then start it

THIS and the headgasket. Water expands as it freezes.. bad.

Squirlz, what was your ratio of anti-freeze to coolant?

Here in SE PA we are expected to hit -5 to -10 tonight and a high of 8 tomorrow. Schools are closed as these are the coldest temps we have had in 20 years. I have a garage that I can heat but my Altima is in there now waiting on a gasket from Nissan (from replacing the back 3 spark plugs - huge pain on the VQ motor) so I can't move it. I just drove the Sentra around and got it nice and warm, and will be going out again in a couple hours to make sure it's at operating temp before I go to bed for added insurance. I have some water in there but I recently did a drain and refilled with Nissan anti-freeze/coolant so hoping I got most of it.

It is probably 1/4 coolant and 3/4 water. We just moved to a new house and the garage is a standard one next to the house, the old house had a garage under the house and mostly under ground so it never froze.

The heater is working and thawing it out. I will start it in a few days once it warms up outside.

what are freeze plugs(I'm assuming plugs that blow out upon freezing) and where are they located?

Theres no freeze plugs Nissan calls them welch plugs. They are on either side of the engine (exhaust and intake sides) and theres 2 on the transmission, one big and one small.