Coolant Test Strips
While at the Mobile Rally, I purchased some test strips and coolant additive for my cooling system. The Detroit Diesel shop ordered the test strips since they had none in stock. We checked my bus, Roger's and Jim Keller's, and all seemed to be off the scale.
In case anyone doesn't know what the test strips are supposed to do; they give a visual reading on 1) percent of glycol, 2) level of Power cool additive, and 3) ppm of Nitrite. If out of whack, you add Power Cool additive to bring things back in balance.
I called the DD shop and they checked a couple other bottles they had ordered, and none of them gave correct readings. The shop supervisor said he would call the manufacturer and get back with me.
After several days, he said the mfg determined that all the strips they had been shipping were chemically expired even though, not out of date according to the date stamped on the bottle. The ones I had purchased were dated March 09.
To make a long story a little less long, I returned the strips, and they sent me a bottle dated Feb 2010. I checked my coolant and found it to be just a little out of balance. I should be able to add a pint of the additive and bring things to where they should be.
The moral of this story is that, before we add Power Cool, we need to make sure the test strips we are using are not chemically expired even though the date on the bottle says differently. Fortunately, I knew my coolant mixture should have been relatively close, so I hadn't added more based on the initial test using the bad strips.
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