RLENT: Yeah, mine says the same thing, both distilled and low mineral. Whether distilled or filtered for low mineral (or mineral free), that's the key. No point in introducing minerals that just make corrosion's job that much easier.
"Interestingly, they say 100K mile life in the above - rather than 150K service interval in my owners manual. Methinks Chrysler LLC needs to hire some more translators & sidecheckers for their documentation."
hehe. My Maintenance Schedule booklet thingy says 160,000 miles. It also says flush and renew every 15 years (I'm assuming that means do it at 15 years even if you don't have 160,000 miles on it). Then again, it also says change the transmission fluid "once only" at 80,000 miles. I guess after that once only yer good to go forever.
I think the 5 year/100,000 miles thing applies to some cars and not others. It's what is in the owner and service manual that counts (even says that on the back label of the Mopar coolant).
Moot: Yup, distilled is best. I bring up the Dysanti (or whatever) because my Sprinter tech recommended it specifically if distilled or other low mineral or mineral-free water wasn't readily available (like, if you're low on coolant and don't particularly want to drive all over town looking for distilled water, they'll have that at the nearest convenience store).
As for the color, that is dictated by the cooling system. I know one guy with a Sprinter who felt that the green stuff was best, been using it all his life, Daimler Chysler is just trying to sell expensive antifreeze, so he drained his pretty day-glo orange coolant and replaced it with Prestone. A week later he replaced the cooling system. Whoops.
Read the Owner's Manual, read the Service Manual, read the back label of the coolant bottle. It ain't rocket science. Well, OK, it kind of is, but at least it's spelled out for ya. Even a caveman can do it. Heck, for that matter, even a Canadian can do it.
RLENT, just an FYI headsup that probably should go in a PM, e-mail or a phone call, but what the heck, let everybody read it hehe: Took the Sprinter in today, had him run the codes and give it a good going over. Only codes it's throwing is EGR valve and the "ambient temperature sensor" (the one under the front license plate). Can't figure out why it's running 10-15 degrees cooler, nor why the slight turbo whine. Problem is, it ain't broke, so there's nothing to fix, unless I want him to just start swapping out parts to see if that fixes it. He said this EGR valve will probably have to be replaced, and that may very well solve the turbo whine, but it's not actually broke at this point, and he doesn't recomend replacing it unless it's broke. He recommended getting ahold of an EGR valve to have on hand when this one goes, tho.
He took it out on the road and put it through the ringer, tried everything he could think of, and the only codes it would through are those two. No engine light, tho. Sometimes the whine was noticeable, sometimes you had to really listen for it (same as I'm experiencing). Seems a little sluggish, but almost not really. It's weird. He's not sure, but it may very well be that the ambient temp sensor is being picked up by the computer and is causing it to tell the engine to perform differently. Replacing that may solve the problem. That's a cheap part.
The trick will be finding the cheap EGR valve, 'cause I'm not paying $450 for one, and don't really want to pay $350 for one at the online place that we order stuff from all the time. I have a line on a new one for $200, tho.
Oh, incidentally, the bad hose at the power steering pump that was leaking wasn't a bad hose. It was a loose clamp. How embarassing. Take note of Moot's advice, OVM. Check the clamps. A loose clamp is about like calling computer tech support 'cause you're computer isn't working, and it turns out to be because it's unplugged. Sheesh. A loose clamp.
Oh, hey, here's another one I bet ya didn't know. You know the engine air filter, you take off the big air hose, then remove the air sensor, then the filter housing cover, check or replace the filter (mine must have gotten wet and then froze, cause it looked nearly pristine, and no further restrictions). Put the filter in the houseing, then, you replace the housing cover over the filter and then the sensor. And then you know what? It won't start. Engine turns over, but won't' run. Not even a little bit. Imagine that, you have to hook that big air intake hose back to the filter housing before it'll run. Hrmph. POS Sprinter.
"Interestingly, they say 100K mile life in the above - rather than 150K service interval in my owners manual. Methinks Chrysler LLC needs to hire some more translators & sidecheckers for their documentation."
hehe. My Maintenance Schedule booklet thingy says 160,000 miles. It also says flush and renew every 15 years (I'm assuming that means do it at 15 years even if you don't have 160,000 miles on it). Then again, it also says change the transmission fluid "once only" at 80,000 miles. I guess after that once only yer good to go forever.
I think the 5 year/100,000 miles thing applies to some cars and not others. It's what is in the owner and service manual that counts (even says that on the back label of the Mopar coolant).
Moot: Yup, distilled is best. I bring up the Dysanti (or whatever) because my Sprinter tech recommended it specifically if distilled or other low mineral or mineral-free water wasn't readily available (like, if you're low on coolant and don't particularly want to drive all over town looking for distilled water, they'll have that at the nearest convenience store).
As for the color, that is dictated by the cooling system. I know one guy with a Sprinter who felt that the green stuff was best, been using it all his life, Daimler Chysler is just trying to sell expensive antifreeze, so he drained his pretty day-glo orange coolant and replaced it with Prestone. A week later he replaced the cooling system. Whoops.
Read the Owner's Manual, read the Service Manual, read the back label of the coolant bottle. It ain't rocket science. Well, OK, it kind of is, but at least it's spelled out for ya. Even a caveman can do it. Heck, for that matter, even a Canadian can do it.
RLENT, just an FYI headsup that probably should go in a PM, e-mail or a phone call, but what the heck, let everybody read it hehe: Took the Sprinter in today, had him run the codes and give it a good going over. Only codes it's throwing is EGR valve and the "ambient temperature sensor" (the one under the front license plate). Can't figure out why it's running 10-15 degrees cooler, nor why the slight turbo whine. Problem is, it ain't broke, so there's nothing to fix, unless I want him to just start swapping out parts to see if that fixes it. He said this EGR valve will probably have to be replaced, and that may very well solve the turbo whine, but it's not actually broke at this point, and he doesn't recomend replacing it unless it's broke. He recommended getting ahold of an EGR valve to have on hand when this one goes, tho.
He took it out on the road and put it through the ringer, tried everything he could think of, and the only codes it would through are those two. No engine light, tho. Sometimes the whine was noticeable, sometimes you had to really listen for it (same as I'm experiencing). Seems a little sluggish, but almost not really. It's weird. He's not sure, but it may very well be that the ambient temp sensor is being picked up by the computer and is causing it to tell the engine to perform differently. Replacing that may solve the problem. That's a cheap part.
The trick will be finding the cheap EGR valve, 'cause I'm not paying $450 for one, and don't really want to pay $350 for one at the online place that we order stuff from all the time. I have a line on a new one for $200, tho.
Oh, incidentally, the bad hose at the power steering pump that was leaking wasn't a bad hose. It was a loose clamp. How embarassing. Take note of Moot's advice, OVM. Check the clamps. A loose clamp is about like calling computer tech support 'cause you're computer isn't working, and it turns out to be because it's unplugged. Sheesh. A loose clamp.
Oh, hey, here's another one I bet ya didn't know. You know the engine air filter, you take off the big air hose, then remove the air sensor, then the filter housing cover, check or replace the filter (mine must have gotten wet and then froze, cause it looked nearly pristine, and no further restrictions). Put the filter in the houseing, then, you replace the housing cover over the filter and then the sensor. And then you know what? It won't start. Engine turns over, but won't' run. Not even a little bit. Imagine that, you have to hook that big air intake hose back to the filter housing before it'll run. Hrmph. POS Sprinter.
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