What is the danger of leaving a car overnight without any anti-freeze or water in the system?

Answer 1

What's been said is about right. And I guess it really depends on two things, do you live where it gets below freezing and/or do you live by the coast? As mentioned the anti-freeze has rust inhibitors and lubricants in it. The components inside the cooling system are usually not coated or treated for rust so if you live near the coast with a high salt content in the air you may find that some of these components generate a coating of rust over night.

If you must, do what's been said, make sure it's as dry as possible and leave the radiator cap off. Tomorrow I would also buy some extra distilled water at the store and use it to flush out the radiator before filling it up. Just buy 2-3 gallons of water and fill up the coolant system and drain it out again, this should remove any rust and other contaminants that accumulated over night.

Or if you have a garage just park it in the garage and don't worry too much about it, of course you have to push it there if it's not already.

Answer 2

If there is truly NO water in the system; No danger whatsoever.

If there is SOME water, with no antifreeze, it SHOULDN'T be a problem, as long as the expanding water/ice has someplace to go (leave the radiator cap off!). But, it doesn't rule out a puddle of water in the bottom of the block freezing and possibly pushing out a freeze plug. (Murphy's law, you know!) Very annoying to replace!! I've done it. If you suspect there may be any water in it, pour some anti-freeze down there, too. Doesn't have to be much.

Answer 3

hrmmm well...coolant does alot more than keeping your cooling system from freezing...coolant has a lubricant and a rust inhibitor in it...its ALLWAYs very important to make sure that you have a 50% mix at least and check it often. There is no sure way to relieve your engine from ALL the coolant mix, there will allways be a little bit in the engine the heater core....the radiator....the heads and the intake....so in my humble opinion as a ASE master mechanic....i allways recommend to check cooling systems once a year and flush out your radiator every three years or 30k miles. Its allways better to prevent a failure than to attempt to fix something worse down the road.

BUT if you need to ...leave your radiator cap off....flush the system with compressed air....and disconnect the hoses from your heater core....

thats should help a little bit....make sure there is NO water anywhere and you should be fine....

Answer 4

As long as you're sure that there is not a weak water-antifreeze mix in the system it shouldn't be any problem. The problem is when there is a very diluted mix in the system which freezes, causing things to break. But if you start it up you definitely want to add both so it doesn't overheat.

Answer 5

if there is nothing in the cooling system you'll be fine, just don't turn the car on. if you have water in there it will freeze if it gets below freezing. anti-freeze is coolent to keep your car from over heating, it's called anti-freeze because it won't freeze in the winter.

Answer 6

as long as there is no water in it .....you ll be fine............anti freeze is used to keep the water from freezing.........but if there is no coolant ....there is nothing to freeze! other than that there wont be any problems................I wouldn't recommend you leave it like that for an extended period.....but overnight,or two.....you ll be fine!

Answer 7

As long as it's not on, it should be fine. Unless it freezes.

Answer 8

nothing... as long as you remember that you have no coolant before you jump in vehicle and drive away, because it will eventualy seize up