DIY Car Coolant Anti-Freeze Measuring Jug

I was doing some maintenance on my SAAB c900 convertible over the weekend. I noticed the coolant was low and I went to fill it up.

Now, when you have a container of anti-freeze, it's not pre-mixed. You have to mix it with 50% water to have the most effective concentration of the stuff. Which means you need a second container to mix the coolant in.

For decades I've just grabbed whatever container was handy, did the mixing and put it in the car.

I've been thinking for years that I should make a simple container to use for this. You might think, well, of course, dummy, that makes sense. So I did it.

It's hard to eyeball 50% in a container, at least for me, so I marked the level on the jug as you'll see below.

Now, I drink a fair amount of Tradewinds iced tea. The jugs the tea comes in are nice, thick plastic. I use them for old oil, and they also make a perfect coolant container.

First step: label the container so you don't mistakenly think it's iced tea, and drink it.

Next, use a measuring cup and fill the jug with water, marking various levels that make sense to you. I chose Imperial measurement, since that's what I mainly think in, but metric would work too.

Note that I've filled the jug up to the 2 quart/half gallon mark with water.

Also note that as I said above, if I had filled this thing to what I thought was halfway, I would have been way off.  Since the jug is narrower at the top, the marks are not equally spaced.  But they are accurate.

Fill the rest of the jug up with anti-freeze.  Exciting, huh?

Fill your coolant tank as needed.

I really should have a funnel for this - I always have spillage.

Another side benefit from having a dedicated container is that you can also see how much coolant went into the car.

In my case, I put in close to a half gallon (about 1.75 liters)!  I think I have a slow leak in one of the coolant hoses, and I need to investigate.

My coolant warning label is trilingual: Swedish, English and French.

I wonder if domestic Swedish models only had Swedish labels?