How to Check Coolant Additive 2011-16 Ford F250

What's up, guys? I'm Andy from 1A Auto. In this video, I'm going to show you how to check for the coolant additive on this 2013 Ford F-250. Lot of times, these trucks, you'll get a message on the dash saying "check coolant additive." This is what it is. This is the test strips. I'll show you how to do it. If you need parts for your vehicle, click the link in the description and head over to 1AAuto.com.

Alright, we want to check the coolant system. We want to check the pH. What we're getting is the coolant additive light keeps coming on, so we're going to test the coolant. Take the radiator cap off, or the coolant reservoir cap off, and make sure it's cool when you're doing this with the test strip. Now, I can't reach way down in there, 'cause the coolant's further down, so I'm just going to use some long needle-nose pliers. I'm just going to dunk it into the coolant. Pull it out. Just like testing a pool. Just let it sit for a minute.

You're going to want to read the directions on the test strips. But it looks pretty good. Okay. We can come up to the bottle and see, and the pH is not where we want to be. We want to be more in the green. Some of the others levels aren't very good, either.

So we're going to add this coolant additive. This is going to prevent some corrosion and any type of buildup of any bad material in the coolant system. It's good to do. Check your coolant pH every once in a while. For this system, we're going to add the whole bottle. You're going to want to check the directions on the additive that you have. And check your coolant level, too, 'cause if your coolant level is very high, you're going to want to remove some of the coolant, but our system's a little bit low. I actually have to add a little bit more coolant.

Once you add the coolant additive, you're going to want to drive it around for a while so that it cycles through the system, and then it's a good idea to re-check it and then adjust accordingly. If you need to get another bottle, add another bottle, or if you need to add some coolant, add some coolant.

We're going to scroll down with the arrows on the left side of the steering wheel down to settings. Click on settings. We'll go to vehicle. Click on vehicle. Scroll down to maintenance. Click OK. Coolant. Now we're going to hold the OK button because we checked our coolant. And good. Now we're good to go. We can back out of there. Now when we shut our vehicle off and go to start it. That coolant light should not be on anymore. And we're all set.

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