The price of 20 yuan fake antifreeze costs only two yuan

On December 5, the weather forecast showed that the minimum temperature in Harbin was -27°C that night. On the morning of the 6th, Wang Mingyi, the owner of the private car, opened the trunk of the car and found that a bucket of antifreeze that had just been bought the previous day had already become hail. "Fortunately, I didn't go to Riga, or the tank was not frozen."

It was not only Wang Mingyi who was immersed in antifreeze that was not "antifreeze". A few days ago, a 4S shop staff in the city purchased 10 kinds of antifreeze on the market and kept it in a freezer for 24 hours for antifreeze experiments. As a result, it was found that six of the antifreezes had ice formation after the experiment. “This kind of antifreeze is really a “pit person”, and if the owner who does not know the truth adds these fake antifreeze fluids to the car, only one tank will crack when they wait for their results. Once that happens, the car can only be sent to the repair factory for overhaul.” Zhang Sheng, a 4S shop maintenance engineer responsible for the experiment, said.

Why antifreeze does not freeze? What kind of "dirty" is hidden in this one? In an unannounced interview, the reporter found that counterfeit anti-freeze fluids are not only non-freeze-free, but there are also many problems such as low boiling points and non-compliance with corrosion tests.

Auto Parts Store “See clothes down dish”

Auto parts stores generally sell counterfeit antifreeze to auto repair shops, and basically do not sell these substandard products to private car owners.

According to industry insiders, the reporter recently went to the auto shop near Xuanhua Street in Nangang District to make unannounced visits. However, the results of the unannounced visits are not like those in the industry who said that a few yuan a bottle of counterfeit antifreeze is “full of streets”.

The reporter went to a small auto shop with a small facade. “Do you have cheap deputy factory antifreeze?” “No. We’re all original products. There are brands like Bluestar, Great Wall, and some are original vehicles. With the antifreeze. The cheapest 30 yuan a bottle, a bottle of 1.5 kilograms, no longer cheaper." A saleswoman answered the reporter's query.

From this store, the reporter visited several nearby auto parts stores one after another. The results were basically the same. Most of the antifreeze liquids sold by these auto parts stores are manufactured by regular manufacturers, and there are no signs of sales of fake and shoddy products.

Why is the situation of unannounced visits by reporters different from those provided by the industry? The reporter learned after communicating with industry sources who provided clues that the problem was in the clothes worn by the reporter.

According to the personage inside the industry, auto parts stores generally sell counterfeit and antifreeze liquids to some auto repair factories, and basically do not sell these substandard products to private car owners. Because the private car uses unqualified antifreeze, if the water tank appears to freeze or "open pot" phenomenon, the owner will definitely come back to the store to make compensation. If the vehicle owner adds inferior antifreeze fluid to the repair plant and causes problems with the vehicle, the repair plant can deduce the cause of the problem to be the other “defects” of the vehicle, and has nothing to do with the quality of the antifreeze fluid. “After all, not every vehicle owner understands it. "Automotive knowledge".

After borrowing a coverall at a car repair shop, the reporter once again came to the auto parts store on Xuanhua Street to make unannounced visits. As a result, this scenario was very different from the previous unannounced visit.

A reporter at an auto shop asked if there were antifreeze in the deputy factory. The salesman pointed to six or seven kinds of antifreeze on the shelf and said: "These are all deputy factories. I would like to choose which one I want, but I cannot vote." The reporter found that these antifreezes are written with "VW exclusive" or "FAW-Volkswagen original accessories," which are still some of the well-known brands of products.

The reporter picked up a bottle of antifreeze, and saw "Freezing Point at -40°C" and "Boiling Point at 110°C". After seeing the reporter hesitate, the salesman hurriedly said: "This kind of antifreeze can't freeze below -40°C, but below -30°C it will definitely not freeze." After opening the bottle cap, a pungent odor emerged. .

The reporter then visited several auto parts stores selling antifreeze in the vicinity and found that many auto parts stores are selling antifreeze liquids that have pungent odors and are cheap. In an auto shop, the reporter asked the shop owner for antifreeze in the name of getting the goods. The other party bluntly asked: “Is it really necessary to fake? Really, the Blue Star brand is 55 yuan. We are all from Beijing. There is also, 12 yuan a barrel.” According to the owner revealed that counterfeit antifreeze from the appearance of basically can not see, “The antifreeze brand is very complex today, there are alcohol watered, there is glycerin water, there is the use of industry It is made of salt water, but the best is glycol, but the antifreeze of this auxiliary plant basically has no antiseptic effect.”

During the interview, the reporter learned that the “SH/T0521-1999 Glycol-Type Coolant for Automobiles and Light-Load Engines” standard stipulates that the antifreeze produced using this standard should be made of ethylene glycol, a suitable anticorrosive agent, and defoaming. Agent and the amount of water. When the product performance meets the technical requirements, other alcohols, such as propylene glycol and diethylene glycol, may be contained, but the content does not exceed 15% at most.

Poor "antifreeze" blending is simple

A private house, several vats, a sealing machine and a coder can produce a barrel of 1.5 kg of “antifreeze” in less than a minute.

Where do these counterfeit antifreezes come from the market?

According to industry sources, the process and procedures for producing genuine antifreeze fluids are not complicated, as long as the antifreeze liquid mother liquor is mixed with deionized water or distilled water in proportion, and then mixed with corrosion inhibitors, defoamers, reserve alkalis, and pigments. antifreeze. It is precisely because the antifreeze production process is relatively simple, many small workshops began to produce fake and shoddy products.

According to industry insiders, the reporter found a small workshop producing antifreeze in a row of bungalows near the Limbang Market in Xiangfang District. The reporter opened a repair shop for himself and wanted to enter the workshop on the basis of purchase. In the hospital, the reporter saw several yellow plastic vats placed in a corner. Workers told reporters that these vats were used to hold antifreeze mother liquor.

Into the factory building, a tall plastic tank was placed at the corner of the wall, which contained nearly a third of the green liquid. A valve was installed near the bottom of the plastic tank. Workers said that this large tank contained “antifreeze” that had already been produced. Just put the small plastic bucket on the outlet and open the valve. The liquid in the big tank will be Will flow to the keg. There is also a sealing machine and a coder in the room. The small plastic buckets that have been packed have been sealed and coded to become the “antifreeze solution” sold on the market. From the scene, it took less than a minute to produce a barrel of 1.5 kg of “antifreeze”.

Passing through the production floor, the reporter was taken to a room with a covered liquefied gas stove and cooking utensils. A boss of the type asked the reporter, "Would you like to buy bottled or bottled?" The reporter said, "Our own repair factory mainly repairs taxis and private cars, and it will be bottled." He said: "There are 8 bottles. ”

The reporter then chatted with him on the grounds that the price was too high. He said that the "antifreeze" produced here is a combination of methanol and well water, and winter use is certainly no problem. In order to convince the reporter that his asking price is not high, he also vowed to ensure that: “My raw materials here are imported from the regular chemical factories, and the quality is guaranteed. It will certainly not freeze below -30°C in winter. Each bottle of 1.5 Kilograms of "antifreeze" light costs three or four bucks, and then shave off the miscellaneous expenses such as labor, and one bottle will earn you a dollar or two. My "antifreeze" you get back, you can at least sell for 15 yuan. To 20 yuan."

The boss of the conversation told reporters that he had been doing other business in previous years and later worked with friends for some time to produce and sell antifreeze and brake fluid. He felt that the industry was very profitable and the technical difficulty was not great. , so I did it myself. But today, due to fierce competition, the profits of this line have become thinner and thinner. In order to broaden the market to open up the market, he deliberately printed and produced domestic well-known manufacturer's packaging for his own products. The products he produces are mainly sold in Harbin.

The person also told reporters that the antifreeze they produce in winter can generally meet the "antifreeze" standard, but the boiling point is almost. The production of antifreeze in summer has lower antifreeze standards, and the general freezing point is about 0°C.

Two yuan cost auto parts factory sold 25 yuan

Small workshops will not use distilled water or deionized water to produce "antifreeze", not to add corrosion inhibitors. The cost of 1.5 kg "antifreeze" is only around two yuan. If made with brine and industrial brine, the cost is lower

Industry insiders have calculated this kind of account for reporters. The price of one ton of ethylene glycol is about 8,000 yuan, and the price of one ton of methanol is about 2,000 yuan. If ethylene glycol is used to produce antifreeze, a ton of ethylene glycol can produce about two tons of antifreeze, plus the corresponding costs of distilled water, corrosion inhibitors, defoamers, colorants, packaging, and labor, and a bottle of 1.5 kg. Qualified antifreeze costs should be around $14. If you add the cost of transportation and the profit of the dealer, and remove the influence of brand factors on the price, the market price of this bottle of antifreeze is about 30 yuan.

The "antifreeze" produced by small workshops using methanol costs less than 80% less than that produced by ethylene glycol, because small workshops do not use distilled or deionized water to produce "antifreeze", not to mention Adding corrosion inhibitors to the product, such antifreeze 1.5 kilograms costs about two dollars or so. If you use brine and industrial brine to make, the cost is lower.

"In general, small workshops will occupy the market at low prices and open up sales channels." The industry source said: "General small workshops will sell "antifreeze" at a cost of two yuan to the auto parts store at a price of 7 to 8 yuan. The auto parts store is sold to auto repair factories for RMB 13 to RMB 15 at a price of RMB 20 to RMB 25. A bottle of low-quality antifreeze that costs only two yuan ends up being 10 times higher. The price has reached the hands of consumers. It is difficult for ordinary people to think that a bottle of "antifreeze" with a price of only 20 yuan conceals 10 times the profit."

The "Li Gui" prototype in the laboratory

Inferior antifreeze can be roughly divided into two categories. One is the use of low-boiling alcohols such as methanol or alcohol, which can easily cause the tank to “open”; the other is the use of industrial salt or brine blending, which is highly corrosive. Greatly reduce engine life

In order to understand what the main components of counterfeit anti-freeze fluid are, the reporters purchased five kinds of ethylene glycol-based coolants for SH/T0521-1999 automotive and light-duty engines at five auto parts stores on Xuanhua Street. Standard production of 1.5 kg of antifreeze, the cheapest price is 20 yuan, the most expensive is 30 yuan. The reporter took these 5 bottles of antifreeze to the School of Chemical Engineering of Harbin Institute of Technology and requested professionals to conduct inspections.

In the laboratory, the inspectors first tested the boiling points of the five antifreezes taken by the reporter and found that two of the “antifreezes” began to boil when heated to about 80°C. The inspectors told the reporter that the two types of antifreeze should be blended using methanol or alcohol. The boiling point does not reach the marked 108.5°C. This “antifreeze” blended with methanol or alcohol can easily cause the vehicle tank to “open”.

Next, the inspectors used silver nitrate to determine the chloride content of the five "antifreezes." The results showed that in addition to the two bottles of “antifreeze” previously detected containing methanol and alcohol, the remaining three bottles contained chlorine ions. In other words, these three bottles of "antifreeze" are brine or industrial salt blending.

Professor Xu Youjun, a doctoral tutor of the School of Chemical Engineering at Harbin Institute of Technology, said that poor quality antifreeze fluids are broadly classified into two types. One is a fake antifreeze blended with low-boiling alcohols such as methanol or alcohol, and the other is industrial salt and Brine blend into. The pseudo-antifreeze blended with low-boiling alcohols, such as methanol, has a low boiling point of about 80°C, which is extremely volatile and causes liquid boiling. This means that the water tank “opens the pot,” and volatile vapors cause serious damage to human eyes. Because the real antifreeze has a boiling point above 107°C, which is higher than the boiling point of water, generally it will not be opened. The biggest hazard of counterfeit antifreeze blended with industrial salt or brine is corrosion. It corrodes the water tank, the engine and the entire cooling system at a very fast rate. An intact tank will leak due to corrosion for about 3 months. The engine will also be damaged. Corrosion is serious and damaged, and the life of the engine will be greatly shortened.

Experts said that counterfeit and antifreeze fluids cannot meet the relevant standards set by the state, which will not only fail to protect them, but will even cause great damage to motor vehicles.

The “antifreeze solution” submitted to the inspection began to boil on heating to 83°C.

The detection of high chloride ion content by silver nitrate proves that this "antifreeze" is blended with brine or industrial brine.

Have these five functions to qualify as antifreeze

Antifreeze is just a basic function of antifreeze. A bottle of qualified antifreeze should also have the following properties:

1. The freezing or freezing point is low. Antifreeze can not freeze or solidify below -40°C, and it is necessary to ensure that the tank and cooling system piping are not frozen and cracked, and that the car can be started at any time.

2. High specific heat and good thermal conductivity.

3. No corrosion or rust on the metal.

4. In use to maintain a certain PH value.

5. The boiling point must reach above 100 °C