Sodium is an indicator of a coolant leak, often in conjunction with potassium and\/or boron; these elements are present due to the additives used in many coolant formulations. The presence of these elements alongside detected glycol and water often indicate a severe or bottom-end leak, but the absence of glycol and water typically represent a top-end leak where the liquid portion of the coolant is being combusted or boiled out of the system.<\/p>\n
Sodium is also an indicator of contamination with salt, whether it is from moisture ingression from a nearby source of saltwater, or airborne particulate ingression from nearby roads that are salted in the wintertime.<\/p>\n
Users of activated alumina acid scavenging systems may see sodium appear as well, typically in conjunction with aluminum, especially in the first sample after a new set of cartridges is installed. A correlation with an increase in particle count will likely be observed.<\/p>\n
On rare occasions, boron may be due to residual cleaner from drum\/tote recycling, as the cleaners that are used may be borate-based.<\/p>\n
Watch for the next article in the Elemental Spectroscopy blog series<\/a>: Potassium<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sources of Sodium Sodium is an indicator of a coolant leak, often in conjunction with potassium and\/or boron; these elements are present due to the additives used in many coolant formulations. The presence of these elements alongside detected glycol and water often indicate a severe or bottom-end leak, but the absence of glycol and water typically represent a top-end leak Continue Reading<\/a>","protected":false},"author":4012,"featured_media":9208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[403],"tags":[74],"class_list":["post-9207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-data-interpretation","tag-elemental-spectroscopy","cat-403-id"],"yoast_head":"\n