I can''t remember the last time that I topped a car's anti-freeze up so what do I use please?
I bought a small bottle of blue stuff from Tesco today but note that the liquid in both my wife's Punto and my Passat is reddy-brown.
The description of what should be used per my wife's car's handbook is similar apart from it tells me to use red anti-freeze.
Am I safe to use the Tesco stuff please?
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Coolant is in contact with a lot of different materials inside your engine (metal alloys, rubbers, plastics etc). It is important that it is compatible with all these different materials. For this reason I never use anything other than the manufacturers recommended coolant - bought from a dealer.
The cost savings from using non-OEM coolant are small, and the potential for trouble is great.
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Thanks A.
Wasted £1.50 then!!
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Wasted £ 1.50 possibly.
Saved potential problems = more likely.
Tescos will probably take it back from you anyway?
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Don't top it up drain & flush the system & replace with new dealer antifreeze then you know it is all nice and clean etc...
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reddy-brown means rust , give the system a good flush out
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reddy-brown means rust give the system a good flush out
Not neccesarily, my Mondeo Has an rusty coloured (orange) coolant, which is normal.
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I am fairly sure all these colours of Anti Freeze are dyes, as pure ethylene Glycol is clear.
Often I have seen long life antifreeze coloured red or pink or brown to tell it apart from the standard blue stuff.
What currently goes into Anti-freeze seems to be no longer always listed on the bottle and I know in the past there have been mixtures of Ethylene glycol and propylene glycol (which is less "searching" than E.G.) put into Anti freeze. This is on top of the corrosion inhibitors and
other compounds that go into Anti-Freeze.
If the normal blue stuff was a problem, it should give a warning in the handbook, but I suspect the reality is that it lacks the long term corrosion inhibitors and possible other additives of long life antifreeze and so may not be subject to the same service interval between changes.
If your car has an all alloy block, probably safer to get Manaufacter approved grade or speak to someone in a Motor factor shop, who should be able to find something that meets the Manufacturer spec.
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one thing always confused me is when should i renew my anti-freeze/coolant in my ford focus 99, 1.8? if i got it done by ford am i looking at a lot of money? as i think its not part of the service?
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It is normally part of the service schedule, even if long life. Even if it isn't, the density/pH should be checked (with kits available to garages) on longer services (ie after 3 years perhaps).
If you want it done cheaply, wait until Sept onwards when certain places offer "winter checks" where they will check the coolant and replace (I guess for Circa £20? but dont know for sure!).
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Recently got my son a '95 Escort from the auction and it says in one of the Ford handbooks the coolant should last the life of the car.
Changing it has never made sense to me because corrosion is caused by oxygenation. It is umpteen years since I did A level chemistry but surely once the free oxygen contained in the water [that's not the O of the H2O] has been used up, corrosion is likely to slow up. If you introduce new water you are introducing a fresh supply of oxygen.
My TR7 is now 27 years old - I have flushed and changed only once, about fifteen years ago. When the water pump bearing started to leak and needed replacing 4yrs ago I filtered and re-used the coolant. The radiator and heating elements are original and I have never had any other leaks. [I dread the heater failing as it will be a major job!....]
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It's not the anti-freeze properties of the coolant which mean it needs changing, but the anti-corrosion properties. Over time and with heat the ethylene glycol breaks down into acid species which then accelerate corrosion. The anti corrosion part of the coolant has buffers in it to maintain a high pH (somewhere around 10), but once these buffers are used up the pH begins to fall, causing corrosion. Possibly not too much of a problem on an older all iron engine, but bad in modern cars with multiple metals in their engines that can set up glavanic corrosion between Al and Fe. The 2 year change is probably overly conservative, but 15 years is probably too far the other way. Modern coolants have long life versions where they can maintain the pH for longer, or it is no longer a problem (eg in OAT type coolants - which tend to be specified for not being changed).
lots of info (albeit getting out of date now) about coolants here:
www.babcox.com/editorial/tr/tr110046.htm
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RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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There are a wide variety of different metals used in modern engines, and with water being an eletrolyte its a fact that the major issue is electrolytic corrosion. The corrosion inhibitors in antifreeze are sacrificial and therefore are consumed with time.
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'Reddy brown' coolant can be found in most (many?) modern cares. It is OAT (Organic Acid Technology) coolant. OAT does not mix with the more traditional blue or green coolants so best to repalce like with like. OAT offers, I understand, better corrosion prevention properties - I'm sure that someone with more knowledge will fill in the details soon.
hth
R40.
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The colour of the coolant is due to the dye used. For example Texaco OAT coolant is a golden syrup colour. Some non-OAT coolant is coloured red (e.g. Toyota).
OAT should only be used on vehicles that are approved for its use.
The simple rule is buy the OE spec coolant for your car, from the dealer. I don't often advocate automatically going to the dealer for parts, but in the case of coolant its the best and safest advice.
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