coolant types

dodgyme

When down the shops you always see coolant and anti freeze for sale. why is this (just for people who cant be bothered to mix the anti-freeze?).
Also my coolant is purple and the one I bought is blue. Now after looking on the net, the colour can be an issue in that it signifys different types of coolant and the rule seems to be not to mix them but stick to one or the other because it can causes corrosion of engine parts. Personally on the older car I always only used tap water up until now and have had no problems? Anyone care to add their tupence worth.

BrianD3

There are different types and the colour of a coolant does not tell you much about type/compatibility.

There are some manufacturer specs that you should look for. Eg you might find a coolant where it says on the bottle that it that is VAG G12 compatible, Renault Type D compatible etc.

One things for sure, tap water on its own is not great if you care about your car. And hard water is probably worse than soft water.

daedalus2097

You've probably not had any problems with the tap water because the original coolant is still in there, just getting diluted down. Our frost isn't too bad in Ireland so a weaker mix is still ok, but I wouldn't like to have tap water in there at all. Minerals in the water will boil out like inside your kettle, and can get so bad that it causes blockages in the radiator and then you're in trouble! The reason you get the pure anti-freeze and the mixed types is that the mix is handier for topping up the coolant where it would be difficult to get the mix right without measuring it out and possibly wasting some. The pure type would be more used when replacing coolant as you know the volume you'll be using and can add the correct amount of water at that time.

dodgyme

very interesting. Making a bit more sense now to me.

Mailman

Pink/Orange coolant is long life with OAT additive.
Shouldn't be mixed with blue but unlikely your car will blow up if you mix them.

bought coolant for my car this weekend as I had been topping up with tap water until now and as the first frosty days are approaching I figure now would be a good time to to start increasing the percentage of coolant in the radiator.

dodgyme

where then do you buy your coolant. The stuff I got from a DIY shop is blue. Do I need to go to the dealer to get the pink/purple stuff?

BrianD3

dodgyme wrote:

where then do you buy your coolant. The stuff I got from a DIY shop is blue. Do I need to go to the dealer to get the pink/purple stuff?

What sort of car do you have?

I have sometimes found that buying the proper coolant from a main dealer works out cheaper than buying stuff from a motor factors which may or may not be correct.

Also, disregard the colour, look at the specs.

Mailman

dodgyme wrote:

where then do you buy your coolant. The stuff I got from a DIY shop is blue. Do I need to go to the dealer to get the pink/purple stuff?

Halfords.

JHMEG

Good article on coolant here.

Tho I always understood that if you have aluminium in your engine (most do these days) that you should use silicate based coolant. Silicate is the older type stuff, OAT is the newer.