Green or red coolant pdf#
Green or red coolant manual#
Green or red coolant full#

However, let's assume the reason you're thinking of a coolant change is because you're changing a cooling system part (pump, radiator, heater, thermostat housing) on a system with a conventional coolant, not an organic acid orange or pink. The new organic acid antifreezes may be used only if the cooling system has an aluminum radiator (rather than copper-and-brass ). How about just pouring orange antifreeze into every cooling system, say, yours? Sorry, but it's not that simple. brands with these organic acids: Havoline Dex-Cool and Prestone Extended Life, both recommended for five years or 150,000 miles. That's why some new cars (all General Motors, Mercury Cougar, VW/Audi models) have red or orange antifreeze with a new class of inhibitors, called organic acids (as previously mentioned). The most common inhibitors, silicates for aluminum protection, are used up faster than others. Antifreeze itself (most commonly a chemical called ethylene glycol) doesn't wear out–ever–but the key ingredients are the rust and corrosion inhibitors, and they get used up. There are a few cases where you can get a fast case of corrosion, some where the water pump can be both eroded and corroded to an early death, and a lot of cases where you can shorten the effective life of the antifreeze. Isn't all antifreeze compatible? Sorry, but it isn't. The bad news is that it doesn't come down to color matching. Huh? Isn't all antifreeze green? Isn't it all the same? But what kind? The parts store now stocks three colors: yellow, green and orange. Actually, you realize that it's finally time to change the whole system, not just top up.Īt least the auto parts store is on the way home, all the better to pick up a couple of jugs of antifreeze. You don't carry a jug of antifreeze with you, so instead of doing anything, you just worry about it until you get home. Checking the coolant level, you see that it's down. You've got the hood up for the first underhood check in a while, which isn't surprising in this era of self-service gas. Popular Mechanics March 1999 Choosing The Right Coolant There's some others further up that got confusing). I know everyone will have there own opinions on coolant, but we should keep the facts in check (not pointin at you Chris. I check it every few months with PH strips.Ĭlick to expand.Sorry to slime in on this but one had to throw in one discrepency, as this A/F thing is turning quite preposterous. In my truck I use standard green mixed with distilled water and Nalcool as needed. Mixing Dexcool and standard green will cause a gelling problem in the system which is also bad news. They tend to start leaking soon after when extended life stuff is used. Wont find that junk in my shop.Īlso the extended life coolant does not contain the proper additives for the old copper/ brass radiators. The Prestone all makes all models is dyed green but is a Dexcool clone. It will turn into a rusty muddy mess and we have not found anything that will clean the mess up. If the system gets low the extended life coolant and air do not play well together. We really try to talk people out of the extended life stuff. Whenever we do a flush or other repairs that require complete coolant exchange we use the standard green stuff. Now 99% of our business is cars and I don't know how much applies to trucks but we see many problems with the Extended life coolants.

Green or red coolant full#

It is recommended that this coolant not be mixed with older coolants of any other color, a full coolant flush with all new material is the only proper way to achieve maximum benefit.I work at a Radiator shop. Note: the latest version to comply with MBZ Specification 325.0 for all models, replaces previous Q1030002 version which was lite yellow in color. MB p/n Q1030004 is blue in color at your MB Dealer or for $23.50/gal. Show your AAA card at Napa for a 7% savings.

Note: Zerex G-05 Antifreeze/Coolant #ZXG051, is a lite yellow color, by Napa or CarQuest for about $15/gal. The renew should be with a 45-50% solution, then driven to remove any air and filled to level.

Green or red coolant manual#

MB Owners Manual says that our coolant should be renewed every three years with a MB brand anticorrosion/antifreeze coolant because of the Aluminum components in the system.

Green or red coolant pdf#

Click to expand.If you open the PDF docs at you will find a chart that discusses the different colored Zerex coolants.