coolant

[Cris Carpenter]

Of the factory antifreezes, the newer pink stuff and the older blue stuff
were designed to work in the same vehicles. The newer stuff is supposed to
be more environmentally friendly and not as prone to chemical breakdown,
but the old stuff will work in newer cars. The biggest point to stress is
that they should NEVER be mixed. If switching from the blue stuff to the
pink stuff (or vice versa) great care needs to be taken to ensure that ALL
the old stuff is flushed and rinsed out of the system. Any trace amounts of
the old stuff will mix with the new stuff to form a concoction that is
highly corrosive, according to VW/Audi tech sources.
Many non-factory brands of coolant are just fine too but be careful not to
mix, especially if your car started life with the factory pink stuff.

Cris


At 10:55 PM 5/4/2003, Brett Dikeman wrote:
>>  > The cheap "green stuff" coolant should not be used.  That needs to be
>>>  flushed out and replaced with the pink colored "G12" coolant available
>>>  from any VW or audi dealer.  It should be mixed 50/50 with vapor
>>  > distilled water.
>>  >
>
>At 10:15 PM -0400 5/4/03, Troy wrote:
>>Does this hold true for all Audis?
>
>NO!  Use the coolant that originally was designed for the vehicle.
>Most older Audis use blue Pentosin; only newer Audis use the "pink
>stuff".   Consult the owner's manual to be sure; it'll give the
>correct part number and from that you'll know whether it uses the
>blue or pink/red stuff.
>
>Further, one need not hunt for "vapor distilled" water- deionized or
>distilled(any method) is fine- you're just looking for very low
>mineral content.  Additionally, not everyone should mix to 50/50.
>Mix according to the temperature chart on the bottle, as 50/50
>protects down to -37 C according to my Pentosin coolant bottle.  It
>doesn't even remotely get that cold here in MA, so I mixed more like
>1:2 (good for -20 degrees C).
>
>Brett
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