[s-cars] G12 coolant

[Steve Marinello]

Yeah, it can get nasty.  I forgot to mention that PEAK still maintains that
their Long Life and Global Lifetime coolants are fully mix compatible,
adhering to German spec FVV HEFT R433. They have a comment that to get best
results with the Global, you need to flush and refill with it.  They also
say it is good for 150k miles, which I think Zerex said that about the
Extreme Life, too, but guess what?  It doesn't show up on their product page
anymore...and they show Audi's newer cars should use the DEX-COOL OAT
coolant.  Maybe when the cars are out of warranty and I'm doing a full
flush...

-----Original Message-----
From: JC [mailto:jc at j2c3.com] 
Sent: Sunday, July 11, 2010 8:40 PM
To: 'Steve Marinello'; 'S-CAR list'
Subject: RE: [s-cars] G12 coolant

Funny you bring this up as I just have had to wrestle with a coolant-related
$hitty-mechanic-induced waste-of-time-and-money over last few weeks.

Whatever you do don't contaminate the G12!

<rant>
I spent probably almost a collective day over the course of several a few
years back, flushing out the green that PO's crappy gas station mechanic put
in my engine. Took MANY fill/run/dump/refill flushes before I got it to run
clear. IME getting the full flush on this car is a PITA without popping the
heater core hoses (and I've been told if you mess with those you are in
danger of breaking an aged plastic part and getting into a bigger hassle) so
it was really a tedious repetitive project. Then I topped up with lots of
freshie G12+$$$$ and wrote "USE ONLY G12 COOLANT" in big tidy permanent
lettering on my reservoir.  Right there on the M-F'ing top of the thing in
big letters where a blind man couldn't miss it. Yes I was a happy boy on
those kinder gentler simple times.

Fast forward to last month, and my current non-douchebag (get to that later)
tech is fixing my after-run system... First of all he confirms my
suspicifications that the after-run isn't working at all after having
another guy do the rad fan a year ago...  Well of course being a solid tech
in the course of events he tests the coolant and not only finds it to be
almost all water, but finds what coolant hiding in the yellowed tank is
brown crap - aka the color you get mixing presto-green into G12/12+ pink
and/or purple - and is a foaming and crappy looking mess.  He then has one
of his guys spend hours doing the extended flush dance yet again for me.
Short story long, this even requires a return visit because the first time
they don't quite get it all and some of the brown comes back after running
it... And then there I am again paying for a second load of G12+$$$$ that
was totally unnecessary. And my mechanic even gets screwed as he has to eat
the time to do the second set of flushing to get the final crap out of the
system, bless his ethical soul.

In my case the only explanation is another actual-douchebag shop I used last
year (naturally not being fully aware of the extent of their douche-tastic
qualities) to do my radiator fan obviously refilled me with green crap and
ignored the big G12 warning on the tank. Sadly evidence points this could
only be a formerly very highly regarded shop that I was fiercely loyal to
and went way out of my way to recommend and patronize but has slipped
drastically (same shop that didn't want to warranty rear camber links that
wore out after 6 months and told me I needed new ones again... "uh, but you
just told me 6 months ago and I had you put these in!?!?").

How much more brain-dead f#*$ing clear can you be than "USE ONLY G12
COOLANT"!?!?! "PURPLE/PINK GOOD - GREEN BAD!!"?? Maybe "IF YOU PUT ANYTHING
IN HERE THAT ISN'T PINK OR PURPLE I WILL KILL YOU!"? Can you get locking
coolant reservoir caps!?!? Unbelievable the level of stupidity that can
happen and still charge $$$ per hour as a 'Audi / Porsche specialist
technician'...

So really, if your coolant is the happy nice Pink or Purple color - NEVER
put any other crap in there and take your mechanics children hostage before
you let them near the cap.

And yeah I've heard the Dexcool / Zerex thing before, but was never brave
enough to try it. I do know from experience that mixing seems to make for
foamy mess problems (I suspect the incompatibilities somehow deactivate the
anti-foaming agents?) and so don't want to take any further risk on messing
about - in fact I'd guess that you'd probably be better off running just
green against VW/AUDI recommendations than you are in mixing, but I prefer
to stick with the G12+ for sure... as long as some A-hole technician doesn't
ignore my instructions and dump all my expensive coolant down the storm
drain and then sorta not really replace it with a little cheap autoparts
store green crap.

OK OK... I'll settle down.  Still pissed though.
</rant>

> -----Original Message-----
> From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com
> [mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com] On Behalf Of Steve Marinello
> Sent: Sunday, July 11, 2010 7:59 PM
> To: 'Robert Myers'
> Cc: 'S-CAR list'
> Subject: Re: [s-cars] G12 coolant
>
>
> It appears that VW and many Japanese/Asian vehicles use an
> Organic Acid Technology (OAT) which is not compatible with
> the old blue-green Inorganic Acid Tech (IAT), or the Hybrid
> OAT (HOAT) used by Ford, Merecedes and Chrysler. Dex-Cool is
> a TM of GM, and in the currently used Zerex G-05 formulation,
> is HOAT.  Zerex Extreme Life is the OAT product that is said
> to be approved by VW on the Zerex info page, although the VW
> spec is not listed.
>
> Problem is, can't find it anywhere...
>
> Steve
>


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