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Re: Phosphate free antifreeze
Avi, you've obviously confused me with the star victim of one of those TV "News"
Magazine "Expose`" stories. I assume you meant that in a humorous vein. John.
Avi Meron wrote:
> Being in the service field, you should recommend regular coolant, more work
> for you..........
> Avi
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-quattro@coimbra.ans.net [mailto:owner-quattro@coimbra.ans.net]
> On Behalf Of John Larson
> Sent: Friday, August 28, 1998 8:24 PM
> To: quattro@coimbra.ans.net
> Subject: Phosphate free antifreeze
>
> As a Porsche/VW/Audi technician with 26 years experience, I can assure
> you that the switch to phosphate free coolant has to do with reasons
> other than politics. Vanagons have severe problems with electrolytic
> corrosion of cylinder head studs when using normal"safe for aluminum"
> coolants. These steel studs pass through the water jacket. When we began
> really seeing head gasket failures, when the first ones were 3 or 4
> years old, the cars that had had a water pump or other work involving
> replacing the coolant were the first to fail, many with one or more
> broken studs, a failure requiring complete tear down and necessitating
> stud removal with an EDM.(Electron Discharge Machine.) Turned a $1200
> job into a $3200 job. Without fail, these cars had had regular coolant
> installed during the previous repairs. Sold me on the real thing right
> then and there. VW sells it, about $16/ gallon, Quakerstate has it too,
> at a considerable savings ($(9 to $12). Cheaping out here doesn't, in my
> opinion, make sense here. You're gonna pay a few bucks more for a gallon
> or two every 2 years (you DO flush the coolant every two years, right?),
> and that's not a lot of money, really. So you sacrifice a nice 6-pack a
> year, maybe two. Jaguar specifies it, and we routinely install it in
> BMWs and Mercedes, as well as Porsches and VW/Audis. We service a
> considerably larger number of Vanagons and other VW/Audi cars now than
> we did in 1988, and we've never had a refailure of a Vanagon head gasket
> done here and which continued to use the phosphate free coolant, nor of
> any other VW/Audi product. I, personally, am convinced. John