Antifreeze Red or Blue??

[DaveEdge]

Ayup lads

Cant get a definite answer, its either for classics(historics) or new cars and it kind of contradicts depending which one its in favour of so need clarification off someone in the know.

Car 1994 Mit Gto tt
Recommended antifreeze blue(well thats what Halfords said)

It had red in though, so I went with red because they said you cant mix blue with red but you can mix red with blue...

No issues except the water is now rusty(and pink) but I thought OAT red anti-freeze had better protection properties than IAT blue?? I've now read you cant mix them and red can be bad for older cars??

So, when I fill the coolant up, should I re-fill with red or do a flush and go back to blue?

Help/info appreciated

[waveman1500]

I've never even heard of blue coolant. Normally it's red or green.

You're correct that you shouldn't mix the two. I don't think it particularly matters which one you use. Just check with the manufacturer of the coolant (or read on the bottle) that it is compatible with aluminium heads and you should be fine.

[george356]

Blue coolant?

Smith's Bluecol - back in the day I sold hundreds of gallons of the stuff.

Halfords saying "you cant mix blue with red but you can mix red with blue..."
Surely the effect is the same, it's like saying you can't have a whisky and lemonade, but you CAN have a lemonade and whisky.

[dude]

I've heard that the red antifreeze is needed in newer engines beacuse new seal materials, but the green stuff is much better at keepin the rust to a minimum.
I've never heard of the red stuff being bad for older engines, just less ideal.

[welshpug]

depends largely on the materials used in the engine.

never heard of blue antifreeze? lol!! its what motorfactors stock most of!

best bet is to not mix colours, often it doesn't actually matter which colour you use, VW's use Pink for example, most pugs I stick bloue in, as its cheap and more often than not will leak and have some other problem that'll need it dropping again soon anyway

[DaveEdge]

Blue coolant/anti freeze is same as green mate is the same on

Yeah antifreeze/coolant, don't make sense does it.

Apparently, reds not good for older internals...
www.scimitarweb.co.uk/sgwrs/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17433&p=189787
www.tr-register.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/31602-antifreeze-and-old-cars/

But here kind of states the opposite.
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=19701

Gonna do a flush and think I'll go back to blue

[welshpug]

I'd go on what the manufacturers say tbh (car and coolant)

[ben711200]

I'd stick with one or the other and not worry too much. Personally, I whatever is recommended by the manufacturer so have a car with each sort at the moment.

[RetroMat]

I suspect a 1994 GTO would be quite happy with red OAT, anything with copper in the system I'd go with the Blue or Green Glycol stuff.
Its definatly wise to fully flush the coolant system if your going to change types, red oat mixed with blue glycol created a nice brown sludge ;D

[waveman1500]

Apr 21, 2013 8:23:59 GMT welshpug said:

never heard of blue antifreeze? lol!! its what motorfactors stock most of!

Just for your information, I have never seen blue coolant in an auto parts shop in South Australia. We don't call them motor factors. I asked my mate about it and he said that they used to use it in the Honda dealership, so obviously it does exist in Australia, but is not common. By far the most common colour is green, and then red as a distant second. In most places in Australia it never drops below freezing temperature anyway, so we don't call it antifreeze.

[bortaf]

Red will disolve brass braizing so older cars with braized copper/brass rads are a nono.

One question if i may, why did an Aussie who naturaly has NO idea what the hell freezing is ;D answer a question about anti freeze with any other answer than , "move where it's warmer"

[DaveEdge]

Moved back to original blue.

Will be replacing my rad next week so another flush through should do the trick.

[ChasR]

After combining the two in my 306 GTI-6 years ago and thinking I had a head gasket gone, I would not recommend combining the two! FWIW some sources reckon that the two differing coolants can congeal, not good in a cooling system. The evidence however is sparse (bar individual experiences).

When I spoke to a chap who sells Evans (this could be biased) he reckoned that most copper rads are OK to run on OAT, and that it is only the older cars (going towards pre-war stuff) which has softer solder than can be attacked by OAT. On the basis that the heater matrix (made from Copper) failed on my 944 (which was run on G12 coolant), I am still unsure about using OAT in older stuff.

Saying that, the blue coolant in Peugeots (and now the Stag; maybe cars with mixed metal engines?) seems to collect/produce silt more from the system when flushed, something which the OAT in my Peugeots never did (it would still be as clean as the day it went in 2 years on, something which I could not say about the blue stuff).

[jrevillug]

The OAT stuff's corrosion protection lasts longer than blue glycol's - which should be replaced every 2 years.

[ChasR]

I can appreciate that, but for the silt to start forming within two years in each case? The coolant used was fresh off the motor factor's shelves :/.

[waveman1500]

Apr 21, 2013 19:24:51 GMT bortaf said:

One question if I may, why did an Aussie who naturaly has NO idea what the hell freezing is ;D answer a question about anti freeze with any other answer than , "move where it's warmer"

That is a good solution to the problem, however even in Australia you have to run some sort of coolant/"anti-freeze" to stop the block rusting. I have heard that supposedly all taxis use distilled water instead and don't have any issues, but generally a bit of ethylene glycol is always a good idea.

[RobinJI]

Apr 21, 2013 22:59:34 GMT waveman1500 said:

Apr 21, 2013 19:24:51 GMT bortaf said:

One question if I may, why did an Aussie who naturaly has NO idea what the hell freezing is ;D answer a question about anti freeze with any other answer than , "move where it's warmer"

That is a good solution to the problem, however even in Australia you have to run some sort of coolant/"anti-freeze" to stop the block rusting. I have heard that supposedly all taxis use distilled water instead and don't have any issues, but generally a bit of ethylene glycol is always a good idea.

I'm sure I remember a story about how when they first started selling mk1 Golfs in Australia they had loads of warranty issues because when they'd assembled the cars locally they'd not put any coolant in and had issues with the aluminium heads corroding.

[DaveEdge]

Apr 21, 2013 22:10:52 GMT ChasR said:

After combining the two in my 306 GTI-6 years ago and thinking I had a head gasket gone, I would not recommend combining the two! FWIW some sources reckon that the two differing coolants can congeal, not good in a cooling system. The evidence however is sparse (bar individual experiences).

When I spoke to a chap who sells Evans (this could be biased) he reckoned that most copper rads are OK to run on OAT, and that it is only the older cars (going towards pre-war stuff) which has softer solder than can be attacked by OAT. On the basis that the heater matrix (made from Copper) failed on my 944 (which was run on G12 coolant), I am still unsure about using OAT in older stuff.

Saying that, the blue coolant in Peugeots (and now the Stag; maybe cars with mixed metal engines?) seems to collect/produce silt more from the system when flushed, something which the OAT in my Peugeots never did (it would still be as clean as the day it went in 2 years on, something which I could not say about the blue stuff).

Thanks for the info.

I have copper components so hough changing back to blue would be the better option.

Will be giving it another flush through at the weekend to be on the safe side when I fit my new rad.