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AntiFreeze Colours

Always get a bit jittery when it comes to winter and plumetting temperatures so looking to change my coolant sooner rather than later.

I have green coolant in there at the moment which I know means diddly squat as to what it is actually made up of.

Whether it be the standard, erm, MEG (typically green/blue) or MEG+OAT (typically red) is there any reason you can think of why I shouldn't be able to just drain and flush the system and fill up with the red MEG+OAT longlife stuff?

Nissan Primera 1.8, 2001, Petrol, GQ18DE Engine

Reply to
Simon Dean
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Well, I just top mine up with whatever type I happen to have. Please, someone, tell me I'm wrong.

Rob Graham

Reply to
Rob Graham

Ordinarily, I'd quite probably agree. But some schools of thought suggest the rust inhibitors etc get used up. And of course, if you don't know what's in there, how can you top it up?

Course Im not an expert my any stretch of the imagination so don't know what Im doing.

Reply to
Simon Dean

I know with older VWs if you put green / blue antifreeze in and the car has always been run on the pink VW G12 longlife stuff then you're entering a world of pain. First sign is normally the heater matrix blocking up, then the water pump starts playing up, and so on, and so on.

May well be different if given a proper clean'n'flush before changing over.

Reply to
Pete M

the anti cold properties change very little with age, but the anti corrosion drops after a couple of years. From the age of your vehicle it may well be on original stuff (so a nissan dealer might be a good place to check out the correct stuff)

If you are changing it then a complete wash out twice (drive the car for a bit to rinse all round) and a refill with a good quality anti freeze will be fine.

Or if you CBA then let out a couple of litres and top up with a universal long life, such as Prestone, which they say can be mixed with anything.

Reply to
Mrcheerful

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