Re: Luminous Antifreeze

I had my cambelt and water pump changed recently, looking at the coolant it

> looks exactly like the luminous (or is it fluorescent?) green/yellow stuff
> used as screen wash. I am only aware of blue or red anti-freeze.

Shellsafe A/F used to be that colour -maybe it's that

I've never ever seen green before! All the Ethanol based stuff I've used is blue. Usually bought from Halfords, so Car Plan or Halfords own brand. Which brands are green?

Pete

Both ethylene glycol and Propylene based antifreeze mixtures are usually dyed with a fluorescent yellow/green dye. Ethylene Glycol is the mixture used in most engines after manufacture and the fluorescent dye (fluorescein) makes leak detection very easy as it glows brightly under UV illumination.

Ethanol based antifreeze is a rather cheap and nasty substance of limited value, the ethanol evaporates quickly leaving you with no protection.

"PM" mumbled:

No idea...it's not something I buy often enough to rememeber brands. Like I said, the ethanol ones are best avoided these days. Ethylene glycol is far better.

Thanks for the reassurance Peter (and Guy too). Yesterday I was fuming cos I thought the mechanic had used screenwash instead of antifreeze.

Pete

THere is nothing anywhere which states what colour anti-freeze should be. Years ago when I worked at a Land Rover dealer it was flourescent green there.

Yep if its bright yellow/ green its UNIPART anti-freeze

Martin

My bottle of Halfords antifreeze is very blue, and is ethylene glycol. My bottle of Halfords washer bottle additive is a yellow/green colour, and it smells strongly of methanol. I hope the colour is not a reliable indicator of content as I have often topped up yellow/green antifreeze and I wouldn't like to think I'd paid someone to tip a cheap methanol mix in.

At least having them different colours helps to differentiate between the made-up dilutions I keep separately. Although the smell is a giveaway.

"Marty1a" mumbled:

That's a bit of a sweeping generalisation. I'm sure other companies make the green stuff as well.

Antifreeze is usually red or blue but is sometimes green. For example, the antifreeze that renault uses in its cars and is sold by renault dealers is luminous green. It's highly unlikely that you have screenwash in your cooling system. If you did you'd probably have noticed something strange - soapy suds in the expansion tank perhaps :)

BrianD3

Bluecol's 2-year anti-freeze is ethylene glycol based and dyed blue... just to be different. :)

If it wasn't blue, it wouldn't be called BlueCol....If it was Luminous, would it be called GlowCol?

I spoke to the guy who put the green AF in, he reckons that you should never top-up unless you are using the same brand because the anti-corrosion additives may not be compatible. He pointed out that if you have to top up a lot in the 2 years between coolant changes then you've got a problem anyways, for small amounts just top up with water.

Pete

LOL. Their 5-year stuff is apparently green, I dunno, we haven't got room to stock both. :(

Duckhams is also luminous green/yellow, worked with it for a few years now. Tastes quite nice too!

Guy