What coolant do you guys use in your Mk1

[RedMk2Gti]

It is a common understanding that G12/G12+ must be used in VWs. But when you picked up a 30+ years old Mk1, I'm sure 90% of them have green colour K-mart/Big-W varieties in the radiator. Do you replace it with the infamous purple G12 if you love your VW ?

[Valver.]

Distilled water and Redline Water Wetter in mine Not the best for longevity but I intend to blow up my current engine before this becomes a problem. I was under the impression it was G11 for earlier VWs... All bollocks anyway. Valvoline G05 premix is just as good and far cheaper.

[gldgti]

i just use the castrol radi-cool concentrate stuff. its about $10 a litre and makes enough to do a fill.

vw are the peoples car. they didnt make the engines/cooling systems to be destryoed by non-g11-g12 coolant. when you make a name for reliability out of 50million beetles and golfs, you must be allowing for poeple that dont live near a dealership..

[Oneofthegreats]

I've only used & use VW coolant in my Golf's. Just one of those thing's.
It's really the same as BMW coolant, but I've seen what that can do to radiator's. A friend of mine thought he'd do a coolant flush & use BMW coolant which ate through a perfectly good radiator in 2 week's! All because it was there & he didn't want to buy some stuff like Nulon additive etc.

Anyway, VW coolant has been superseeded a few time's & has also changed color as well. Used to be G11 green (as far back as I can remember), then G12 pink & now G12+ pink.

Same s@$t, different color!

If the system is fully flushed, other coolant & additive's will be fine.

Although this has happened to me before. If the coolant hasn't been changed in a long time, new coolant can sometimes cause leak's at the end's of the hoses, heater tap, hose connection's, heater core etc.

[Preen59]

I agree with everyone (and not because i want everyone to like me.. )

The average nulon/castrol/valvoline/genuine whatever coolant will be fine. I wouldn't be too concerned, just buy whatever coolant brand you prefer to use. You don't need G12..

[Jmac]

In G12 s defence it must be used in alloy engines if you are using something else just make sure it complies guys otherwise i agree, like ZF gearboxes in VW and Audi MUSt use their AFT WRONG - same box is in BMW,Volvo and Porsche. I dont use Audi or Vw oil in them either, i go for Penrite BMV same qualities as Audi, and ZF give it the seal of approval.

Jmac

[Preen59]

In G12 s defence it must be used in alloy engines

Yeah thats true, but the good old iron blocks don't.