is green coolant bad? why?

[Golf Loon]

Where are you based mate?

We are at Campbelltown and give honest advice and pride ourselves on old fashioned service.

Plus we carry OEM parts in stock for your car.

Including 4L bottles of G12+. Bit cheaper than 3 1.5L bottles mate

[brad]

What the problem with mixing the coolant with water?????? Clearly it tells you to use water, yes plain ole water, have done for that last 17yrs. Now if you were topping up your battery with just water then i would have something to say, it really does have to be demineralised, obviously as there is metals in the water. So i wouldnt bag your man if that is what he uses.
Jmac

I think it depends what part of Australia you are in. Some of the water has a very high mineral content which can cause a build-up (calcium?). Possibly can also have an effect if there is a stray current problem.

I always used demineralised water in the Subaru

[brad]

Where are you based mate?

We are at Campbelltown and give honest advice and pride ourselves on old fashioned service.

Plus we carry OEM parts in stock for your car.

Including 4L bottles of G12+. Bit cheaper than 3 1.5L bottles mate

I got the impression he doesn't want to drive all the way from Liverpool(?) to Camden. Sheesh, I go from Hurstville to Campbelltown 5 days a week.

[hienous]

Where are you based mate?

We are at Campbelltown and give honest advice and pride ourselves on old fashioned service.

Plus we carry OEM parts in stock for your car.

Including 4L bottles of G12+. Bit cheaper than 3 1.5L bottles mate

Thanks, I'll keep you in mind next time. I'm at East Hills, nearish to Liverpool. It would just have to require more planning to take my car into service now- with me and my missus working, and 2 kids sometimes its not easy.

With regards to the demineralised water, sounds like overkill I know, but at $5 for 4L, I'm not exactly robbing a bank to finance that part of my car's service. The important thing from my point of view now is that the mechanic did a proper flush and that I haven't got left-over green stuff to react to my precious pink/purple stuff.

I picked up the car today and now it has purple stuff in it. A little overfilled, but he says that it'll settle down once air is pushed out of the cooling system. Strange that he only needed 2x 1.5L bottles... This sounds like I may have to do another flush sometime down the line- probably DIY this time

Still, I'm questioning myself whether all this angst of green vs red was all worth the trouble or I'm just being pedantic.

[brad]

Still, I'm questioning myself whether all this angst of green vs red was all worth the trouble or I'm just being pedantic.

Any adverse effects of the green stuff wouldn't show up for a while - then try & get your mechanic to wear the costs. You did the right thing.

[dainese]

Ok.

Here it is:

This guys seems to be charging dealership labour rates.

no one flushes out engine oil. it is drained and replaced.

Euro cars tend to have soft discs and harder pads. not sure why. but discs wear quicker than pads almost always.

i think labour for rear disc replacement is too much.

the housing for thermostat, if genuine is ok price i think. but not sure on the design. gaskets tend to fail. not the whole housing.
Maybe you can't replace JUST the gasket, or he didn't bother to try because;

it was really hard to get to.

I am not sure where it is located. but 3 hours labour is a lot of money.

and last but not least, the coolant change is a BIG NO NO.

mixing coolant is BAD. over long term, it can corrode, leak, cause dramas.
Maybe VW is more resistant to this, but TOYOTA (MR REliable) suffers in the long term when coolant is mixed.

Get it flushed ASAP.

Any other questions let me know

[Yevvy]

AFAIK if you replace red with green without flushing properly you end up with a brown gunk that isn't a good thing. (ie don't top up red with green).

Again, I'm led to believe that you can swap to green if you flush it properly without issue, although I can't confirm this. Either way the genuine red stuff is the recommended option, while it's more expensive it's not like you change it often now is it.

Whoops

[silvershadow]

The article on the following link contains some useful information about OAT, HOAT and IAT coolants, their use in pre-2005 vehicles and an example of the problems that may arise from using the wrong coolant.

http://rrtechnical.info/miscellaneou...oatwarning.pdf

The following link to a Valvoline product suitability guide for the major vehicle manufacturers might also be useful:

http://www.valvoline.com/pdf/Zerex_CoolantChart.pdf