Coolant question

[Bayerische]

I left my car into a BMW main dealer recently for a coolant change.

The previous time the coolant had been changed was at a specialist. I noted the the coolant that he put in the car was a pink colour.

When I got the car back from the BMW main dealer and looked under the bonnet, I was expecting to see the familiar blue BMW coolant, as I know BMW OEM coolant is blue in colour. I was surprised to see that the coolant in the expansion tank was still pink in colour.

I left two cars in with them that day, the other car had blue coolant in the expansion tank and when I got the car back it was blue.

Am I missing something here? Do BMW use a pink coloured coolant?, As I have a suspician that they did not change anything and charged me a fortune for doing absolutely nothing.

[ikarl]

Did it need changed? Did they charge you for a coolant change?

[Bayerische]

Yes it needed changing and I was charged for it. The car went in for a coolant change and an oil change.

[Andyjc86]

Instead of completely flushing the system, they have just used the same colour to avoid mixing types.

[ging84]

i was asked what colour i needed when i tried to buy coolant at the dealers a few weeks ago

some of the mini diesels didn't use the standard coolant maybe this has spread to more models

[morgrp]

Its important to use the correct type of coolant in many modern alloy engines - I'd check to make sure the right type has been used in your car - pink and blue are nearly always different compositions - what you need to check is whether your car runs IAT or OAT coolant - chances are it runs OAT

[KungFuPanda]

Get your local motor factors to do a test on the coolant to see if it has actually been replaced. I think they check the freezing point or boiling point or something. I might be chatting st.

[BritishRacinGrin]

In days of old you might've expected to see 205L drums of antifreeze in the workshop, the same stuff being used for pretty much all the customer's cars. These days it seems that fluids are ordered by part number as the formulations are much more engine-specific and environmental specs much more stringent.

I don't think it's unlikely that the BMW coolant is blue and the Mini coolant happens to be pink.

ETA: ah, I've re-read it. Yeah that seems a little more fishy but some coolants will cause issues when mixed so maybe they just drained and re-filled the system with the same type. Or maybe they didn't do it at all.

Edited by BritishRacinGrin on Tuesday 8th July 02:42

[TooMany2cvs]

The pink coolant is the long-life 5yr-change OAT stuff. It can be used in anything.
The blue coolant is the generic 2yr-change cheapie glycol old-school stuff. It can be used in almost anything, but there are some engines where it wouldn't be wise because of internal corrosion problems.

So long as it's been thoroughly flushed through before changing from blue to pink, there's no real issue. Just remember to use the right stuff if you top up.

[boz1]

TooMany2cvs said:

The pink coolant is the long-life 5yr-change OAT stuff. It can be used in anything.
The blue coolant is the generic 2yr-change cheapie glycol old-school stuff. It can be used in almost anything, but there are some engines where it wouldn't be wise because of internal corrosion problems.

So long as it's been thoroughly flushed through before changing from blue to pink, there's no real issue. Just remember to use the right stuff if you top up.

Actually, I discovered when researching this myself that you can't really infer anything at all from the colour...
https://www.opieoils.co.uk/pdfs/tech-articles/cool...

[DanielJames]

To really fk things up my BMW has green coolant

[Bayerische]

I just spoke to the dealer.

BMW's use OEM blue coolant.
Mini's use OEM pink coolant.

I think when the mechanic was working on my car he saw it had pink coolant in it and decided to fill it up with the pink stuff. He should have used the blue stuff.

BMW are fairly adamant that you only use their blue coolant in their cars as it is phosphate free. I am sure the pink stuff wont hurt the car. It is more dangerous to mix different coolant types.

[TooMany2cvs]

boz1 said:

TooMany2cvs said:

The pink coolant is the long-life 5yr-change OAT stuff. It can be used in anything.
The blue coolant is the generic 2yr-change cheapie glycol old-school stuff. It can be used in almost anything, but there are some engines where it wouldn't be wise because of internal corrosion problems.

So long as it's been thoroughly flushed through before changing from blue to pink, there's no real issue. Just remember to use the right stuff if you top up.

Actually, I discovered when researching this myself that you can't really infer anything at all from the colour...
https://www.opieoils.co.uk/pdfs/tech-articles/cool...

<groan> Because, obviously, using a nice simple standard to identify non-miscible products is far TOO flippin' easy, Even within one sodding manufacturer, apparently...