antifreeze - standard OAT?

[stuthemong]

About to get to a refilling stage and wanting to check I'm not being a moron.

The stuff in there was blue, which I assume was OAT. Halfords sell this stuff;

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/...

the "mobil one universal antifreeze" mentioned in the manual seems to no longer exist, but I Assume that any OAT antifreeze is correct?

I see I need 15L so I'll buy 5+2L from halfords to get a nearenough 50/50mix with water for teh 15L.

I probably have a smidege of the blue stuff left in the bottom of the rad and the halfords stuff is red from what I can see. From what I can ascertain this is not a problem, but I may try to nudge that last stuff out anyway.

Thanks chaps!

Stu

[JensenA]

I use the Halfords Flourescent Pink/Red one. Don't mix 'colours', flush all the old Blue stuff out.

[stuthemong]

Cheers Jensen - will do.

Despite best intentions however, I've aborted attempts to work on the thing today. If my hands hurt from cold within 3 minutes it's a bad omen

Hope the sun breaks through the clouds tomorrow, then I can crack on a bit more!

Stu

[itiejim]

Stu, definitely flush out the system. Mixing blue and red is a bad idea and can result in blockages. The red stuff is more modern and requires renewing less regularly.

[stuthemong]

at least the red coolant will match my car colour and new coolant rails

[HarryW]

itiejim said:

Stu, definitely flush out the system. Mixing blue and red is a bad idea and can result in blockages. The red stuff is more modern and requires renewing less regularly.

+1 , really flush it out well, the modern stuff (OAT) goes into blobs of jelly like stuff if it contacts the old stuff (Eth Glycol), not good for the engine.

Editted to add I think the new stuff can also attack things like the solder that holds old style radiators together, not sure if it affects Cerbs radiators or not tbh

Edited by HarryW on Saturday 9th January 17:12

[itiejim]

I've had no problems with the red stuff in mine.

[stuthemong]

I haven't refilled as I've got a way to go, but did buy it today. I've 99% sure the stuff in there already was just blue OAT, not anything older, as the engine was out 1.5 years ago for a rebuild, so I'm sure fresh modern stuff will have been put in.

I actually didn't realise how near the bottom of the rad the hose I took off was, pretty much 1cm above the lowest level, max, so I must have gotten 99% out. What I'll do it refit all the coolant pipes&hoses, refil with water, re-empty, then just flush the rad through from the rad bleed hole with a couple litres of water before doing the proper refil.

At least this means I'll be able to ask for the coolant change to be skipped on the 12K service coming up in 3-4K