coolant or anti-freeze

[sharki786]

hi lads,

just need to know which is better coolant or anti-freeze or they both the same and which sould i go 4? as its realy hot now & the temp likes to go over just 90 deg and im not took keen on that, whats the best to go for? my mate who has a vr said red but thers blue green and some other colour i think. car is golf mk3 gti 8v agg engine. car has blue in atm

Cheers

Sharki

[MrBounce]

Depends on the age of the car. Mine's a '96 AGG 8v and has always used VW's Pink coolant. 

[rubjonny]

coolant is just a generic term used to describe the water/antifreeze mix.  in my cars I always use G12 (pink) or G12+ (purple), but thats just personal preference.  Halfords or motorfactors stuff will be fine, just have to watch you dont mix incompatible types as that can result in your coolant turning into a brown sludge

[sharki786]

is G12 the name of it? mine has 112k on it now just bugs me wen temp goes high and have to blast the heaters to get it low but it dont go low when stuk in traffic but when on long stretch and driving easily it drops down to 70ish. just want the car to run cooler. on the weekend i did put some water in as i thought there wasnt enuf till after i saw its just bit over Max. my dad had that sludge but his water pump went and we replaced it, when we took the pump of we was shicked to see what we had found NO BLADES ON THE F*CKER haha shocker the water was brown not a sludge type got rusted.

Ta

[rubjonny]

its the name of VAG/Febi brand coolant. G11 is older VAG stuff, replaced by G12 which wont mix with G11, cue brown sludge. then VAG replaced G12 with G12+, which mixes with both G11 and G12, so no more sludge issues. I think they have also now brought out G12++, no idea what the difference with that stuff is.  I just get whatever GSF/VW or AVS sell, depending on who I'm ordering from at the time.

[Guy]

is your fan working on your radiator?

[sharki786]

ye guy that kicks in bang on 90deg even wen iv just parked up and turned ignition of the fan kicks in and goes off afer a few secs or so. but my mates got a real sore one his wont kick in till 110degs??  and his is blowing brown smoke when he floores it and blue when he just revs it while sitting, it does have 172k on it and same engine as mine agg 8v gti 2.0 but is killing his oil and to add injury to insult he gets 30mpg LOCALLY  mine just about reaches 27 depending on traffic. but i think his piston seal av gone? whats the best thing for his? and mine now im just confused i just want the best coolant realy

[Adam]

His engine is dead reli. It could also be the oil steam valves. stem valves are an ok job to do. But piston rings are a bugger to do.

Mine kicks in at 90-100deg.

[sharki786]

you reckon? his still moves when he foots its, where are these "steam valves" located? cheers, GSF said £6.50 for the pink G12 coolant but want to flush the whole system. going to have a look 2day maybe tomorrow thanks all  respect

[Adam]

This is whats happening to Shadys motor. He is currently looking for a new engine.

**Sorry not steam, stem**