what colour should the coolant be?

[Gavv8]

Well i did a complete drain/flush/refill over a year ago when i changed the thermostat and i used good quality unipart blue a-freeze and i've had no issues at all in everything from -15 to +30 degrees and its still clean.

[Dogbot]

I stripped a vr down yesterday to do some work ready for the turbo, and that had been running something other than g12 for a period of time, I can tell you it rots the Ali heads, the water channels were not looking too great, G12 prevents this from happening, the Head was usable tho. I have previously used coolants other than G12 an been very sceptical about the whole g12 saga. From now on I will only ever use g12, what I saw yesterday made me almost sick...

[Jasikasisback]

i dunno my passat has blue coolant and the golf looks like very diluted red coolant...same year 1996..golf does not overheat or anything...i mistook the brownish for very diluted red..so will leave it as the weather is really rainy today...so no point in draining the fluid...will change it after the summer is over......if it passes the mot in july!

[Wayne]

Is there a genuine technical reason for this or just because VW want you to buy their own brand.

Yes, the blue stuff can overtime eat into the alloy and cause issues.

[VW BUSH]

Is there a genuine technical reason for this or just because VW want you to buy their own brand.

Yes, the blue stuff can overtime eat into the alloy and cause issues.

Not quite right.
In laymen's terms colours are the same basic fluid, blue and green use different inhibition to Red. Red is long life 5/6 years 100k miles that sort of range where blue is two years.
Its when the inhibitors break down that you get cathodic/granular corrosion in Ali and rust in ferrous engines.

Never mix blue/green/red as the inhibition and other additives are not compatible and will make it useless

[stainesy]

sorry to hijack the thread but is there a diferance between the black coolant caps and the blue one?
i swapped my expansion tank for the one out of the white golf as mine seemed very stained inside but mine had a black cap and the other one is blue. i have used the blue one as i thought i heard somewhere they are better. but it could have been in a dream.

[mrsaunders]

lets put this one to bed now, look on the tank if your unsure about what coolant to use like this pic


(g12 in this one)

and this link explains why you shouldn't use normal store bought

http://www.blauparts.com/audi/audi_fluid/audi_coolant_engine_fluid.shtml

and as for caps i cant see there being any difference

[F17BAD]

black caps are the old type, my 8v lump had one, the blue ones were supposedly better. however i preferred look of the black one so tried to fit it to my S3 coolant bottle... it didn't fit so i had to se the blue one

[F17BAD]

lets put this one to bed now, look on the tank if your unsure about what coolant to use like this pic


(g12 in this one)

and this link explains why you shouldn't use normal store bought

http://www.blauparts.com/audi/audi_fluid/audi_coolant_engine_fluid.shtml

and as for caps i cant see there being any difference

my old tank on my old 8v lump said use G10... so i would follow your advice as G10 is about a zillion years old and Blue type

Everyone just use correct G12 Plus Plus... its not that expensive..

[VW BUSH]

[/quote]

my old tank on my old 8v lump said use G10... so i would follow your advice as G10 is about a zillion years old and Blue type

Everyone just use correct G12 Plus Plus... its not that expensive..
[/quote]

Its about three quid more, no brainer really.

The link to the blau site is informative but does have some sales sh!te in it which is very misleading.....