blue coolant?

[acranox]

So one of my heater lines got a leak in it the other day (the one from the carb to the thermostat housing) I replaced the hose, all seems well.
I went to Honda to pick up a gallon of coolant to top the system off, and I noticed the label was blue instead of green. When I opened the bottle, the coolant was blue too!
Can the blue stuff be mixed with the green stuff? What's the difference? Why'd they change?

--Peter

[AccordEpicenter]

same stuff, its just pre mixed i believe.

[88Accord-DX]

Nm.

[Busted_Blue]

Well, I know for sure that honda coolant has changed to blue coolant now. I have Honda Promotion Mints (altoids-like) that are promoting the color of the new honda coolant.

I haven't seen any of the coolant myself or know what the difference is, but it is nice to know someone knows. :)

[AccordEpicenter]

hes thinking of green stuff and orange (dex-cool). never use orange coolant (dex-cool) it reacts with the green stuff and coagulates in this brown sludge... nasty

[88Accord-DX]

*edit this post* info is different.

[acranox]

Well, I did what I should have done right away, and call a Honda dealer.
The service guy I talked to was familiar with the new coolant and said that it could be safely mixed with the old Honda green coolant. He said they wouldn't gel.
I already mixed them, I'll let you know if I see any kind of reaction.

[88Accord-DX]

Definetly let us know. I got different info on it. Never seen it mixed together, cause it is new product.

[FyreDaug]

I use basic green stuff with 50/50 water and soem water wetter stuff. Works good for me.

[88Accord-DX]

Little Up-date to this thread.

I got this info. off the net cause I was curious about mixing the two together too. I think I mis-interpreted it. Here it is below.


Ian C. Vorster" <kamikazeicon.co.za> wrote :
>can anyone tell me the difference between G11 and G12 coolant
>besides the color?



Unlike the previous coolant, this newly developed product permits a
cooling system fill that lasts the service life of the engine and
was designed with all-aluminum engines in mind.

Advantages over previous coolant:
Improved corrosion protection
Improve thermal stability
Improved heat transfer/control
Improved hard water tolerance
Improved environmental protection
CAUTION!G 012 A8D A1 must NEVER be mixed with any other coolant.
Engine damage will result !
G 012 A8D A1 is red in color.The mixture of G 012 A8D A1 and other
colored coolants is immediately identifiable by discoloration (brown,
purple etc.). If this mixture is used in an engine, a foamy deposit
will appear in the expansion tank/radiator.This mixture is to be
drained immediately and the cooling system flushed as described
below.

Flushing procedure :Engine at operating temperature (older vehicles
with heater valve: heater on). Drain coolant .
Apply compressed air to expansion tank or radiator to blow out
remaining coolant. Close cooling system, fill with distilled water.
Run engine for a minimum of 2 minutes. Drain water and apply
compressed Air to expansion tank a before close cooling system and
fill with appropriate mixture ratio of G 012 A8D A1and distilled
water. Test drive, check coolant level and add if necessary.
Note:G 012 A8D 01 coolant may be used in older vehicles when the
original coolant is drained and cooling system flushed as described
above. Inform customer that a new coolant Is used and that ONLY water
or G 012 A8D A1 be used to replenish.CAUTION! Never re-use old
coolant when performing engine repairs.Dispose of old coolant
properly. Flushing as specified above, or engine damage resulting
from the use of a mixture of G 012 A8D A1 and other coolants is not
covered by the new vehicle warranty.


*edit* G-11 is the blue color anti-freeze, G-12 is red color anti-freeze.

[DBMaster]

I think I have stated this before on this forum, but I changed mine over to Dexcool in 1997. I have had to drain coolant a couple of times since for various reasons and the coolant continued to look brand new for three years. I did change it when I had to replace the radiator due to a crack at the filler neck, which is common. The inside of the old radiator was spotless. When I did my timing belt I changed the water pump and thermostat and they were both spotless.

I basically drain the radiator and block, refill with R/O water, run the engine until warm, drain again, and them fill with a 50/50 mix of Dexcool and R/O water. I then run with the bleed valve open and keep adding coolant until all green color is gone from the stream. I did this on the 99 Oasis as well. There is no problem mixing Dexcool with what you have in there, but if you don't get out as much of the old stuff as possible you lose some of the long life benefits of Dexcool.

[AccordEpicenter]

if you dont get the green stuff out when switching to Dex cool itll turn into brown sludge... nasty stuff. Why did you feel the need to switch to dex cool?

[DBMaster]

It is silicate-free and last up to five times longer than the old green-dyed coolant. That means a lot less maintenance. Same reasons I use synthetic oil, brake fluid, and transmission fluid.

If I have brown sludge in my engine it must not be doing any harm as I changed over about 100K miles ago. Either that, or I got the old stuff out pretty completely. Even the container of the long life stuff says it is compatible. It is all ethylene glycol based, after all. I even used that Sierra stuff in the car when it was still pretty new. That is propylene glycol based, like Amsoil's coolant.

There you have it, I suppose.

[Cyric_accord]

It is silicate-free and last up to five times longer than the old green-dyed coolant. That means a lot less maintenance. Same reasons I use synthetic oil, brake fluid, and transmission fluid.

If I have brown sludge in my engine it must not be doing any harm as I changed over about 100K miles ago. Either that, or I got the old stuff out pretty completely. Even the container of the long life stuff says it is compatible. It is all ethylene glycol based, after all. I even used that Sierra stuff in the car when it was still pretty new. That is propylene glycol based, like Amsoil's coolant.

There you have it, I suppose.


That is, except for that GM, which switched it's coolant over to Dex-Cool, has found that it doesn't last all that longer then normal ethylene glycol-based coolant. Even our Steering and Suspension teacher, GM tech for the last 25 years, said he switched his cars back to ethylene glycol because the "benefits" of Dex-Cool didn't mitigate the cost

[Cheeseburger]

hm my coolant is red orange cuz all the frinking rust it has in the radiator

[snow_man_20]

Little Up-date to this thread.

I got this info. off the net cause I was curious about mixing the two together too. I think I mis-interpreted it. Here it is below.


Ian C. Vorster" <kamikazeicon.co.za> wrote :
>can anyone tell me the difference between G11 and G12 coolant
>besides the color?


Flushing procedure :Engine at operating temperature (older vehicles
with heater valve: heater on). Drain coolant .




Huh?? That sounds like a burn.

[AccordEpicenter]

yeah... idk i dont have serious probs with regular glycol coolant, lasts long enough... but whatever i guess, as long as you flush it out before you change you should be fine

[87accordlxi]

if you dont get the green stuff out when switching to Dex cool itll turn into brown sludge... nasty stuff. Why did you feel the need to switch to dex cool?


That might have been true when Dex first came out 10 years ago, but they've improved it to where it will be fine mixing the two in a pinch. But in these cars, it's probably a good idea to drain the fluid and fill it with clean silicate (green) coolant. If you have a mix of Dex/green, then you're seeing none of the benefits of having Dex-Cool. Dex-Cool only has a long life if it has absolutely no contamination with silicate coolant. Even flushing the engine can't remove all of the silicate coolant because silicates coat the engine parts as part of their corrosion protection. You can't be 100% sure that it's gone. Over time, after a few flushes, maybe.

That said, I wouldn't leave Dex-Cool in for the 150,000 miles that GM and Texaco claim, but it can easily last two or three times the life of the green coolant.

[DBMaster]

There you go! I doubt I would ever leave it in that long, but I have had to change it when draining the system to do other things. It is all ethylene glycol based, by the way. It always seems like any time something "new" comes out there is always somebdody who says, " you can't use the stuff in your car because..."

Hell, that's what they said about synthetic oil for years!

[acranox]

Well, I've put 300 miles on the coolant, and now I'm here to report.
Firstly, I was always talking about Honda brand coolant.
I had Honda brand green 50/50 coolant in my car, and I topped it off with Honda brand blue 50/50 coolant. I think I added about 1-2 quarts when topping it off.

So after 300 miles I see no problems. 100 miles of that was one straight trip last Friday. The rest is a mix of short highway trips and city driving. I checked the coolant this morning, and I see no indication of foaming or gelling. I haven't had any overheating, or underheating issues. It looks like they two can be safely mixed.

[AccordEpicenter]

its the same type of coolant, and they are compatable with eachother... the only difference is the blue stuff is premixed and may contain other additives (we really dont care)

[acranox]

The green coolant was premixed too.

The difference is that the blue coolant is a longer life formula (My sister's '03 Civic says the coolant can stay in there for 10 years)

[DBMaster]

The blue coolant must be a silicate-free formula, too. The orange stuff just has a different color dye in it. Without the dyes they all look like gooey water!

The only issue with mixing is that you lose the ability to leave it in there for ten years. Since it is more expensive the only issue here is money. If you flush it out with a water rinse next time you should have no problem extending the change interval to at leat double. I did the same thing when I started using synthetic transmission fluid since you only get out about half of the total fluid when you drain it. Since I had been diligent about changing the fluid before switching there was no compelling reason to do a complete fluid swap.

The benefits of extended life fluids are numerous.

1. Money savings in the long run
2. Cooler running, cleaner engine that may last longer
3. Less waste to handle (environmental)
4. Less frequent removal of parts (drain plugs, hoses, etc.)

*5* LESS WORK!!

I personally like #5 myself! :)