mixing coolant

ed · Post by ed » Thu Oct 07, 2004 7:07 pm

I noticed before that my one of my radiator hoses is leaking with coolant, so i tightened the thing that holds it, but i think i tightened it to much that it cut the rubber. Now, i noticed that my coolant container is empty, so i have to fill it up, but my problem is every coolant brand that I saw is saying "DO NOT MIX WITH ANY OTHER TYPE OF COOLANT", as it may not be compatible, and i dont know what type of coolant it had previously. Will it do any harm if I top it up with any other coolant? is it only the manufacturers way, so that youll keep on buying their coolant? thanks

ed · Post by ed » Thu Oct 07, 2004 7:11 pm

sorry i type it in the wrong forum

Boris · Post by **Boris** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 7:38 pm

You could always put water in it, or distilled water if you want to be fussy... not quite sure about mixing the coolant though, it could be just like mixing two different oils... or maybe not... My guess would be it doesn't really matter... hmm...

If you have time, you can just flush the cooling system out yourself... it's not very hard...

minh · Post by **minh** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 8:41 pm

Hey dont worry too much Coolant is coolant It doesnt make the car any cooler.Water has cooling property like coolant. Coolant just doesnt boil as easy and has rust inhibitors. So if you are lazy then just top up man,

but As the wise man Boris says "flush it" and read my thread as boris puts in some good points about flushing too

Breza · Post by **Breza** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 8:45 am

As far as I am aware it "should" be fine to add more coolant..............especially if you just topping up.

As long as the coolant you are adding is the same colour as the stuff that is already in the car. (ie red or green)

In the grand scheme of things coolant is cheap anyways..............for piece of mind why not just flush the whole lot? what can it hurt?

Cheers

Chris