Hello everyone,

My on going battle to solve my loss of coolant fluid on my VRS is still not over. After finding the leak myself in the radiator ( not impressive considering the garage looked at it twice for leaks) my garage say they have replaced the radiator. With that the coolant fluid has also been changed from pink G12 to a blue fluid which he says is based on G12. Is this fluid ok? The coolant has already dropped from max to above min is this normal for a new radiator?

Any help would be great.

Nounou

No idea, what coolant is it? Also, depends when you checked the level, whether hot or cold. The level may have dropped due to some air pockets. Monitor closely.

No, G12 is pink. Blue is the wrong stuff. Get it out of there and get some proper stuff back in.

Some garages, Jesus, they know F all. It should be G12+ and yes it's pink.

Pentosyn and Meyle both make G12/G12+ equivalents but they are hard to find in the UK and they are both the correct colour. You can be absolutely sure that it is not the correct coolant.

Any mechanic should know not to mix colours. Thats why they make them different colours!

Lets hope is anti-phosphate/anti-amine and not glycol based. In either case it needs to be flushed. If it's glycol and there was some G12/G12+ left in when it was added, you will need to do multiple flushes to get rid of it.

Yep some dosey mechanic stuck blue stuff in mine (I would guess after doing some work that was not necessary in the first place). I've flushed it and think it still needs a good going over again, I think the radiator is a bit choked up with the gel plus you can see the browny stuff at the top of the header tank. This is why it's just easier to go DIY. Do a job properly yourself instead of paying someone £50 an hour to muck it up making you need to pay someone else £50 an hour later to sort out the problems they created.

I would insist they thoroughly flush the system and put in the correct coolant, but if they can't be trusted to put the correct one in in the first place, they won't put any effort into flushing the system properly.

Edited 12 September, 201015 yr by anewman

i mixed pink and blue stuff

was like a bad chemistry experiment

G11 is blue and as far as I now is not compatible with G12.

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your replies. The only reason that I've been going to the garage is I have a 3 month warranty with them and as soon as thats up (2 weeks) I am definately not going back. Really annoyed especially since G12 is written on the bloody coolant bottle. I phoned them today and he said he will replace it with G12. I'll try and make sure a flush is done as well and hopefully will be there when its done. I would do it myself but unfortunately I am useless at DIY.

Thanks again sure I'll be writing back in a weeks with another coolant related problem,

Nounou

I'd be tempted to buy 2 or 3 bottles (depending on amount needed for system) of G12++ from a dealer or GSF and give it to them to fill up. That way they can't fill it up with standard G12 again which would mix badly with any small remains of blue coolant left in the system. G12++ addresses the issue of incompatibility with other coolants. Unfortunately most cars will have originally been filled with G12 which is the one that gels up etc, and it is almost impossible to fully empty a cooling system.

Edited 12 September, 201015 yr by anewman