Hi,could anyone tell me what the different colours of antifreeze represent as when i changed my water pump at my mates garage i noticed that when i drained the coolant in my felicia it was a green colour but the antifreeze that my mate had in stock was orange so i had to use that?

the stuff you are supposed to use is the vw g12+ which is a pink colour, it is an organic acid, you shouldn't mix anti-freeze types or it can cause a reaction which makes it form a nice sludge in the bottom of the radiator

Blue or green - Glycol based antifreeze, needs changed every 2 years.

Orange or red - current spec long-life, such as VAG G12(+).

These are 2 different types of product and should not be mixed. If you drained the system, no worries, just keep using the new stuff, but you need to change it less often, say every 4 or 5 years for a daily driver.

If you did not drain the system, drain it and flush block and rad ASAP until the water runs clear. If you don't do this, you could be looking at a blocked rad and/or block waterways.

Trust me; I'm an Octy owner, and it was one of the first models to go to G12.

Edited 4 March, 201115 yr by KenONeill

i had to change the water pump so i had taken the bottom rad hose off so there wasn't any coolant left in the system,then i filled it up with the orange antifreeze + water,will this be ok?

Hellfrauds even do ready mixed VAG spec antifreeze now.

i had to change the water pump so i had taken the bottom rad hose off so there wasn't any coolant left in the system,then i filled it up with the orange antifreeze + water,will this be ok?

There will almost certainly be a fair amount of the old coolant left in the heater matrix which could cause problems. To be safe I'd plan on another coolant change fairly soon, and take the opportunity to reverse-flush everything to clean out the general crud as well - the heater hoses are (relatively) easily accessible at the thermostat housing.

Also, if you have a VAG dealer locally, last time I bought some (about 5 weeks ago) genuine G12++ was £7.45+VAT for 1.5 litres, so it actually works out cheaper than anything Halfords offer