How long is everyone leaving the original G12/G12+/G12++ in their cooling system for?

[rum4mo]

As per the title field, now in the past most of all my cars have had cam belts, so before/at the advised time/miles period I have had the cam belt replaced.  My wife's last Fiesta that she had did not get its coolant replaced when the Zetec engine had the cam belt replaced, and a year or so later, I replaced its coolant only to find that during flushing, I had washed out the curd that had obviously been keeping the water pump spindle bearing seal, sealed - and so needed to replace that water pump and another belt. Wife's previous Polo 1.4 BBY had its cam belt replaced at 4 or 5 years intervals along with water pump and so G12 or G12+/G12++, my previous Passat 4Motion 2.8V6 30V got its belt changed at maybe 6 year intervals along with coolant first time and water pump and coolant second time. So, my chain driven S4 engine is just about to pass its 7th birthday with the original G12+ in its cooling system, mileage is extremely low so not a governing factor in this.

 

So all good stuff - maybe, I've yet to read anything pointing to the need to replace coolant on a regular basis, ie nothing in the Audi S4 handbook or showing up on Audi's menu servicing - or VW's I don't think, then, someone posts a "very handy" link to ECS Tuning in US of A which goes into depth about "old" coolants were only good for 3 years, ie pre pink/purple stuff OAT came along, then we had long life coolant concentrate which needs replacing after 5 years 1?0,00miles. Now that got me alarmed a bit as maybe I've missed paying more attention to this than I should.

 

Any comments other than changing this and that is "good/nice" but not really necessary?  I do know that modern VW Group coolant concentrates must age a bit - but when should we expect to need to replace them if nothing is noted in the owners manual. Maybe Skoda takes a smarter line on this?

[Ootohere]

'Last all night mister' Long Time'....   

Or at least until it is replace the Water Pump,

then dispose of it in an environmental manor.  ie not down the drain.

[rum4mo]

Luckily for me, a few months before my car was built, Audi discovered that they had been caught out fitting "fudge" (plastic bodied) water pumps to these engines, then quickly turned the clock back to alloy bodied pumps. I'd rather avoid the horrible sight of G13 plus water escaping from that pump just after I had loaded it in, having been there done that once before with the Ford Zetec engine!  

[hatchy]

A bit puzzled myself on this when checking back on the services done on my recently bought vrs before I got it. It's got a print out of what was used for it's 20,000 service at 2 years old (was actually only at 14,200 miles by then) and it's got written down as having 2 1.5l bottles of G13 coolant. Which alludes to it have having a complete coolant change for some reason. It's longlife coolant so I can't believe it needs changing every 2 years. Perhaps it had a leak somewhere (waterpump?) that needed sorting. The service record doesn't give any other detail other than a 20,000 miles service. One other part number that was used was ZGB00S507001K but a google search comes up with nothing so god knows what that was.

[rum4mo]

That part number is very like how Quantumparts number their stuff - but searching on the Quantumparts sites returns nothing.  Seeing as that work is listed on a service bill, I'd think that the original owner had a "thing" about changing coolant regularly and they satisfied his request and charged for it.  The man with the wallet calls the shots?

 

Remember it was always the plan that Quantumparts stuff was only getting sold for aftermarket, ie you ask for it, pay for it and walk out the door and use it else where, genuine VW G13 would get used in the service workshop. 

 

I'm now getting to be like a dog with a very juicy bone now with this "how long does genuine G12/G12+/G12++ and eventually G13 last in a cooling system" thing, I wish, in some ways, that I had never ever read about anyone saying that it should be changed every 5 years - but if that info is true, then I suppose I'm glad that I've brought it up!  I'm still puzzled by the fact that VW Group dealers service menus do not include that change as a wonderful way to spend more money while your is in the workshop - I'd hope that that means it is safe for the life of the cooling system or until it needs opening up.

[rum4mo]

I have finally checked up what exactly is written on this topic in the owner's handbook, now in my Feb 2011 Audi S4, it says that the engine cooling system is filled at factory for life - obviously not stops when you need to break open the system for repairs, and it implies that the factory fill was 40% and G12++ was used back in Feb 2011, even though the header tank is marked as "G12".  Now I have bought some "coolant testing strips" in from USA, these things have two treated sections on them to cover both of the most important aspects of engine coolant, which is "strength" in % which relates to useful low temperature range, and ph value which starts off as being slightly alkaline and probably always tends towards being acidic with longer time in the system. On the internet I discovered that the information wrt ph values in coolants is, you should replace it when it reaches a ph 5 or a ph 10 - water starts at ph 7.  The coolant of my 2011 S4 has ph 7, the coolant in my wife's Aug 2015 Polo has ph 7.5 and a newly bought container of G13, when diluted with water 1:1 has a ph 7.5.  Freezing point of the Feb 2011 car's initially maybe 40% with no topping up since I have owned it is now roughly 33% and the freezing point of the Aug 2015 Polo initially maybe 50% with no topping up since new is still roughly 50%.  So, maybe I'll remove some from the S4 and drop in that 1.5 litres of new G13 to "restore" it enough to keep me happy!