Hi,

 

I need to top up coolant, and from what I understand i will need G13 coolant. However, the color of the existing coolant is bright-yellow, and I can only find red G13 locally. Is it ok to mix these colors?

 

car is a Octavia vRS 2.0 TDI MY2015

VW coolant colors are either pink or purple. Your car is running with incorrect coolant.

 

Do not mix yellow/green coolant with pink/purple one!

 

You have 3 options:

1/ Recommended: Find a reputable place to flush your system and remove the silica bag from the coolant reservoir. Or replace the reservoir if its model doesn’t allow easy removal. Them top up with with G12Evo coolant.

The garage which does it should understand what it’s doing because the coolant system of EA288 engines is complicated and cannot be fully flushed that easily.

 

2/ Good: Same as above but without removing the silica bag. This hides a risk the bag to tear/split in the system and block your heater matrix.

Then top up with G13 coolant.

 

3/ Ignore recommendations and top up with whatever yellow coolant you find.

 

 

Mannol do vw coolant that is green or yellow also just to confuse matters 

It looks gold-ish in color, and when I dip my finger in the reservoir it’s transparent on my finger. If we assume it’s yellow G13 coolant, is it safe to fill up with red G13? 

 

Coolant was most likely replaced 50k km ago when previous owner had the timing belt and water pump replaced, so I don’t really feel like flushing the coolant system to change it, since it seems it’s rather complicated and needs to be vacuum filled if I recall correctly. 

Best assume nothing as that can cost you.

 

?

How much coolant are you losing anyway that you need to top up.

 

I might be just adding de-ionised water, but then i would want to know the strength of the coolant for anti-freeze / summer coolant / rust inhibitor and i could not assume what the yellow stuff is.

Test the strength / ratio. 

It’s been barely at the minimum level since I bought the car 5 months ago. Now it’s a bit below even that, and this morning I had a red low coolant symbol show up when I cold started the car at -3 Celsius. I’ve been running the Webasto diesel heater many times a day all winter long, I don’t know if that could affect the coolant level somehow.

 

It’s going in to the dealer in a couple days to change oil in the DSG, I’ll ask them what it’ll cost me for a coolant flush, and might as well ask them to remove the silica bag. 
 

 

Edited 1 April, 20233 yr by Orman

1 hour ago, T07 said:

Mannol do vw coolant that is green or yellow also just to confuse matters 

If you are talking about this one, it doesn’t meet any of the VW TL 774 G/J/L standards https://mannol-gcc.com/products_cat/operating-and-service-fluids/

 

Even if there is a yellow coolant meeting any of these standards, I would doubt that it’s exactly such coolant in the car.

 

 

13 minutes ago, Orman said:

It looks gold-ish in color, and when I dip my finger in the reservoir it’s transparent on my finger. If we assume it’s yellow G13 coolant, is it safe to fill up with red G13? 

 

Coolant was most likely replaced 50k km ago when previous owner had the timing belt and water pump replaced, so I don’t really feel like flushing the coolant system to change it, since it seems it’s rather complicated and needs to be vacuum filled if I recall correctly. 

 

Saying this reminds me that sometimes coolant looks different color due to oldish plastic of the reservoir. So get so coolant in a cup if you can, and you will be sure.

 

It’s never safe to mix yellow/green coolant with pink/purple one. Even though the color doesn’t mean anything these days, it’s still very common for the yellow coolants to be OAT where the pink ones are usually HOAT and these aren’t compatible.. Don’t try your luck.

 

Get some coolant out and see is it yellow, if it is you decide to change it or to top up with some other yellow coolant.

 

Sorry to hijack this thread but am looking at 2023 Superb from a Skoda dealer and the coolant is a murky brown. They assure me this is correct but it looks wrong and definitely not pink or yellow or purple. Views?

@GreenGeorge 2023 should be with G12Evo coolant which is purple. Unless it has done 100k miles for less than 2 years, it should be with the factory coolant.

I’m not sure are the water pumps still failing on the Facelift S3, but if the car history doesn’t include it, most likely it wasn’t changed.

Of course there is always a chance that someone has topped up the wrong coolant, but there is no easy way to find this out.

Ask the dealer how much does it cost to change the coolant for the peace of mind or negotiate it in the final price. There are 10-12 liters if I recall correctly with many circles and it requires diagnostics.. changing it is a pain in the neck 😆

Just hada look in my shed, G12evo pink colour 14tsi octavia 2017dsg

Needs topping up that aswell.....

My coolant needs topping up, had timing belt done few months back and had it drained and refilled , not a clue what coolant is in it.

It's 69 plate 1.5 tsi

Is there a particular coolant i should use which would mix OK with whatever is already in it or is complete drain and refill my only option?

Just use de-ionised water unless the level is waaaay low.

13 minutes ago, Breezy_Pete said:

Just use de-ionised water unless the level is waaaay low.

It's losing some regularly and keeps being topped up due to leaky pipe, going to have a look today but will probably replace pipe and need to buy some anyway

Not the most reliable source of information but after googling is g13 my safest bet for top up and refill ?

Edited 14 September, 202514 Sep by Brian15

G12EVO 9.99 Ebay

There was a weirdness though. TDI150/180 engines MY15 had to have G13. Engine codes CVCA and CRUA needed the slightly different coolant due to the structure of the cooling system. In all other cases, G12evo is acceptable.