Mixing antifreeze types

We explained that antifreeze not only lowers the freezing point of the water in your cooling system it also raises the boiling point and helps inhibit corrosion. Orange antifreeze should not be mixed with green antifreeze because they are not compatible.

Mixing Coolants - Motor Vehicle Maintenance. Is mixing two types of coolant in my Ford Fusion. Does it matter what kind of coolant. Can different coolant types be safely mixed? Red antifreeze contains organic acids that protect engine parts from corrosion.

Silicate (green) type antifreeze does not mix with red type antifreeze. Never mix the two colors in a cooling system. What happens when you mix red and blue antifreeze in your car? Orange vs green: coolant basics you need to know.

In the past, there was only one kind of coolant ( anti-freeze ) and that was the green liquid. Typically orange or yellow. Which color coolant to use? Toyota Motor Sales’ Bill Kwong in product communications explains that other formulas tested didn’t provide the same performance.

Chemistry Can you mix anti-freeze types for a. It’s also possible to tell what type of antifreeze is in the car by the color. When you want to change to a completely different type of antifreeze , you’ll need to take your car to a trained mechanic for a flush and fill. Depending on what color coolant you are mixing , different substances in the types of coolant can react chemically with each other in myriad ways from becoming sludge and clogging the small passages in the system and ruining your radiator (not to mention the risk of overheating your engine), to becoming corrosive to the many hoses and lines it. However, you can easily top off the.

Can I use the red to top off the green? Blogs Car Info Our Show Mechanics Files. Propylene glycol can be mixed with ethylene glycol without causing harm to the cooling system, but it does slightly weaken the heat transfer. There are a variety of types of antifreezes out there, depending on the application.

Important to remember is that conventional and OAT coolant types don’t go together. Technician A says that there are a number of coolant types that each has its own life span. Technician B says that mixing of coolants is generally ok, since all coolants use the same chemical base. Best for Short Term Solutions.

ANTIFREEZE TYPES AND COLORS. There is some confusion regarding the different antifreezes out in the market place. This article is written to try to clear up the differences. What will actually happen when Gcoolant is mixed with regular types , including with those that claim to mix with ANY type of antifreeze ? It is best not to mix different types of coolant or antifreeze with one another, unless it is unavoidable. Currently no vehicle manufacturers are using high silicate products.

Different colored antifreeze is used to identify the type of antifreeze being used. Inorganic Acid Technology (IAT) antifreeze is green in color. An antifreeze is an additive which lowers the freezing point of a water-based liquid and increases its boiling point. Organic Acid Technology (OAT) antifreeze is orange, re green, pink or blue. An antifreeze mixture is used to achieve freezing-point depression for cold environments and also achieves boiling-point elevation (anti-boil) to allow higher coolant temperature.

Toyota had a red type antifreeze , most Japanese antifreeze is a non silicate antifreeze. If you take all of the old out and flush with distilled water so that you will not be mixing antifreeze you should have no problems with putting all makes all models into your engine. Life was simple then, just mix one part of the green stuff to one part water and you were good to go for up to three years.

Occasionally you would check the potency of your mixture with a bulb- type antifreeze tester and maybe add a little to give you a little more protection, but that was about it. Realize that green antifreeze is the old style antifreeze. That was an old type of antifreeze where the glycol lasts maybe.

Engine coolant , also known as antifreeze , is mixed with water to keep the radiator from freezing in extreme cold and overheating in extreme heat.

There are many different types of coolant , so it’s important to know what variety is right for your car or truck. Although you can mix coolant types without harm, it is highly recommended against. If you mix an OAT or HOAT with an IAT, you will lose the extended service life of the OAT or HOAT coolant. Some people say that if you mix these types of coolant it can result in the coolant gelling, but if you keep your cooling system well maintaine this. Technically, you can mix coolant types , but before you go ahead and do it, let’s cover some things.

Firstly, Dex-Cool and traditional anti-freeze don’t mix well. Though they can work together in a pinch, after extended use, they can react and create a gel, which can be very damaging to multiple components of your cooling system. Antifreeze Reference Chart By type , color and application.

Some antifreeze can be mixed with other antifreeze , such as types that use propylene glycol or ethylene glycol bases. Coolant color is NOT a sure fire way to tell what kind of coolant is in the car, the. The ultimate answer is no.

Personally I try to avoid ever mixing coolant types , though some mixing is unavoidable when you change types. Even when you do a distilled water flush there will be small pockets of remaining old coolant that will mix with new. Coolant is the fluid in your radiator while antifreeze is the liquid being added to the radiator to help prevent the coolant from freezing. While some antifreeze comes premixed with water, allowing you to simply add more as needed– these types of antifreeze can be more expensive.

Learn why you should use distilled water or deionized water when mixing water with your engine coolant , not tap water. While it is ethylene glycol EG) based antifreeze , the concern with mixing comes from the fact that there are very different chemical inhibitor packages in use. Most leading technologies will work very well when used as intende typically at in good quality water.