Mixing antifreeze colors

I have a question about antifreeze. He told me he had to flush the radiator because I had added a different color antifreeze to my cooling system. He stated that one cannot mix colors of antifreeze (pink and green, in my case). Many people have asked whether you can mix antifreeze colors , and many times they are told FALSE information.

Well, finally Astral comes up and brings you the truth about it all! But here’s where you get into trouble when mixing different colors of antifreeze or different types of antifreeze. Car makers select an antifreeze chemistry based on the types of components (fittings, seals, tubing) of each particular cooling system’s internal components. This can decrease the effectiveness of the antifreeze and can cause a brown gel like substance in your car. This can cause your engine to overheat and it clogs up pipes and can cause engine damage.

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. 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.

The organic acids in red type will cause precipitation of silicates in the green type and corrosion protection is greatly reduced. Mixing antifreeze and coolant. Tech 1– the colors of antifreeze.

That was an old type of antifreeze where the glycol lasts maybe three years max. So you’ve got to change the coolant maybe three years or every 10miles. The modern coolant comes in various different colors and red happens to be one of them. Also, mixing brands of antifreezes can cause unwanted chemicals.

OAT antifreeze may not do as good of a job preventing corrosion of brass or copper. Antifreeze Reference Chart By type, color and application. Different colored antifreeze is used to identify the type of antifreeze being used.

Inorganic Acid Technology (IAT) antifreeze is green in color. The result was a brown sludge. They power flushed the system as a part of the repair and managed to plug the heater core. I’m certain that the mixture of the red and green antifreeze was responsible for the brown sludge that Hal’s Radiator Shop got out of the system for $180. Confusion continues over coolant colors for cars.

For all makes, all models and all colors of antifreeze. Of course, there is still the good old green stuff, but there is also orange, yellow (gold and amber), re pink, blue an if you mix the wrong things together, brown. Despite the rainbow of colors , all antifreeze starts out colorless. Marine antifreeze is non-toxic to humans, animals, aquatic life, etc. If for example, it were mixed with ethelene glycol (green), but was still mostly red in color after mixing , it could easily be fatal to any creature that accidentally ingested it.

I wouldn’t recommend mixing different colors if at all possible. What color coolant antifreeze should I. Just mixing random antifreeze is. Standard neon green coolant is made of ethylene glycol, while orange coolant uses Dexcool. The color of antifreeze is generated completely by coloring dye, not as a direct result of any chemicals mixed during manufacturing. That sai different colors for antifreeze do exist.

While specific colors agreed upon in the automotive industry do signify chemical makeup, variations still exist within each shade. Today there is a rainbow of automotive coolant colors. Peaks formulation of the same antifreeze is bright florescent green.

Tech (Walmart) regular antifreeze is bright orange. 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.

Finch also warned of using the wrong antifreeze or mixing colors. Add distilled water to concentrated or full-strength antifreeze. As an aside, in spite of the coolant manufactures claims, industry experience has shown that vehicles that were designed for green coolant don’t do well on Dex-cool, sometimes experiencing sludging and corrosion within a few months.

Combine factory antifreeze or coolant products, such as DEX-COOL, with water at a ratio not exceeding 60:(60-percent antifreeze or coolant to 40-percent water). Why should I use pre-mixed antifreeze ? There are many reasons why most professionals recommend using pre-mixed antifreeze. When you mix orange with green, you get brown.

Some OEM’s have multiple coolant chemistries and colors. Many OEMs will substitute alternate coolants at the customer’s request. Hybrid type chemistry can vary in formulation based on manufacturer. In the NA domestic vehicle brands, green and orange are the traditional factory fill antifreeze colors. However, in the non-NA vehicle brands, a wide spectrum of original equipment antifreeze colors exist, including various shades of green, yellow, pink, red and blue.

An antifreeze is an additive which lowers the freezing point of a water-based liquid and increases. ANTIFREEZE TYPES AND COLORS. This article is written to try to clear up the differences.

It is now safe to mix the colors. There is no difference between red and green antifreeze. I thought it was oil mixing in. When mixing colors in pigments, yellow is a primary color.

This often resulted in mixing errors when the SCA was added at initial fill or. It can be confusing to have special-needs coolants that can be identified by their color when the color is not an industry standard.