Club 80-90 Forums

After a water pipe split and lost all the coolant on my 1990 petrol Caravelle, I have replaced the pipe and bought some Halfords blue Antifreeze. Just checking the coolant capacities on the Wiki, I notice that VW G12 is the recommended AntiFreeze. Is the Halfords stuff ok to use, or should I take it back?

IMHO G12 isnt required, its costly and you will be peed off if it leaks all over the road... It also wont fix a tired and already rusy cooling system... Any branded "ordinary" coolant is fine.. only remember that the system holds around 17L so unless its just a small top up, you dont want to be buying the "ready to use" stuff as that too will get costly..

Use concentrate and generally mix it 50/50 (check the bottle) with de min water...

Thanks for the reply. I only got 5 litres, so I will nip back and get some more -

Is the whole system empty then?
local motorfactors will be cheaper, unless halfords has a deal on...

Demineralised water not cheap either if you're putting 50% in. Must admit, I used tap water.

cheap enough from an auto electrician and seen it in a shop/supermarket/diy somewhere for not a lot..

You can get away with tap water in the soft water areas, but I wouldnt in a hard water region.. unless you have too...

ryoc wrote:After a water pipe split and lost all the coolant on my 1990 petrol Caravelle, I have replaced the pipe and bought some Halfords blue Antifreeze. Just checking the coolant capacities on the Wiki, I notice that VW G12 is the recommended AntiFreeze. Is the Halfords stuff ok to use, or should I take it back?

is it phosphate free?

Halfords blue AntiFreeze does not mention being phosphate free. I believe the cooling system is about empty after blasting steam out of the split pipe for a while (very small right angled pipe coming out of oil cooler, next to exhaust, not easy to get to!). We have a water softener, maybe use the water from that to top up, or cooled boiled water? I have 10 litres of AntiFreeze ready, was going to put about 7-8 litres and then top up with water.

Rainwater is a good source of decent water - but I don't know how the Icelandic ash cloud has affected the rain with regards to acidity etc.

regular changes of coolant reduces the head pitting which causes so much grief with head seal leaks.
research shows that the G12+ although low in phosphates still causes this to happen if periodic coolant changes are not adhered to.

so buy cheap and change it more

NO you cant use softened water, it still contains minerals and the softening process puts some salt into it..

Rain water would be ok.. if you could filter any solids out, but some of the ash clouds will have some nasty corosive stuff in it too...

Solids in rainwater?

not seen your car recently??

Quote " by Oldiebut goodie » Sun May 09, 2010 11:54 am
Rainwater is a good source of decent water - but I don't know how the Icelandic ash cloud has affected the rain with regards to acidity etc."

Not had any here on the coast.