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Coolant- best type? And flushing old radiators. Bad idea?

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enthrall
Posts: 32
Joined: Sat May 05, 2012 3:56 pm

Coolant- best type? And flushing old radiators. Bad idea?

Post by enthrall »

Hi all,
Decided that its about time i drained and replaced my coolant as its been in there since i got the car, and is of unknown age.

Looked in the factory manual- it just says 5.5 litres of coolant fit in the system.. No mention of the specs to use.
At Repco, theres dozens of different types, from your $10 cheapies, with 65g/litre glycol in them, to other more concentrated sorts with 1kg+ in them that are to be watered down to 500g/l, while others contain no glycol, just corrosion inhibitors.

um.. What to use?
The guy at repco said just choose a pretty colour- they all do the same thing!.. Not so sure about that!


There are also flushing products that contain alkaline salts. (caustic soda?)
in an old radiator, i have heard that flushing is a very bad idea, as the rubbish in it keeps the whole thing together/holes gummed up.
Putting caustic soda into a fragile old radiator sounds like a recipe for disaster in general.
I'm thinking that flushing it with a hose till the outflow is clear (like the manual says) may be kinder to the old thing.

To flush or not to flush, that is the question! It doesnt leak atm, so it may be ok..

Anyone got any experiences to share here?
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