Can I mix these two coolants?

MarkDavis

MarkDavis

MarkDavis

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My E46 has a leak somewhere in the cooling system. Basically it drops from max to well below min in the space of a few days.

At the last service it was filled up with red looking stuff so I've since used this to top it up with:-

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/...uctId_185166_langId_-1_categoryId_229902#dtab

As the coolant was running dangerously low today, I went into the Ford garage as it was nearest place and picked up their 'Ford' brand antifreeze which says it contains Ethanoical(?) as the main ingredient. It's a very very faint dark pink colour and seems slightly more gloopy than the Halfords stuff.

Is it safe to mix these?
 
When I was having coolant problems like you I simply used Sainsburys or similar antifreeze mixed with distilled water 50/50. It didnt cause any extra harm and I knew the entire system would be flushed through and replaced anyway once the problems were fixed.
 
The thing is, I don't want to risk (if there is a risk?) damaging or gumming up the cooling system by mixing the wrong coolants if turns out that the leak is only down to some leaky hose or something.
 
It's also slightly more goopy because it's not ready mixed like the halfords stuff.

You need to mix it with 50/50 with water.
 
Jamous said:
Basically don't mix colours.
If its red top up with red etc, the brand wont matter.
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The brand dictates the colour, you can get red/green/yellow/blue coolant and they will not be the same type (OAT vs IAT) from each manufacturer to the next. I.E halfords blue is IAT but offhand Ford blue is OAT (IIRC), mixing these is considered bad.

If you car requires IAT (most pre 97 cars) use IAT, if it requires OAT (most post 97 cars) use OAT (or HOAT), the colour does nothing but differentiate between a specific manufacturers OAT/IAT products, make it easier to see leaks and discourage idiots from mistaking it for orange juice.
 
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Yea good idea, spend £9 every few days topping it up. It's losing a load of coolant!

He'll probably end up having the system flushed as part of the repair anyway.

By all means use the BMW stuff when you know its going in once and wont come out again for 4 years, but when you are losing a significant amount of it every few days anyway you could end up spending a fortune!

I used a mix of off the shelf antifreeze mixed with de-ionised water 50/50 when I was going through the same issues.
 
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True Fox but what if (as he says above) it's just a leaky hose and the system doesn't need to be flushed then he's got the incorrect anti freeze for the long haul and will have to pay unnecessarily for a flush
 
Oxide™ said:
Basically - BMW anti freeze is ethynol glycol based and should not be mixed with OAT based anti freeze - DO NOT go by colour alone
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Slime101 said:
If you mix OAT with gycol based antifreeze it goes all gluggy and can shaft your coolant system....never mix the 2!
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Erm, guys I think you may have misread something here, OAT (Organic Acid Technology) and IAT (Inorganic Acid Technology) coolants can BOTH be either ethylene glycol (EG) or propylene glycol based.
 
Why has nobody had a moan about the OP continuously driving a car with a coolant leak?

Get it fixed now!
 
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