Mixing coolant colours question

Tombstone

Tombstone

Tombstone

Man of Honour
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Crikey, I must have looked at 50 websites about this and got 50 different versions of answer.

Here's the story, the missus has a Honda Accord, 2000 reg. Noticed yesterday whilst it was having a nice summer clean that the coolant/antifreeze was very low. Its a dark green in colour. Looking around though I couldnt find anywhere local who sells the green , its all red/pink. So, Can I mix the two ?

From perusing the web I have had a variety of answers ranging from yes you can to no you cant. Doesnt seem to be a definitive answer anywhere.
 
Its probably green because someone mixed the 2 . . . .

I would not mix them. They are chemically different and can react with each other. Its easier to drain it then replace. Plety sell blue, and orange/pink.
 
As long as they're the same spec, then yes you can mix them. You could drain the system though and save yourself any worries :)
 
cant you just top it up with water for the time being

get the concentration measured

then decide if you have to drain or not
 
Different coolant manufacturers use different colours for the same type of coolant, so colour is often not a good guide. However, pink/red are usualy long life/OAT based coolants, which may not be suitable for your Honda.

Find out the type of coolant that you car uses, either from the owners manual (if it's listed), service manual if you have one or by calling your local dealer, and then purchase the correct specification coolant. Or you could buy it from the dealer (obviously for many £££'s) and be sure it's the right stuff.
 
I also happen to have green coolant! Very unusual in my car (completely confuddled everyone on the owners club). Apparently there was a short period of a month or so where Toyota used green coolant at a certain plant, where my car came from. Anyway after a lot of arguing at the parts desk they managed to find some green for me! I really couldn't be bothered to completely flush and get the newer pink stuff so happy days.

IMO, go see Honda. The last thing you want is to mix coolants nowadays.
 
Use the correct spec for the car to be safe.

Don't mix blue/green with red/pink, it doesn't turn to solid jelly but will form a precipitate, which almost as bad.

The blue stuff you're looking for will be ethylene glycol.
 
The Running Man said:
Is it murkey or clear greenish?

My mate put 2 different colour coolants into his tank of his MR2 1.8 and that went dark musrky and awful looking. Not recommended.
Click to expand...

It's definitely a murky dark green colour , not what I would call clear. She has had the car for several years and has never , to her knowledge, topped up/changed the coolant.
 
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