Antifreeze / coolant quickie...

[Wilberforce]

Wotcher folks,

Saw in perfectprincess's thread that A friend mentioned about making sure to use genuine Vx pink antifreeze, which got me wondering...
My starter's gone u/s (looks like something me and the father can cope with okay though), and according to the Haynes bumper book for jokes, changing it on a 2.2 requires draining the coolant too. Now, as far as I can remember, this engine's been topped with blue antifreeze as long as I've had it. Is using blue rather than Vx pink a big issue here, cos all my Vx's have used blue coolant, and I think even Si uses blue in his shortie too...

Cheers,
Jim

[Road Hog]

It`s not all engines,apparently blue eats the oil coolers on B series.

The wifes Astra is happy on blue,my 22 Dti is on red.

Seems tha VX red has a different inhibitor ingrediant.

[Wilberforce]

Ahhright...
So I should be alright to stock blue in an A-series 2.2 then.. ?

[Rifleman]

We've had a Corsa, Fronty, Cavalier, Nova and 2 Astra Diesels all running on the blue stuff for years and never had a problem. The 2 Astra diesels had oil coolers and were both ok. I suppose I could have just been lucky though.

[Road Hog]

[nitromotor]

I’m running on blue antifreeze on the ‘B’ however don’t mix the too types.
The problem with mixing types of antifreeze is the blue (normal) and the red or orange (long life) are not compatible with each other and should never be mixed.

If you decide to change from one to the other then the cooling system needs to be flushed of any residual coolant.
As the red/orange long life coolant uses organic acids as the corrosion inhibiter as apposed to the silicates, phosphates and borates in the blue coolant.
The reaction from mixing will eat your system from the inside

[SPEEDBIRD 202]

Part of a Engine Management System requires the Coolant Temperature Sensor, to send a accurate signal of the coolants temperature to the ECU. If the correct coolant is not used, it is possible for the Coolant Sensor to send a false signal to the ECU.

This might result in the incorrect metering of fuel in the Electronic Fuel Injection Systems. It is possible for the Temperature Sensors Rating to be affected by the wrong coolant used.

Hope this helps