What antifreeze do you recommend and where from?

[Peter C]

I need antifreeze for my W124.

 

According to ECP I need a waterless antifreeze that seems expensive. If I enter the reg number for my Tucson the result comes up with some orange variety.

 

I went to Halfords today, a 5l bottle of “high performance” antifreeze was £31, which doesn’t seem right.

 

What is the modern equivalent of ordinary antifreeze, what’s the best place to buy it and how much should 5l cost?

 

Cheers lads.

[Tamworthbay]

I need antifreeze for my W124.

According to ECP I need a waterless antifreeze that seems expensive. If I enter the reg number for my Tucson the result comes up with some orange variety.

I went to Halfords today, a 5l bottle of “high performance” antifreeze was £31, which doesn’t seem right.

What is the modern equivalent of ordinary antifreeze, what’s the best place to buy it and how much should 5l cost?

Cheers lads.

Last lot I got from Halfords was just under £30 but came out about £16 with a trade card, that was glycol based though.

[Peter C]

Glycol based, is that good?

[BorniteIdentity]

Glycol based, is that good?

I’ve always been concerned that my w201 has pink stuff in, when every other old heap I’ve had (including another w201 and a w124) had blue.

 

So I’mma follow this with interest.

[Tamworthbay]

Glycol based, is that good?

Its the old blue stuff, there are three types - glycol, OAT and a newer type. Glycol and OAT gel up if mixed but there is a newer type I can’t remember the name of that is ok to use with both. I am a bit of a dinosaur so tend to flush a system and use glycol as it’s what I know and I tend to only drive old cars anyway. I think the OAT can affect older cars as well but can’t remember how or why which is helpful.

[tommotech]

Do you know what type of antifreeze is currently in the W124?

 

If not then use either glycol based products or Organic Acid Technology (OAT) but do not mix and flush thoroughly once the system is drained. Mixing products causes formation of a gel that blocks heater and radiator passages.

 

If you go glycol the rule of thumb is to change every two to three years, for OAT it is four to five years. Halfords own brand used to be a BASF product, which is very good at a reasonable price. Don’t be tempted to skimp though.

[Peter C]

Post water pump replacement back in June I’m running the cooling system with water, nothing else.

[red5]

ECP do actual have 'proper' coolant  - you just need to be a little creative. Be warned - some moderns still have 'blue/green' instead of 'orange/pink'.

 

 

Comma oils website is pretty good as well. 

[Tamworthbay]

Post water pump replacement back in June I’m running the cooling system with water, nothing else.

Then use either but get something in as its most important job is stopping corrosion. Run about 50:50

[red5]

Post water pump replacement back in June I’m running the cooling system with water, nothing else.

 

Get something in it - now. it's not just anti-freeze, its got corrosion inhibitors and acts as a lubricant.

[DSdriver]

I went into the local factors the other day for anti-freeze. Certainly Sir, what car is it for... Well there are four... I will need to know the registration numbers... OK, lets start with the Peugeot 206... before I can remember the reg he looks at a list and tells me all Pugs use red so that's one sorted... then there are two Saabs... checks his list again and advises that all Saabs use red except the 900 and the 9000... OK thats three for the red, whats the other car? A 1973 Citroen DS and I've already got half a can of blue for that. Sorted.

No registration numbers were required. and 5 litres of Red came out at under twenty quid.

He did say that Lambos and Aldis were not as easy.

 

The thing to remember is that if you buy stuff called coolant you are just buying pre-diluted antifreeze for numpties and paying a lot of money for added water.

[sierraman]

I used to find for mine the manufacturers own concentrated stuff wasn’t expensive. 5 litres of Fords own coolant is about £20.

 

It surprises me how much of the old glycol blue stuff Poundland sells when it’s not been a common spec on new cars for about 20 years.

[DSdriver]

I used to find for mine the manufacturers own concentrated stuff wasn’t expensive.

A bit difficult with Saabs

[Stanky]

All three of mine run ECP's pinky/orange stuff. Its pretty cheap (especially when you do a click and collect order for 1l of their purple 'universal' stuff and the dinlo behind the counter brings out 5l of pinky neat stuff) and just mix it as required with deionised water.

 

My Saab is probably due a drain and refill TBH, the other two have had it changed within the last 18 months. Its good for 5 years according to the bottle. The Saab uses a little bit, probably a litre a year/25k so gratually gets replenished with fresh anyway.

 

their red stuff is OAT apparently, and worth flushing the system out with a couple of fills of neat water - ideally de-ionised - between draining and refilling with fresh coolant to avoid it going like wallpaper paste if old ethylene glycol gets mixed with new OAT.

 

5l of concentrate is under £20 from ECP with a discount code.

[Guest Nigelb]

I use Prestone concentrate in all my cars, diluting to suit. It claims to be universal & compatible with all types of antifreeze. Not the cheapest, but I buy when it's on offer & just need the type.

[Peter C]

There's an Allparts down the road from me, here's their proposal:

 

 

This is ECP's proposal, which is ridiculous especially as the Weekend37 discount code cannot be applied:

 

 

First impression from Halfords looks great until you note that the stuff is ready mixed and thus two bottles of 5l are needed:

 

 

I'm going to visit my local EPC first, it's nearest to me, then try Halfords if they continue to piss about.

 

 

[Richard]

I thought waterless coolant was just for people who wanted to wreck their engines.

[Mally]

It was proved* by some guy with a Rolls that OAT can affect gaskets on old cars allegedly. 

If it had Glycol in when it was new stick to that.

[Vince70]

I’ve had the same problems when buying from ECP or Carparts4less as yourself when getting coolant as they only show waterless coolant when you put your reg number in the parts search and I’m sure my E36 has never used that waterless stuff.

They do conventional red/pink oat or the blue glycol stuff but just type in google Xtriple coolant and you can then get directed to the coolant you want from them that way.

 

Also if you go into eBay you can get 5 litres of premix cheaper and both are under £9 delivered.

I’ve been using the xtriple stuff for years with the pink in my old Audi’s and the blue in my BMW’s and never had any trouble and when I took the water pump off my car a few months back it still looked as good as new internally.

I can never work out though why euro and carparts4less are always cheaper on eBay though than on their site.

[dollywobbler]

Willing to bet that Evans has some sort of advertising deal with ECP, so it comes up as recommended. I'm still annoyed that I was going to test their stuff in the Bluebird, but it blew a hose before I got chance to discover anything (and I don't blame the coolant for that. Just a hose weakened by the previously failed (and ignored) head gasket).

[steveo3002]

been looking for some myself ..seems expensive now 

 

i refuse to buy the ready mixed stuff , prestone seems affordable and suggests a long life ?

[myglaren]

It is quite some time since I read it but there was a mention of SAABs blowing head gaskets and that an American garage owner had found that using Mercedes antifreeze prevented that happening - IIRC it was due to the coolant weakening the gasket.

 

What do Mercedes advise?

 

I should probably do mine but use Citroen Antigel, whatever the hell that might be.

[red5]

Advice is stick to OE spec. There is some evidence that OAT can affect non-OAT spec seals and gaskets. 

 

Otherwise why still have 'normal' ?

[pshome]

The Evans waterless coolant is a sure engine killer. Why? Look:

 

This graphic was on the Evans Web site until they removed it some time ago.

 

- boiling point much higher: engine may heat up way over its designed temp range ... not good

- viscosity much lower: water pump efficiency way down: less coolant circulation: less heat transported from engine to radiator

- specific heat way less: specific heat is a liquids ability to store heat to be carried to the radiator. Depending on your glycol mix you are 20% to 40% down here. The stuff takes much less heat away from the engine.

 

Verdict: don't use it, i causes your engine to run much hotter and masks this by not boiling.

 

This sort of coolant was invented for military applications to be used with engines and colling systems that were designed for it.

 

 

[sierraman]

They didn’t fit waterless coolant to it when it was new, I’d just stick whatever Mercedes recommendation when it was new.

[Peter C]

Does this story have a happy ending?

 

Find out here:

 

http://autoshite.com/topic/31916-mercedes-w124-200e-rolling-resto-new-antifreeze-sorted/page-6?do=findComment&comment=1613656