The Antifreeze Question

[cn90]

A word on Prestone and my 1998 BMW 528i with 170K.
Bought the car in May 2006 with 90K (dealer serviced up to that point), now the BMW is with me 11y/80K later, replaced with Prestone green coolant every 2-3y.

See the inside of the BMW engine (ignore the RTV gasket that I did not clean when photo was taken), pristine inside with no corrosion after 20 years of its life, not bad at all for Prestone green.

E39-Cooling-Redo-02.JPG (145.76 KiB) Viewed 1674 times

[MarcM]

I run Pentosin Pentofrost NF mixed 50/50 with distilled water. That's my 2 cents.

[Rattnalle]

I run Pentosin Pentofrost NF mixed 50/50 with distilled water. That's my 2 cents.

That last part, not using water full of unknown dirt, is i believe more importan than the brand on the bottle. Only applies if not buying ready to use of course.

That BMW picture above looks a bit dirty to me. My water pump was much cleaner even though the coolant was a bit mud coloured.

[Cookie-the-Swede]

I always love it when people brag about how cheap they can find auto fluid (or parts), like it's some kind of a badge of honor. But never mention the cost of premature engine death.

[Cookie-the-Swede]

Cars are expensive. Buy the good stuff.

[June]

I always love it when people brag about how cheap they can find auto fluid (or parts), like it's some kind of a badge of honor. But never mention the cost of premature engine death.

+1 June

[Rattnalle]

Or the alternative view: cars are expensive enough without buying brand name items that can be substituted easily and with the same result. Volvo doesn't make coolant anyway and whatever you can get today will probably be better than the oe spec 20 years ago when these cars were designed.

[abscate]

I think some folks just get a sort of a superiority feeling telling others they are wasting their money. I'm guilty of this when I read people using distilled water in engines but that's a 90 cent deal so I'm finally trying to keep my mouth shut about it. Oops.

[Georgeandkira]

Excuse me!? Maligning the use of distilled water when mixing coolant? Heresy I say!

Metallic salts causing precipitation of coolants' groovy compounds doesn't alarm you?

Distilled water keeping coolant mixes clear and hard well water resulting in cloudy coolant mixtures defines the spectrum.

[cuhfs]

are dealers really using distilled water on the thousands of cars run thru the shop? and indys? Of course they do! its in the distilled water closet, or perhaps next to the coffee maker.