Hello, i have been topping up my coolant with regular water and cheap antifreeze but i really dont want to do this anymore so i was wondering if Carplan red organic anti freeze is ok to use? My Mondeo is 1994, Automatic and has 62k on the clock if this helps. The local car spares shop told me to use Carplan red 5 year organic, he said it was fine to use, is this correct and advisable? Thankyou.

 

So long as the anti freeze says it is suitable for alloy engines will be fine, but shouldn't need to keep topping up, it has a leak, unless you are topping only to "low", some mk1 mondy like the level to be and indeed always settle at about 1/2" under the min mark but don't move from there, that's fine, my old mondy was like that keep topping to min and it spat it out to 1/2" under the min mark but never used any.
tabetha

 

Thankyou, i dont have to keep topping up too often, but when i have been its been mostly with eitehr plain water or very cheap coolant mixture. So i decided to buy some better quality stuff which might actually be of some use to the car for once, the guy in the shop said it would be fine to use in the Mondeo, on the carton it says... Conforms to BS6580 (1992) + Volkswagon. It also says its compatible with 'good quality silcate antifreeze'. Its red in colour and is made by Carplan. Its Ethylene Glycol and made from organics... Im just trying to make sure its ok to use and will do no harm at all. I hope the extra info might help, thankyou.

 

Ive been doing alot of reading and im getting confused/concerned. Alot of people are saying NOT to mix different types of antifreeze, but they dont say why. Like i say i have been using cheap (£1 a bottle) antifreeze, and then adding water when it was neccesary, not often, just a bit here and there... so is me adding red antifreeze to this mix a bad idea? is it useless?? or am i even running a chance of damaging something??? Thankyou.

 

There are 2 basic types of antifreeze, one is crap, and the cheapest it is alcohol based, the alcohol evaporates after a very short time leaving you with no protection.
The other sort is ethylene glycol, this is made from ethylene glycol diacetate, via saponification with sodium hydroxide or hydration of ethylene dioxide, very closely related to ethylene dichloride, which was used as a substitute for glycerol, ie nasty explosives, main constituent of DYNAMITE!!
Anyway it is ethylene glycol we are talking about, this is the best, there are some with a different makeup.
Ethylene glycol not only protects your engine coolant from freezing down to -51C, oddly adding more than 60% mix causes it to have a freezing point that starts to go up ie towards 0C, so no point in over 70%!!
It's other majoir advantage is it raises the boiling point of the coolant up to near 200C if in the right amount % wise, but it has fantastic heat transfer properties, and used in some air cooling and heating situations.
Anyway long and short by law all must be capable of mixing with each other, but due to some having different different additives for long life, best to stick to one, so you know exactly where you are at protection wise 30% will protect down to -15C, 50% down to -34C.
Just drain out what you've got and fill with ethylene glycol it is perfectly safe, and will readily mix with the small amounts left of other types in the system.
tabetha

 

Thankyou very much for an indepth informative reply. I did (2 days ago) add approx 300mm of the red carplan OAT coolant purely as a top up, do you think it was safe to do this and that nothing bad will happpen regarding damage to the engine as a result, this is assuming that their was a different type of coolant already in the system? I am going to book the car in for a flush and coolant change so i know exactly what is in there, but have i done anything wrong or compromised the engine in any way at all in the meantime? (i have driven 50 miles since adding the 300mm of red carplan, it has been very hot the past 2 days and occasionaly the temp guage did creep just past the half way point in the 'normal' zone when in slow traffic and stay just past half way for quite some time, (it never did go to red or near to red) is this ok or is their any reason for concern?) i hope i have not reduced the cooling in the engine which may cause problems in the future...

 

Stop panicking!!
You've done no damage at all by what you've done, mondeo's/zetecs run very hot as std, but so long as stays within "norm" is perfectly ok, on a hot day like today, they can take a long time to cool, my dads is exactly the same, there isn't very much in the way of rad airflow on modern cars like mondy this is the reason.
I hope this puts your mind at rest don't lose sleep over it nothings wrong, just make sure you NEVER top the expansion tank to the brim like I've seen done, as that kills the head gaskets when it gets too hot and expands, or tries to!!
I keep the level on all cars to just above the min mark, that's fine.
tabetha

 

I have always had the level filled to the max line, but never above that, i hope this is ok?, i will in future not go that high tho.

 

In theory it should be ok filling to the max line, but as it is a expansion tank and de-gas tank filling to just the minimum is fine.
tabetha

 

So i went to my local garage today, and i had the coolant replaced with new stuff. They emptied all my old stuff out and replaced it with blue antifreeze (is this ok??) 3.5 litres of antifreeze and 3 ish litres of water. They charged me £15 all in, which i think is really really good, i didnt think it was this cheap, so i highly recommend it to anyone, especially if you dont know when it was last changed, or what the mixture is at, might be 50-50, could even be as weak as 30-70 coolant/water, especially if youve topped up with water a few times (or a previous owner has). Thanks for the replies Tabetha... im happy and i feel it was money well spent for peace of mind. Edit: The mechanic said my old coolant came out dirtyish, so that was surprising, it looked quite clean to me when it was in the expansion bottle, it must have been some deposits deep down in the system that i never saw, so having them all cleaned out the way can only be a good thing i would imagine.