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 Mixing Coolants?
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donsrno1
Level 10 User

Joined: 04 Nov 2005
Posts: 575

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2005 3:50 pm

In the summer the coolant on my car was topped up a little with just water but I have yet to change the coolant as I had planned. What I was wondering is if you can just top up the current coolant with some other coolant bought at halfords?

From what it says on the bottle for the coolant you shouldn't do this as it says not to mix different coolants but I just wanted to check as I am a bit worried with the temperatures really dropping at the moment. I hope to flush and change the collant some time next week but until then could I just top it up?

Thanks.
Rich1
Level 7 User

Joined: 21 Feb 2005
Posts: 224

Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2005 3:02 am

best not to but to be fair if its only a temprary measure i shouldnt hurt! i did it quite a lot on the old clio to no effect lol
donsrno1
Level 10 User

Joined: 04 Nov 2005
Posts: 575

Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2005 11:14 am

Might do that then - anyone else got any opinions?

It would probably only be for a week and about 100 miles.
schakal
Spammer

Joined: 27 Jul 2004
Posts: 5717

Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2005 12:06 pm

donsrno1 wrote:
Might do that then - anyone else got any opinions?

It would probably only be for a week and about 100 miles.


there is no problem as long as you are doing it for a short time,besides you can even top it up with water untill you do a proper coolant change .
donsrno1
Level 10 User

Joined: 04 Nov 2005
Posts: 575

Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2005 12:17 pm

schakal wrote:
donsrno1 wrote:
Might do that then - anyone else got any opinions?

It would probably only be for a week and about 100 miles.


there is no problem as long as you are doing it for a short time,besides you can even top it up with water untill you do a proper coolant change .


That's the thing though mate - in the summer I topped it up with water and hence diluted the coolant a bit meaning it won't be so resistant to freezing. If I just added more water then it would make it worse.

The reason I asked about putting in a different type of coolant to top up it's resistance to freezing is that the bottle says not to mix different types of coolants - I just wanted to know if this really is something to avoid or if it would be OK to do so.
Chris H
Forum Moderator

Joined: 02 Mar 2004
Posts: 19978

Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2005 12:22 pm

pap some coolant in it.

If all you wanna do is have a temp stop gap pour some screen wash in it, as that prevents freezing. Then just sort it out next week or whatever.
donsrno1
Level 10 User

Joined: 04 Nov 2005
Posts: 575

Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2005 12:28 pm

Thanks Chris - again LOL.

I think it will proably be OK TBH but didn't want to risk it not being OK.

If I do just top it up with coolant concentrate will I have to try and get it changed asap or would I be OK to just run it for a few weeks (up to about 4 say) as although I should get it done next week I might not have time to as I'm really busy at the moment.

I'll reply to your PM in a couple of mins Chris.
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