Coolant
 

Anyone know whether my car should have blue or pink antifreeze?

Is it the case that it doesn't matter which, as long as you don't mix them?

There are[I think]3 types of coolant.Non OAT,OAT and HOAT.You can mix them like for like no matter what colour,so you can mix any non OAT with any other non OAT and so on.What you can't do is mix and match as in mixing a non OAT with an OAT etc. as it just gels/sludges up if you do.What colour is the coolant you have in the car at present?Stick with that for peace of mind.Many on here will tell you to use only genuine Volvo coolant-and fair play to them for doing so-Personally I use the blue stuff as it's cheap as chips and mine is a 17yr old car that's had its coolant changed no end of times prior to my ownership and I'm not that precious about my car to use only genuine Volvo stuff on it,whatever's cheapest is my way forward.

thanks.

Mine has blue coolant, but I was looking at a C70 at the Classic Motorshow at the weekend and that had pink.

So I wondered which was right.

So blue is ok?

Well I run mine on the blue[ethylene glycol?] which is a non OAT,and I don't have any problems with it.I believe it's only supposed to last 2yrs between changes but I just ignore that also and as said I've no problems with it or any other cars I've treated just the same.

Sorry meant to add that as I understand it the genuine Volvo stuff is green so are you sure it's not that?

Cheers, I'll check but pretty sure it's blue.

If you're going for total replacement of the coolant the genuine Volvo stuff was not significantly more expensive when I did mine a few years back. You only change the antifreeze after a number of years so it works out to pennies each week.

You need to be a bit careful here. Volvo only list their coolant and I've no idea wether it's OAT, HOAT or whatever, it is designed and is suitable for Volvo engines.
In comparison I CANNOT use OAT or HOAT antifreeze in my 1994 landrover as it will eat the seals in the water pump. I use the standard blue stuff and change it every 2 or 3 years.
Given the age of your engine I would not use OAT or HOAT in it in case you have the same problem with seals, the choice then is between Volvo original or the standard 2 year blue stuff.

Paul.