Coolant change - advice please.

[minstrel]

The Volvo dealer told me that when he sold me the new blue stuff. I'll still change it every couple of years though, it's cheap compared with the value of the car to me.

Cheers

Minstrel

[StanC]

Forty years as a professional engineer has taught me always to take with a pinch of salt the claims made by component/fluid manufacturers. That is why most of the big players, whether they're making cars, aero-engines or compressors, all draw up their own specifications covering lubricants, coolants, seal compounds, etc.

It has already been noted in other threads that, with the car industry being so competitive, the mass production manufacturers vie with each other in making their cars ever cheaper to run and maintain - in order to get more sales. This has to be balanced with their cars being seen to be reliable and have a reasonable lifespan. If they could produce a car that needed no servicing at all - but then fell apart after ten years/100,000 miles, they would!

So, no doubt the Volvo blue/green will do a very good job if left in the car indefinitely, but by replacing it every two years I know for certain that the engine is getting maximum corrosion protection. (On the same basis I also do an oil/filter change every 5k miles, even though I'm using the best fully-synthetic oil.)

If anyone is changing their coolant every two years, though, it is important to flush and refill using distilled water, especially as we are all finding that quite a bit of flush water seems to remain in the system - using tap water will result in a build-up of scale.

Incidentally, where did that come from about the factory-fill coolant not being as good as that sold by the dealers? I'm not saying it isn't true, but I find it intriguing, to say the least! I'd like to know more about it.

Stan.