what's with my coolant colour?

[cookan]

Hi guys,
so I embarked on my first solo coolant change today and was promptly stopped by a conundrum..

2 years ago, I helped 321 away flush the system, change the stat, fill and bleed so I could learn how it was done for this very day.
They gave me a bottle of blue coolant to keep it topped up and over the 2 years I've used some..but not much really..

Today I tried to connect my funnel to the bleed hose before draining just to check it fitted and out came what I would describe as pinkish coolant..not blue..

I called Eva and she said they only ever stock blue and that's what they would have used..and to be honest I think I would have double checked at the time having helped them with the whole process anyway...

So, given that nobody else has touched my bongo in the meantime other than for the MOT and I don't think anyone's snuk into my garage to do a coolant change, nor completely swapped my van...what's with the lack of blue colour in favour of the more pink colour ? I'd expect murky blue from rust but not light pink...

If I have to flush the system..I'm gonna have to take it into a garage which I'd like to avoid really..

I've had no overheating issues, no running issues (that weren't attributable to my veg oil)...all perfect from my perspective...





thanks,
Ant.

[mikeWalsall]

UUmmm .. that's a strange 'un ..

There is a gearbox fluid cooler built into the bottom of the radiator .. tranny fluid is red .. but your 'pink' does not look 'oily' ..

Many years ago there used to be 'sales gimmicks' where some makes of anti freeze turned different colours for things like .. low specific gravity (wrong % mix) .. or combustion gases getting into the cooling system ..

Not seen any modern advertising promoting the features though .. so I assume that 'formula' is no longer used ..

Anti freeze itself as quite a long life .. it's the corrosion inhibitors that break down more quickly ..

Generally 'normal' Pink (Ford) anti freeze is long life (5 year) .. Blue is 2 years and some (like Toyota red) is a waterless 'for life' version ..

[cookan]

Yeah...I changed the atf 6 months ago and level was ok and normal colour today ...not had any steering oddities or noises or stiffness either...

The coolant feels slightly viscous between the fingers unlike water but not oily as such...

I'll just drain fill and bleed tomorrow with the blue I'd bought to do it today...there's no way any red coolant has been used...just odd that it's lost its colour..

[teenmal]

UUmmm .. that's a strange 'un ..

There is a gearbox fluid cooler built into the bottom of the radiator .. tranny fluid is red .. but your 'pink' does not look 'oily' ..

Many years ago there used to be 'sales gimmicks' where some makes of anti freeze turned different colours for things like .. low specific gravity (wrong % mix) .. or combustion gases getting into the cooling system ..

Not seen any modern advertising promoting the features though .. so I assume that 'formula' is no longer used ..

Anti freeze itself as quite a long life .. it's the corrosion inhibitors that break down more quickly ..

Generally 'normal' Pink (Ford) anti freeze is long life (5 year) .. Blue is 2 years and some (like Toyota red) is a waterless 'for life' version ..

Yes and the maker of that product was HOLTS. We used/supplied Hundreds of gallons of the stuff, very good product at the time.

[mikeWalsall]

I would assume that it's actually had 'long life' pink and not 'two year blue' put in .. and the 'oily feel' between the fingers are the anti corrosion inhibitors still active in lubricating / functioning ..

[cmm303]

what colour is the coolant in the expansion tank?

[mikeWalsall]

It looks pink in the above picture ..

[cmm303]

It looks pink in the above picture ..

Aghh, the picture isn't showing for me. Security. Sorry!

[cookan]

I completly flushed it in the end as what came out was very light purple...no gunk or anything worrying tho so what little blue was in clearly didn't do any harm. Took 5 hours tho ! I drained it all down first as well as the rear matrix.then refilled with straight water and bleed the system to full temp...then drained it all down again...then flushed water through top of rad, through beed, through rear matrix both ways and out of bottom of rad..and out of bleed hose....until I was certain it was clean

it was easy to bleed first time with water in....the second bleed with coolant in was far more eventful ! Firstly I topped the rad with straight Coolant and put straight water in the reservoir thinking it'd all mix nicely by itself...ended up boiling in the funnel either because it was pure water, or because I still had air somewhere...so turned the engine off and panicked for a minute..then see-sawed with the engine off a little more before starting up....things went ok with the bleed then, no more boiling...kept topping up with straight coolant through the funnel...then...when it was nearly complete with stat open and all the pipes hot and hot air coming from the heaters, the bung I'd attached to the funnel came off and spewed coolant everywhere whilst I was checking the reservoir....so more panic..refit the funnel..tighten everything up..refill the reservoir, re-bleed..then close to completion it happened again ! repeat.....then a third time !!!! (the bleed hose came off the funnel instead this time)...anyway..it's all done now with temperature spot on and coolant been level all week...

learned lots...especially about having a reliable funnel set up !

quicker next time...

Ant.