Coolant (Wrong Colour!)

[DaveDreads]

The coolant in my 172 is getting low so I went to
halfords and got some top up mixture which is pink
however the coolant in my car is green.

Whats the deal here then?

 

[guysy]

I think the renault coolant is green. Someone should be able to link you up to the stuff.

 

[DaveDreads]

OK nice one mate, good job I kept the reciept from
halfords then.

 

[cat171]

Renault stuff is called type D (they recommend that)

 

[ed1801]

Not good, topping up green with pink causes a reaction which gives you a horrible gunge which blocks the rad. To change from the green stuff to the pink you need to drain and flush, then fill it up.

How do I know? I did it - two weeks later I had a brown jelly substance all over everything. I had to spend a day flushing the rad!

 

[manicmonkey]

Good thing i read this thread, i woulda just spashed it in!

 

[DaveDreads]

Right then, nice one for that.

I hav'nt mixed the 2 of them I knew as soon as I opened
the bottle in the car I had the wrong stuff.

The guy in halfords told me that the green coolant was for Fords.

Is this right, or was he talking B*llocks?

 

[bmh.01]

Go to renault or gsf and some proper type d coolant, it isn't expensive.

 

[DaveDreads]

Trip to Renault is in order then, cant be a*sed to drain
the rad and all that just want to top it up.

Cheers for all your replies.

 

[mattjk]

When was it last flushed/refilled?

 

[DaveDreads]

Not sure mate, not even had the car a year yet,
Im guesing a while ago as the car diddnt run so good
when I got it.

Did my own mini service a month after I bought it and its ran
sweet since then.

It does need some attention, cam belt, aux belt and
50k-72k service is on the cards as soon as I can afford it.

 

[mattjk]

might be worth doing the old flush and fill on the coolant not difficult or expensive

 

[bmh.01]

Coolant change is every 4 years iirc, but its an optional thing. I'd did mine a while ago and the coolant went from brown the bright green! Wasn't that much s**t in the system though when I flushed it.

Cost me £35 for 10l of the premix renault coolant.

 

[bmh.01]

http://www.getflat.co.uk/pics/3286A-110-111.pdf

That tells you how to refill the system, take the lower rad hose off to drain it.

 

[DaveDreads]

Right nice one, I'll get on that asap.

 

[bmh.01]

Its worth taking the thermostat hosing apart as well to flush the block out.

 

[mattjk]

Its worth taking the thermostat hosing apart as well to flush the block out.

I never bothered doing that. but mine wasnt exactly clogged or anything

 

[bmh.01]

Without it you can't really flush the block properly as the thermostat will stop water flow, mine wasn't massively dirty either but its worth doing if you doing the job and its only 3 bolts.

 

[mattjk]

when you pull the rad hose the expansion tank empties I cant see a lot being left in the block really 500-1000ml absolute tops??

 

[bmh.01]

I wanted to flush it incase not that fussed about the old coolant. I only managed to get 5.5l in the 7l system so it obviously holds some somewhere anyway. For the extra time its worth doing (imo) to flush the block while your doing the job, its an extra 2 mins to take the thermostat out and stick the hose in there.

 

[mattjk]

Coolio

 

[Fred@BTM]

IIRC the car will take 7L from empty (V6 is 15L!)

 

[Steve]

Did you remove the bleed screw??

 

[cal46]

i mite try this on my next day off mine's gone a bit brown too

 

[vala]

this is a 'to do' job for me when im back next month. has anyone got a piccy locating the thermostat?
also is there a massive difference between halfrauds own pink coolant and renault's type d stuff? i can get the halfrauds stuff at trade price

 

[bmh.01]

Did you remove the bleed screw??

Yes of course, it doesn't overheat and the heater works fine too. I just only managed to get 5.5-6l of coolant in, although i'd flushed the system with the hose so I can only guess there was some water in there that didn't drop out.

I followed the renault filling/bleeding document I posted earlier and filled the tank to the max line.

 

[vala]

anyone got a guide on changing the coolant including draining and flushing?

 

[172Ben]

can you only get the type d stuff from renault??

As mine needs a little top up. thanks

 

[cat171]

I think that gsf car parts do it. If not give renault a try, it's probably not that expensive.

 

[final abode]

get it from gsf ( they do stock it), from renault its double the price!

the come in EXACTLY the same bottles

plus we get discount

 

[172Ben]

u will have to excuse my ignorance (Im new)

GSF??

 

[final abode]

german swedish french, the are motor factors.

go to there website should tell you where your nearest branch is , they are pretty good , i get loads of bits of them.

the coolant after the cliosport discount works out to £12.50 for 5 litres

from renault its £25

 

[172Ben]

bargain. Thanks very much

 

[phoenix1]

Not good, topping up green with pink causes a reaction which gives you a horrible gunge which blocks the rad. To change from the green stuff to the pink you need to drain and flush, then fill it up.

How do I know? I did it - two weeks later I had a brown jelly substance all over everything. I had to spend a day flushing the rad!

this is standard practice from changing from mineral to organic and visa versu

 

[chris blue]

http://www.getflat.co.uk/pics/3286A-110-111.pdf

That tells you how to refill the system, take the lower rad hose off to drain it.

Be great if this link still worked- anyone got a working link. Fab in advance
(Appreciate its a historic thread)

 

[Jonz]

Be great if this link still worked- anyone got a working link. Fab in advance
(Appreciate its a historic thread)

What is you want to know, how to fill up the cooling system? Just open the bleed screw on the thermostat housing and fill it up through the expension bottle until it comes out. Close bleed screw and run engine at ~2000 rpm until the the cooling fan kicks in. Shut engine off, top up the expansion tank until full job done.

 

[chris blue]

What is you want to know, how to fill up the cooling system? Just open the bleed screw on the thermostat housing and fill it up through the expension bottle until it comes out. Close bleed screw and run engine at ~2000 rpm until the the cooling fan kicks in. Shut engine off, top up the expansion tank until full job done.

Where is thermostat (Pic) housing and bleed screw?
Otherthan that i assume its empty it, and fill it, no air
Current coolant is bright orange (Not dirty) and tastes strongly bittersweet. glycerol? some pipes look new. Might just leave it?

 

[197.]

When I had my cambelt done at a specialist the coolant was orange, next time round I got it topped up and it was green. Perhaps the older Renault stuff was orange?

 

[Jonz]

Where is thermostat (Pic) housing and bleed screw?
Otherthan that i assume its empty it, and fill it, no air
Current coolant is bright orange (Not dirty) and tastes strongly bittersweet. glycerol? some pipes look new. Might just leave it?

Mines red. Tbh as long as you don't mix the stuff you can stick anything in that says IOA on it, the proper coolant recommended by renault is type D though.

Without trying to sound rude, probably best to just leave it if you don't know where the thermostat housing is, especially since you need to drain it (I assumed it was drained).

 

[chris blue]

Mines red. Tbh as long as you don't mix the stuff you can stick anything in that says IOA on it, the proper coolant recommended by renault is type D though.

Without trying to sound rude, probably best to just leave it if you don't know where the thermostat housing is, especially since you need to drain it (I assumed it was drained).

No need to worry bout sounding rude- i dont take offence easy, and your not rude

Thats the problem with no Haynes manual around. I know my way around a Citroen DS3 pretty well, and know quite a lot bout the THP engine- nothing about the VVT 2.0 Renaulsport tho
Am learning a little at a time

Yes- will leave well alone the coolant i think. looks and tastes clean as a whistle- new pipework too
Where is the thermostat housing. All Ive found so far is brake fluid, coolant top up, and oil
Mind you, only spent about 2 minutes under the bonnet so far.... the weekend beckons altho a machine polish first