1999 x308 vin 864218 4.0 Non sup char.


The car has green coolant in it.. some say it should be red, so do I change it or not? I understand that a good flush with clean water 2 or 3 times should be done to get the old green coolant out if I chamge to red.


Any advice
best regards
Peter

 

Color tells you little or nothing. Manufacturers have become utterly inconsistent about which dyes they're using for what product types (and based upon markets, too).

That being said, there are very few truly green tinted coolants that aren't the old-fashioned two-year-change-interval variety. If you think the coolant is at least that old, I'd change it. Be sure to dispose of your old coolant via a recycler. Often you can find garages that will accept your old coolant if there isn't a public recycling option in your area.

Look in the owner's manual for the originally specified coolant then check out what SAE spec or other specs it met. Select your replacement coolant based upon it meeting or exceeding those specs. At this juncture I'd probably go with an extended-life or lifetime (Peak Global Lifetime is one of these) formulation.

If you can flush the system that would be great, but it's not absolutely necessary. Most new coolants can be mixed with up to 10% old coolant and still retain the properties they advertise. If you're concerned that this might be an issue you could always do a follow-up change in 2 years.

Brian, who's got more hard data and research in on coolants than I could possibly post here

 

I can tell I flushed all the green coolant out before and refilled with all OEM Jaguar pink one, but color still turned a little greenish I assumed I could never able to complete washed the old despite completely . but fine with me

 

I understand that you can use compatible coolants that happen to be the colour the manufacturer made them eg ford is red/orange colour....BUT DON'T MIX ONE COLOUR AND ANOTHER EG ORANG AND GREEN........STICK TO ONE COLOUR THAT IS THE CORRECT SPECIFICATION OR EQUIVALENT.......Allan

 

This webpage has one of the better summaries that I've ever seen out there, although there are a couple of small inaccuracies, and all but one of those is the result of changes in formulations that have occurred since it was written.

One small one, in particular, is the statement that hard water is problematic for use with coolants. If it's extremely hard that's true, but some hardness is actually beneficial. See the attachment.

The color of a given coolant means almost nothing - definitely check the spec it conforms to. BASF/Glysantin markets the same coolant in blue and golden colors, if memory serves, because the two auto manufacturers these are sold to always had blue and gold colored coolant, respectively.