What Coolant Is In Your BMW?

[Fetch]

Thought I'd make a poll to see what coolant people are running since there's been a lot of coolant talk going on recently.

If you use a blue equivalent, mark blue, if you use something like Evan's NPG waterless coolant or whatever, then mark other.......

[calmloki]

G05

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

had green in them or what appeared to be a mix of green and blue.

I always flush and refill with my favorite flavor bavarian blue coolaide so I have one less thing to worry about.

[genphreak]

This is not as simple as colour.

Some Greens (there are many) are downright dangerous in our engines as they are high in phosphates. BMW are not the only people that make aluminium engines/components and mix them with other stuff. A lot of manufacturers spec/make blocks and castings themselves so the variance is really the composition of the castings and how the corrosive and cooling properties of the coolant are balanced to suit. This is why a coolant that is 'OK' to use in one alloy engine is not OK in another. And the definition of OK varies I suspect also. The Germans have obviously gone to a lot of trouble testing theirs, let alone developing their own standard product, so why anyone would want to use something else (apart from availability) in a car designed for that I can't imagine.

The question really is who is using a friendly coolant and who is using the factory Glysantin (G48, blue), as opposed to who is using some drop-in and don't know whether is harmful or not. Either way, there are no studies done on other coolants that will tell you (in all conditions) that they are not harmful or even suitable to your model so the issue is surely moot- saving $10 but risking corrosion/cludging (esp. without the engineering tests to know what's what) seems somewhat foolish.

I'd hate to try and explain why its green, purple or whatever in there instead of a nice shade of cool blue... I wonder if the BMW car club judges frown on people that have different coloured expansion tanks when they are showing their cars? Does anyone even have tanks that aren't blue at a BMW CCA show and shine??

[Bill R.]

by Zerex here in the US for distribution in the US. The GO5 is a very light yellow almost clear also produced by zerex , used in Mercedes, Ford and Dodge/chrysler

This is not as simple as colour.

Some Greens (there are many) are downright dangerous in our engines as they are high in phosphates. BMW are not the only people that make aluminium engines/components and mix them with other stuff. A lot of manufacturers spec/make blocks and castings themselves so the variance is really the composition of the castings and how the corrosive and cooling properties of the coolant are balanced to suit. This is why a coolant that is 'OK' to use in one alloy engine is not OK in another. And the definition of OK varies I suspect also. The Germans have obviously gone to a lot of trouble testing theirs, let alone developing their own standard product, so why anyone would want to use something else (apart from availability) in a car designed for that I can't imagine.

The question really is who is using a friendly coolant and who is using the factory Glysantin (G05, blue), as opposed to who is using some drop-in and don't know whether is harmful or not. Either way, there are no studies done on other coolants that will tell you (in all conditions) that they are not harmful or even suitable to your model so the issue is surely moot- saving $10 but risking corrosion/cludging (esp. without the engineering tests to know what's what) seems somewhat foolish.

I'd hate to try and explain why its green, purple or whatever in there instead of a nice shade of cool blue... I wonder if the BMW car club judges frown on people that have different coloured expansion tanks when they are showing their cars? Does anyone even have tanks that aren't blue at a BMW CCA show and shine??

[Macv]

Mine came kinda purple.....

good poll.

[DanDombrowski]

Sporting the G05 in the E34, pretty sure I've got the blue stuff in my E46.

[genphreak]

by Zerex here in the US for distribution in the US. The GO5 is a very light yellow almost clear also produced by zerex , used in Mercedes, Ford and Dodge/chrysler

Thanks Bill, again... I've never seen it. I'll update my post...

[winfred]

i spank off in mine sorta like evans

[Qube]

Well I guess the key there is... are there SAFE greens... whether or not they are endorsed by BMW to use?