What coolant to use? Car has a amber/gold color.

[Jon K]

Hey guys going to be doing my sisters water pump and t-stat and such. What coolant should I use? The car currently has a brownish amber colored coolant in it. Thanks.

[angusbn]

I just used BMW "blue" coolant - not cheap.

[Ferret]

brownish amber sounds like it's plain water full of rust?

[Tiger]

That's Zerex G-05... that is good stuff. Probably had a little bit of regular green stuff to make it look brownish.

[Jon K]

Its not rust lol. Unless somehow rusty water makes it through Pennsylvania winter Its also very very bitter, indicating its not diluted.

So Zerex G-05 should be put in there?

[Tiger]

Yes, put the G-05 back in. G-05 is Mercedes' traditional coolant which is far superior than anything else on the market.

[Jon K]

Is there any way to test it Tiger? Sister had been losing coolant and topping off with distilled water, but if it were green or blue you'd definitely still see it. This is like uber gold/amber color. I have Zerex @ home already so that works out.

[Tiger]

I am not too worried about the concentration... You can buy tester just like Barney said. Just ask her how much water she put in... and you can put the same amoutn back in. I prefer more water than coolant for better heat control.

I know what you mean about blue and green with this amber coolant...

[Barney Paull-Edwards]

You can buy a cheap tester with floating balls in it to test Anti-freeze in UK so for sure its available in US. If I remember rightly you need Ethyl-Glycol for engines with Ali/steel content so look for that on label. One of the few things Rolls-Royce/Packard did right was developing anti-freeze/anti-corrossion fluid for Merlins and Hylomar to substitute for gaskets to enable bush re-builds!!