Can anyone tell me about G12.

[pezzy669]

What other long life coolant is is similar to and how good is it?

I have this 'liquid gold' in both my Volkswagens as factory fill. It is a "lifetime" fill and at $20/gal I really hope it is.

Anyways how it was explained to me by other Volkswagen enthusiats is that the G12 permanently coats all metal parts to prevent corrosion when the vehicle and G12 is new. However "old" G12 does not have the ability to recoat new parts and if you replace any cooling system part that contains metal (thermostat, water pump, etc.) then new G12 must be used.

From my limited experience of G12 it appears to be a very good coolant. I have seen 6 year old G12 from a New Beetle with over 100k miles that looked just as good as brand new G12. On top of that if you just looked at the coolant side of the waterpump on that car you could not tell any difference when sat right next to the brand new pump.

Thanks guys.

 

[Marty]

quote:

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pezzy669:
What other long life coolant is is similar to and how good is it?

I have this 'liquid gold' in both my Volkswagens as factory fill. It is a "lifetime" fill and at $20/gal I really hope it is.

Anyways how it was explained to me by other Volkswagen enthusiats is that the G12 permanently coats all metal parts to prevent corrosion when the vehicle and G12 is new. However "old" G12 does not have the ability to recoat new parts and if you replace any cooling system part that contains metal (thermostat, water pump, etc.) then new G12 must be used.

From my limited experience of G12 it appears to be a very good coolant. I have seen 6 year old G12 from a New Beetle with over 100k miles that looked just as good as brand new G12. On top of that if you just looked at the coolant side of the waterpump on that car you could not tell any difference when sat right next to the brand new pump.

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I was under the impression that the G11 was the blue coolant VW once used, while the G12 was the current reddish/pinkish coolant they use now.

And the chemistry of the G12 looks a lot like GM's DEX-COOL - an OAT inhibitor, no phosphates. The idea of these OAT, or organic acid, inhibitors is that they react with the engine and other parts and form a film that acts like a barrier between metals and the coolant.

G12 should not be mixed with the blue G11, and should not be mixed with DEX-COOL or any other coolants.

Pentosin in Germany is the manufacturer. They sell the blue G11 and the reddish G12 under their own brand name

http://www.pentosin.de/eng/products/antifreeze/antifreeze.html

and you can find it at auto parts stores that specialize in German imports in 1.5 liter bottles.

There's a service bulletin from Audi on the Internet, Group 19 Number 96-01 Date: Oct. 30, 1996, which says:

"Contamination of G 012 A8D A1 with other colored coolants is identifiable by discoloration (brown, purple, etc). This mixture causes a foamy deposit to appear in the expansion tank/radiator. This contaminated mixture should be drained immediately and the cooling system flushed ....."

So, keep some G12 mixed with distilled water in the trunk for topping off the cooling system.

I had a VW with the older G11 in it and switched over to DEX-COOL after triple flushing the system. The advantage of DEX-COOL was that it was readily available.

 

[Ray H]

quote:

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Originally posted by Marty:
...The advantage of DEX-COOL was that it was readily available.

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And, at $6.83/gallon for ChevronTexaco Havoline Dex-Cool, an awful lot cheaper at Walmart!