Coolant for 1.8l '93 Protege

[John D]

Can anybody tell me if this Protege is supposed to take any specific type of engine coolant, or is the regular old green stuff fine? I am not near the car now, so I can't see if there is anything in the owner's manual (if she has one).

The reason I ask is because yesterday, my sister called me because she seen something in the engine compartment that was brown & bubbly. I checked it out & found that it was from the radiator! The fluid in the radiator was dark & foamy (like root beer!) and a bit low, so I topped it up with water for the time being. While I was topping it up with the engine running, the foam was coming up from the radiator fill and every little while, I could push it away from the fill hole.

I plan on replacing the fluid, but I don't know if this car uses any special fluid, like so many of them do now. I don't really want to mess up the cooling system in her car!

Also, if the coolant was supposed to be green, does anybody know what would cause it to turn brown & foamy like this?

 

[eljefino]

My 323 took plain ole green that was "safe for aluminum" (practically all is.)

I'd change it out immediately to a store brand EG and monitor it afterwards for a bit.

 

[Mickey_M]

quote:

---

Originally posted by John D:
Can anybody tell me if this Protege is supposed to take any specific type of engine coolant, or is the regular old green stuff fine? ....

The reason I ask is because yesterday, my sister called me because she seen something in the engine compartment that was brown & bubbly. I checked it out & found that it was from the radiator! The fluid in the radiator was dark & foamy (like root beer!) and a bit low .....

Also, if the coolant was supposed to be green, does anybody know what would cause it to turn brown & foamy like this?

---

The Mazda came with conventional Japanese coolant when new. Even the dealers replaced it with conventional American antifreeze. Any of them should work, as would G 05 coolant (Chrysler and Ford).

You may want to look at her engine oil and
transmission fluid.

If you see oil floating on top of the coolant in the radiator or in the reservoir, or a light brown
foamy(milkshake-like) substance on the bottom of the oil filler cap, or a brown foamy residue in the radiator, she could have a bad intake gasket, head gasket, or a leak from the transmission cooler in the radiator.

If there’s a leak, along with losing coolant she could be getting coolant in her motor oil or transmission fluid.

 

[John D]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Mickey_M:
You may want to look at her engine oil and
transmission fluid.

If you see oil floating on top of the coolant in the radiator or in the reservoir, or a light brown
foamy(milkshake-like) substance on the bottom of the oil filler cap, or a brown foamy residue in the radiator, she could have a bad intake gasket, head gasket, or a leak from the transmission cooler in the radiator.

If there’s a leak, along with losing coolant she could be getting coolant in her motor oil or transmission fluid.

---

Actually, I changed her oil a couple of weeks ago, but did not notice anything of concern. I will check the oil dipstick and the transmission dipstick for signs of coolant when I get to flush the radiator (probably tomorrow). I also called the Mazda dealer here and he said that the coolant may have been the original dealer coolant

and is all 'burned up' (as he put it). I'll have to keep an closer eye on things over the next little while.

Are there any special steps that I should be aware of when changing/flushing the radiator? I just plan on taking off the bottom hose (from the radiator), draining the fluid, filling up with water (with engine running to open thermostat), draining again (a few times if necessary) and then adding a gallon or so of coolant and topping off with water to get close to 50/50. I believe these engines take almost 2 gallons to fill them, but I will confirm this with her Haynes manual.
I will have the front end raised a little to give easier access to the bottom hose and to help air escape from the system while refilling.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[ChrisW]

Keep the front of the car rasised as high as you can. Also, when refilling the radiator, have the bleeder screw open and fill up the radiator untill fluid starts to come out of the bleed hole. Then start the engine etc.

There are different procedures for every car, but for a honda civic, you are suppose to put on the radiator cap, but not to the closed posistion, only to the first stop; this prevents the fluid from splashing, while letting any air escape.

 

[ChrisW]

Also, make sure you have your heater inside the car set to maxiumun heat so all the cooant inside the heater core will get changed/circulated as well.

 

[Matt_S]

John, this sounds like a classic case of a severely neglected cooling system, which I have some experience with. In '93 I bought an '87 Chevy Nova (rebadged Toyota Corolla) with the original coolant. It was dirt brown. I immediately installed a Prestone flush kit and flushed and cleaned the system, filling with regular green coolant, which was all that was available at that time. 3 months later, it was back to the same dirt brown again. It took me about 3 - 4 complete flush/clean cycles to get all the corrosion out of there to the point where the coolant would hold its color for any length of time.

Looking back on that, I might have done a couple things differently. I still would have used the flush kit and I certainly would not have worried about using distilled water until I was sure the system was clean. I would have purchased about 6 bottles of the strongest cleaner available and run 1 or 2 double doses followed by 2 - 4 single doses for the length of time recommended on the label. During this time, I would not have driven the car more than normal, but I would have made sure to get the engine up to operating temp on each trip. I would do it this way to lengthen the amount of time the cleaner was in the system. When all the cleaning was done, I'd flush it all out, change all the rubber, along with the cap and thermostat and fill with the cheapest available coolant and tap water. In a couple months, I'd make a judgement as to whether the system was still dirty. At that point, I'd either simply change the coolant using a distilled water flush or use more cleaners as necessary. For a final coolant choice, I'd pick either Prestone extended life, Peak Global (another OAT coolant) or G05 (an HOAT).

It's a real PITA getting a neglected system clean, but if you let it go longer, it will really come back to bite you. The cooling system on that Nova was never really as good as it could have been. I should have replaced the radiator, as ran hot, especially with the AC, but it never got too bad. The cleaning kept the problems at bay.

Good luck.

 

[John D]

Thanks Chris. I probably would have forgot about those things when I was changing/flushing the fluid.

 

[John D]

Update:

I got around to looking at this on Saturday. I drained the crap out of the radiator, refilled and ran the engine for a while to get everything warmed up. Then I drained the rad again and refilled, but this time, I added a bottle of the Prestone Super Clean (I believe that's what it was called) and followed the directions on the bottle. Drained, refilled, & ran again for 10-15 minutes. Repeated twice. The water eventually became cleaner. During the first drain, I had to check to make sure I was draining the right fluid, because it was as dark as oil!

While I was doing this, I found out where she was seeing the brown bubbles from. There ended up being a small hairline split in the top plastic tank, near the rad cap, and the fluid/dirt was escaping through that as it warmed up & pressurized. I had some blue RTV silicone, so I applied several layers to try and stop the leak. I know this is not a good permanent fix (compared to replacing the tank or radiator), but she will only be keeping the car until next summer, so she don't really want to be putting much money into it. It seemed to work ok for now, but I will be checking it frequently, to see if the leak comes back. I didn't put in any AF/C yet, because I wanted to monitor the leak for a week or two. If it is OK, I will be draining/flushing the system a couple more times to see if any more crap comes out before I put in any AF/C.

Also, I did check the oil & transmission fluid. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, so it looks like we had a case of neglected cooling system. One other thing to note is that after flushing the system, I didn't see any difference in the position of the temp guage once the car warmed up. It is still sitting at about 2/3 of the normal range.

Anyway, enough with the life story. Again, thanks for the suggestions. After I get the system flushed again and filled with AF/C, I will let you know how it went, and I promise it won't be as long!