Does different colours of AF/C mean anything?

[Degreaser]

I just bought a gallon of Honda Type 2 Pre-Mix car antifreeze/coolant to replace the 2 year old Wal-Mart bought STP Universal 50/50 Pre-Mix still in my motorcycle. Both the Honda and STP are a ethylene glycol base, but the Honda Type 2 is blue and the STP Universal is green. Even though they're both the same base of AF, why the difference in colour? And being the same base can they be mixed. Does different colours of AF mean anything?

 

[Dan55]

Dated but interesting read http://www.motor.com/magazine/pdfs/082004_04.pdf

 

[Donald]

Almost all antifreeze is ethylene glycol based except Amsoil and some other low-tox ones.

The colors were an attempt at the additive chemistry. Old green, OAT, HOAT, etc. Personally I would not use a universal antifreeze as its a dexclone. Dexcool is fine if your car came from the factory with Dexcool, but in that case I would use real Dexcool.

I would drain and flush whats in there and then refill with the Honda stuff you bought.

 

[exranger06]

Just because two coolants are ethylene glycol based, doesn't mean they're the same. The differences are in the additives that inhibit corrosion.

However, color means nothing. You could have two coolants that happen to be the same color, but be completely different chemically. Likewise, you could have two coolants that are different colors, but be exactly the same chemically and perfectly mixable.

 

[Donald]

Case in point, there is Chrysler G-05, Ford G-05 and Zerex G-05. All different colors. Zerex is very light in color, I think they did not want to change the base color of the coolant in the vehicle already.

 

[FoxS]

Zerex G05 goes in Ford (Gold) and MB (Blue)

 

[Kestas]

Color means little to denote the type of antifreeze.

coolants matrix

 

[OilFool]

An example... Toyota RED and Toyota PINK. They are NOT the same. One has "salt" as I recall and one doesn't. But the ingredients ARE different.
My 4Runner uses red and Tacoma uses Pink.
While similar ingredients are used, Pink is just not just "watered down 50/50 pre-mixed" Red.

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I know it was thought/believed by many that the colors were to be able to be blended with no ill effects.
If you mix two and get a pretty neon color, they were thought to be compatible and if you had a nasty color, incompatible, but that is not true.
Red and Blue make Green, but that does not apply to coolants.

 

[artificialist]

My father learned the hard way that just because coolant is green does not mean it is the same. Dad's 1995 Honda Accord and Mom's 1994 Eagle Summit both had water pump failures at a similar time. The cause? The common green coolant of the 1990s had silicates, the green coolant made by Honda and Mitsubishi had no silicates. Silicates often destroy water pumps that were built for non-silicate coolant.

Ever since then, I have always made sure that cars in my family have the chemistry of the OEM coolant.

 

[Sayjac]

Quote:
Zerex G05 goes in Ford (Gold) and MB (Blue)

And pinkish/red in Chrysler/Mopar.

As said, these days color is poor indicator of AF chemistry.

 

[weebl]

Originally Posted By: artificialist

Ever since then, I have always made sure that cars in my family have the chemistry of the OEM coolant.


In many cases, this means OEM for simplicity sake, for example, the different Asian ones now are suspected of being the same, and are all made by the same supplier, but to date, I haven't seen concrete proof, and you would be mixing based on a best guess basis. In other cases, it is very clear which ones are the same, like with G-05.