Ok to move 15 year old G11 system to G-05?

[Mindflux]

I've got a 1990 VW Corrado G60.

It's had, as far as I know G11 fills in it since it's life.

I was changing out the fan switch sensor in the radiator the other day and expected coolant to pour out. Well instead I got nothing. Upon further investigation with a finger I moved a large chunk of .. uh something through the endtank out into my catch pan. It looks like buildup.

So my plan is to run a Zyrex Coolant Flush (the kind you add into plain water and drive on for a few days), flush and refill with G-05.

Does anyone here see any problems with that?

Thank you.

 

[Audi Junkie]

G-05 looks like a replacment for anything. I used it in a 1995 A6 (Blue, G-11), 1999 Audi (Pink-Dex/G12), 1997 Volvo (Blue), 1986 and 1987 Audi (Blue, G-11?) I don't know how someone could go wrong with this fluid except Nissan and maybe Mitsu.

 

[Mindflux]

Ok picked up some G-05.

I'm in the process of flushing my vehicle.. however it seems that the green stuff keeps coming out.

I'll drain the system from the coolant hose on the radiator. Plug that back in, fill with water. Run the car until the t-stat opens, fan turns on and off. Turn off car and let cool. (I have no hose to run a constant stream through the car at this location)

Once I drain it, I maybe get a gallon of fluid out at most, the system holds 10L total. I understand that it all won't come out of the radiator.

I've flushed it 3 times now and the stuff coming out LOOKS clear until I pour it into a container to dispose of, then it looks like a heavy mix of G11 to Water.

How many more flushes can I expect to do before it comes out clear.

Is there any way to drain more than a gallon - 1.5 gallons of water out of this system at once?

 

[Mickey_M]

quote:

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Originally posted by Mindflux:
Is there any way to drain more than a gallon - 1.5 gallons of water out of this system at once?

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Either power flush or do it the hard way, turn the heater on and run it until hot, drain and repeat.

 

[Mindflux]

quote:

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Originally posted by Mickey_M:

quote:

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Originally posted by Mindflux:
Is there any way to drain more than a gallon - 1.5 gallons of water out of this system at once?

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Either power flush or do it the hard way, turn the heater on and run it until hot, drain and repeat.

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Yeah, that's what I'm doing now.

I dont' have a hose at this location so a powerflush is out.. oof!

 

[Audi Junkie]

I have about 10 gallons of light green to recycle. It took quite a bit of hose flushing to achieve clear. I am going to drain and refill again with a 2nd gallon of G-05. I'd say close it up, drive to somewhere with a hose. Oh yeah, refill with distilled.

 

[Mindflux]

quote:

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Originally posted by Audi Junkie:
I have about 10 gallons of light green to recycle. It took quite a bit of hose flushing to achieve clear. I am going to drain and refill again with a 2nd gallon of G-05. I'd say close it up, drive to somewhere with a hose. Oh yeah, refill with distilled.

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It's hard to believe that a system that holds 1.5 gallons of fluid could take 10 gallons of water to displace all the coolant. I'm on gallon #3 and it's still pretty dark though

 

[Ray H]

When I flushed my car's cooling system three weeks ago, it took 6 cycles of drain, refill, and run-until-fully-warm with the heater's temperature control in full blister mode to achieve water-white clear in a 9 quart system. All told I was at it about 6 1/2 hours until I was finally ready to pour in fresh antifreeze/coolant concentrate and top off. You really should be using distilled water for ALL your flushes. The idea is to not only get all the crud out, but dissolved mineral content, too. Tap water contains dissolved minerals and some regions are worse than others. I'm on heavily chlorinated, very hard well water. (5th year of a draught and what's getting sucked up now by my municipality ain't pretty) If I won't drink the stuff myself, I certainly don't want it contaminating my car's aluminum engine and cooling system, either.

 

[Mindflux]

I'm not going to waste money on flushing with pure distilled water, when your last two or so flushes could do that and get out the tap. It's senseless to throw away money and water like that. Running tap water between flushes that isn't in there long enough isn't depositing anything new. Same as distilled water isn't going to mystically remove your current buildup.

 

[gfcrane]

I was considering a "drain and flush" for my Maxima and because Nissan AF is $16/gal, I did a little spread sheet to calculate how many flushes were required. Logically, it is impossible to get a 100% flush, not almost but absolutely impossible. Six individual gallon drains (what comes out of the radiator each time) will get you to 1.5% of the original left, assuming perfect mixing each time. You could then go forever to get to say 0.5%. Draining three times will get you to about 5%, and I decided that's probably close enough even to change AF types and certainly overboard to use original fill type.

 

[Mindflux]

quote:

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Originally posted by gfcrane:
I was considering a "drain and flush" for my Maxima and because Nissan AF is $16/gal, I did a little spread sheet to calculate how many flushes were required. Logically, it is impossible to get a 100% flush, not almost but absolutely impossible. Six individual gallon drains (what comes out of the radiator each time) will get you to 1.5% of the original left, assuming perfect mixing each time. You could then go forever to get to say 0.5%. Draining three times will get you to about 5%, and I decided that's probably close enough even to change AF types and certainly overboard to use original fill type.

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I'm on my 3rd gallon of flush water. In my case, it's coming out relatively clear into the catch pan. However when you bottle it back into a jug it's still quite a dark green. I'd most certainly say more than 5%.

 

[Ray H]

quote:

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Originally posted by Mindflux:
I'm not going to waste money on flushing with pure distilled water.

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Of course you should do what you feel is best for your situation. My six flush cycles each took approximately 3/4 gallon of the precious distilled water that you're reticent to waste money on. That worked out to about 4 1/2 gallons of distilled water which drained my bank account to the tune of $2.90 for 5 gallons at WalMart, total, on the distilled water. It'll probably take me decades to recoup the grievous financial loss for my senseless indulgence, not to mention the shame I'm suffering at having wasted most of it. Sure wish I'd corresponded with you before I started my bi-yearly cooling system maintenance even though in 40+ years of driving and self maintenance I've never suffered a buildup of anything in any of my cars' cooling systems. Your current cooling system problem must have just been a random case of bad luck, huh?

 

[Mindflux]

My cooling system is having bad luck from a case of Previous Owner neglect.

The money is not the issue here, as you pointed out Distilled water at Wal-Mart is under 3 dollars for 5 gallons.

What you have to remember is, most of it's still going to waste. Why not do the final 2 flushes out of 6(if you don't have a hose for instance) with distilled and use 2 gallons, rather than 4.5 or whatever you need to use).

Big, freakin whoop.

You do it your way, I'll do it mine. In the end we'll have the same outcome and you'll have just used more distilled water than I.

 

[srivett]

I thought VW G-11 was pink?

Steve

 

[Ugly3]

quote:

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Originally posted by Ray H:

quote:

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Originally posted by Mindflux:
I'm not going to waste money on flushing with pure distilled water.

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Of course you should do what you feel is best for your situation. My six flush cycles each took approximately 3/4 gallon of the precious distilled water that you're reticent to waste money on. That worked out to about 4 1/2 gallons of distilled water which drained my bank account to the tune of $2.90 for 5 gallons at WalMart, total, on the distilled water. It'll probably take me decades to recoup the grievous financial loss for my senseless indulgence, not to mention the shame I'm suffering at having wasted most of it. Sure wish I'd corresponded with you before I started my bi-yearly cooling system maintenance even though in 40+ years of driving and self maintenance I've never suffered a buildup of anything in any of my cars' cooling systems. Your current cooling system problem must have just been a random case of bad luck, huh?

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Oh my, let me know when you feel strongly about something.

 

[3000GT VR-4]

quote:

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Originally posted by Mindflux:
My cooling system is having bad luck from a case of Previous Owner neglect.

The money is not the issue here, as you pointed out Distilled water at Wal-Mart is under 3 dollars for 5 gallons.

What you have to remember is, most of it's still going to waste. Why not do the final 2 flushes out of 6(if you don't have a hose for instance) with distilled and use 2 gallons, rather than 4.5 or whatever you need to use).

Big, freakin whoop.

You do it your way, I'll do it mine. In the end we'll have the same outcome and you'll have just used more distilled water than I.

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But your final mixture will still have a percentage of the minerals from the hard water from the first 4 hard water flushes, since the flushes only change out a percentage of the fluid each time, correct? So the distilled water approach will leave the coolant with less dissolved solids, no?

 

[FowVay]

quote:

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Originally posted by srivett:
I thought VW G-11 was pink?

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G-11 is blue, G-12 is pink, and the new G-12+ is purple.

 

[brianl703]

quote:

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Originally posted by Mindflux:
Run the car until the t-stat opens

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If it's not too much trouble to get to it, why not just remove the thermostat temporarily?

Then you don't have to wait for it to open each time, saving quite a bit of time.

Since you've got it out, you can even put a new thermostat in there when you're done.