Hyundai & Kia Coolant: Blue vs Green?

[nobb]

Did a drain and fill of my Genesis Coupe's coolant today using concentrate OEM Hyundai coolant from the dealership. This coolant was bright green in color, while the OEM coolant that came with the vehicle from factory was dark blue.

Does anyone know what the difference is between the OEM coolant and what the dealership supplies? The manufacturer recommended change interval is 5 years at first, then every 2 years after. Is this because the factory supplied coolant is actually a long life formulation, whereas the stuff you get at the dealer is just standard old school coolant?

 

[crazyoildude]

Im not sure but Hyundai/Kia has some great ideas i just hope they keep making vehicles like they do these days... Of course they stopped making the PSF-3 power steering fluid that i need for my 2011 santa fe and replaced it with PSF-4 which is a different color and is ok to use as a top off fluid but if you want to do a complete fill they say to completely drain the PSF-3 before you fill with the PSF-4...Maybe it's like that with the coolant also.

 

[NibbanaBanana]

My 2013 Kia Rio manual says change the coolant at 10 years or 120K miles. I think it's 3 years or 30K miles after that. This is the most confusing issue, these coolants.

I am starting to suspect that they are supplied with some type of long life coolant but they assume that it won't necessarily be replaced with long life coolant. Some of the long life manufacturers say to not mix their coolant with more than 15%-20% of another type of coolant. I can only think that this is because it won't retain it's long life properties if it's diluted.

 

[Johnny2Bad]

I have to say that there is nothing more frustrating than these conflicting and strident coolant requirements.

Generally, when things get so bizarrely complex in the consumer marketplace as the "World of Coolants" has become, someone starts lobbying for regulation. Almost no-one really wants that, but we poor car owners can only take so much. I hope, for their sake, that Al Franken isn't listening, if you get my drift.

OEM's ... you have been warned. How complex can this be, really? Aluminum radiator, aluminum block, some synthetic rubber in between. Surely there is only so many ways to solve this. Why are there 40?

 

[Kamele0N]

OEM coolant in my cars is green... And I am using G48 for topping off wich is blue...

So far so good (no rust no mayo in expansion chamber)

 

[Kamele0N]

Plus... What I have heard is that green and blue coolants are interchangable...

 

[NibbanaBanana]

I am going to do an experiment. I have been doing regular drain and fill with Prestone at 30K intervals on my 2006 Aveo. At 205K miles it developed a small coolant leak. The water pump seals against the iron engine block with an o-ring. Right where the o-ring sits, the block corroded enough to make it leak. I very carefully sanded down that corroded area and changed the water pump out and it's not leaking.

I am going to start using Rotella ELC for the drain and fills. The manufacturer says not to dilute it with more than 20% of any other coolant. When I drain I get about 1/2 the cooling system capacity out, so thins will be 50% Rotella and 50% Prestone. We'll see if anything catastrophic happens.

I think read some other guy on the forum here was doing the same thing but using Rotella Ultra ELC.

 

[SHOZ]

I've ran green coolant in my Hyundais for years with no problem. You do need to go to a more frequent change interval. The Gen Coupe if it's a 2L is pretty good about draining all the coolant. I would do a distilled water flush first.

My Accent is terrible about draining all the old out. You can only get about 1/2 without some drastic measures and then there still is 1/4 capacity left in it. I've changed the coolant in it three times in 140k miles.

 

[NibbanaBanana]

Changing the coolant three times in 140 K doesn't sound bad to me. The problem with a flush is that you have to "flush" it somewhere. I have a well and don't want to dump any fluids on my property, or anywhere else for that matter. So all of the flush has to be recaptured and taken to recycle at the dump. In the old days, we used to leave a hose running in the top of the radiator with the drain plug open. Very bad for the environment. That's why I drain and refill only. It's possible to flush it out and recapture everything, but it will be time consuming.

 

[SHOZ]

Ha, I pour it on my tar and chip drive. Ethylene glycol will break down in the environment.

Quote:
Ethylene glycol is a high production volume chemical; it breaks down in air in about ten days, and in water or soil in a few weeks. It enters the environment through the dispersal of ethylene glycol-containing products, especially at airports, where it is used in deicing agents for runways and airplanes


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethylene_glycol

 

[nobb]

Originally Posted By: Johnny2Bad
I have to say that there is nothing more frustrating than these conflicting and strident coolant requirements.

...

OEM's ... you have been warned. How complex can this be, really? Aluminum radiator, aluminum block, some synthetic rubber in between. Surely there is only so many ways to solve this. Why are there 40?


Actually, Hyundai seems very lenient on their specs. Not like many other manufacturers which require fluids to meet their own special, proprietary specifications. Engine oil for example: the manual allows for anything from a 5W20 to a 5W40 and still maintains warranty as long as it meets API. This is one thing that has impressed me about Hyundai. Their overall fit and finish might not "feel" as top notch as Toyota, but I am very pleased at how well thought out many of the little mechanical things, engineering wise, are on my Genesis.

It could very well be that Hyundai is so lenient that multiple products work for the same application (coolant). Even the manual only says "ethylene glycol based coolant." But here at BITOG, we are not used to such vagueness and want to know exact specifications

 

[NibbanaBanana]

That's exactly what my Kia Rio manual says, "ethylene glycol based coolant". The parts guy at the dealer said not to mix them. I think I'll probably mix them. I'm getting tired of this confusing coolant issue.

 

[Sayjac]

Strokes for folks I guess. Ethylene glycol based AFs make up the majority of AF sold, including Dex, "universal" dexclones, Asian PHOATS, and G05. Chemistry and inhibitor make up are quite different amongst them though. And OM recs tend to be vague. Nissan another example of that, or at least was when I owned one, only said ethylene glycol based AF.

The OEM Hyun/Kia OEM AF is an Asian PHOAT. There's many more aftermarket Asian AF options out there now at reasonable prices so no reason 'imo' not to go with the OEM 'type' AF.

Valvoline Asian AF at WM online for store pick up currently $~8/gal. Same as ZAF, and Hyun/Kia right on the jug.