In winter months, this coolant helps to antifreeze your engine. It lubricates the car’s water pump, thus protecting it from corrosion. The BWM coolant antifreeze is essential for keeping your engine temperatures in check. It is the number one best selling automotive engine coolant in the globe. While some coolants are compatible with others, changing the chemical balance in the cooling system can be detrimental to its performance, so mixing different types of coolant is not recommended.Īll coolants, no matter the type, colour or brand should be tested twice a year to ensure they are maintaining the correct chemical composition and concentration.įor more information about coolant and cooling system maintenance, visit .This coolant/antifreeze is exclusive for BMW models. Fleetguard’s PGPlus is an example of this. Some coolants, such as Fleetguard’s OAT coolant and PG Platinum are lifetime, meaning they don’t need to be changed over the life of the engine, others such as those containing nitrite used for cavitation protection require additive top-ups, as the additives within them deplete over time. These days, there’s no legal standard for a coolant manufacturer to use a certain colour, so it’s not easy to know what chemicals are in the coolant just by its colour.Įvery brand of coolant requires different levels of maintenance. Is there a legal standard for coolant colours? To its superior additive package, is red. Coolant marketers and OEMs have adopted their own tiered approach to differentiate their products, meaning colour can no longer be used as a guideline to a coolant’s properties.įor example, PGPlus, a hybrid, lifetime coolant with 250,000km or 4000 hours service intervals, is dark blue.Īnd PGPlatinum, an organic, lifetime coolant which requires no service thanks Nowadays, we can’t rely on the colour to tell us about a coolant’s chemistry or performance. There are also coolants which are a blend of IAT and OAT chemicals, and these were therefore named ‘hybrids’ (HAT) and were typically yellow or green – but not always. These coolants were usually orange or red and offered a five-year or 160,000km change interval. In the 2000s came Organic Acid Technology (OAT) coolants, whose chemical make-up offered better protection for cooling systems and extended the life of the coolant. These types would normally have to be changed roughly every two years. Older coolants that used Inorganic Additive Technology (IAT) were usually blue or green. In days gone by, the colour of coolant was determined by the types of chemicals used to prevent corrosion, meaning once upon a time, you could tell a lot about a coolant by its colour. The truth is colour doesn’t mean anything. Other considerations include the life of the coolant and its maintenance requirements. It should also prevent corrosion and erosion, resist foaming, be compatible with cooling system component materials, be compatible with hard water, resist sedimentation, and be chemically stable.

In terms of the coolant’s properties, it should have good heat transfer abilities, a higher boiling point and lower freezing point than water. One such internationally recognised standard is the ASTM D6210, and coolants that meet OEM standards are even better. These problems can cause critical damage, leading to expensive repairs and equipment downtime, which consequently leads to lost revenue for your business.įirst and foremost, choose a good quality coolant from a reputable brand and check that it has been tested to, and meets, a heavy-duty coolant standard. If a quality coolant is not used, the risks to the engine include overheating, corrosion and cavitation. Coolant also carries with it additives which prevent corrosion and cavitation of the engine and its components, as well as providing anti-boil and antifreeze properties.

It is then circulated by the water pump, back to the engine, to repeat the same process over and over again. Put simply, the role of coolant is to transfer extreme heat generated by the engine, to the radiator, where it is expelled into the environment. Head chemist and coolant expert Mike Hudson, from Cummins Filtration, helps answer some of these questions.įirst thing’s first, what does coolant do? In this article, we’ll clear the air and help you understand key requirements to ensuring optimal health of your engine’s cooling system, year in, year out. Does it indicate anything about the chemical make-up of the coolant or is it just a brand to brand thing? There’s plenty of confusion in forums these days about the colour of heavy-duty coolants.

Coolant color