What engine coolant or colour for my Honda?

[rpfn140378]

Hi all

I own two 6 generation civics and I would like to change the coolant or at least check it how good it still is. In One of the civics I don't know when the coolant was changed because I just own the car for about 2 years but the other one the coolant is about 3 years old.
In the manual it says just to use Hondas engine coolant, they always say that but we can buy engine coolant anywhere, my issue with the coolant is that all shops have many different colours for coolant, why is that? Any reason for that? Even some coolant testers can't be used (apparently) with different colours. Are there some sort of multi purpose testers for coolant which can be used more than once and with all sort of coolants? I wouldn't mind to buy one and check the coolant before buying the coolant it self. Am I gonna damage the radiator or engine by using a different coolant colour? What are these colours all about?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Trekk]

I just use the normal green stuff (antifreeze). The orange stuff is normally Dexcool, which it what GM suggest you use on GM cars. Sometimes Long life is colored different. Then you have the 50/50 which already has 50% water, or the strait antifreeze. It really shouldn't matter what you use as long as you flush out all the old stuff first if changing types. If you live in a cold environment make sure you add the correct % of antifreeze for the temps.

However that's all America stuff I don't know about how things are in England.

 

[lethal6]

You can most certainly damage the cooling system if you put different color coolant in the vehicle. The colors are less important than the actual ingredients though.

You need a coolant the has no silicates in it. Harder to find outside of Honda/Toyota OEM at least here in the states because normal over the shelf ones don't really have the right stuff.. That is why I usually stick to Honda brand. I mean is $10 worth destroying your cooling system? It isn't to me.

These are a basic rule of thumb and no where near a must go by:

Green: common coolant. Used on older vehicles and some newer vehicles that use silicate based coolant. Which in the states I think is almost everything outside of Japanese imports and German imports. I have heard both sides of the spectrum. Some have claimed to have coolant system failures after switching from the Honda blue to the universal green. I have also heard of others that run it for years/miles without problems.

Red/Pink: German coolant has silicates and is hard to find an off OEM mixture. I haven't found one if there is. Not something that VW, Audi, Porsche, Mercedes, or BMW recommend anyway.

Blue sometimes very dark green: Japanese import coolant. No silicates. Also kind of hard to find an off OEM mixture.

Bright Orange: GM Dexcool. No silicates but don't let that fool you. This stuff is the devil and should never be mixed with any other type of coolant. I have seen systems absolutely destroyed after mixing with other colors.

 

[rpfn140378]

Thanks guys. Hard to say now if the coolant I have at the moment in the car is dark green or blue. I need to check that.
Should I run the engine once or twice with fresh water untill warm before putting the new coolant?

 

[lethal6]

I usually follow the service manual on flushing a cooling system. If you don't have one, they can be easy obtained online by searching google or searching the member list here for a member by the name of RonJ. Just look for a post of his and snag the link from his signature. I would link his profile for you but I am on my phone and it is kind of hard to link from tapatalk.

 

[takeachance]

I only buy Honda fluids, sure it might be more expensive but its worth it in the long run.

 

[btiller11]

I work at a goodyear and we use universal collant.... Its like a yellow color and ive put it in my explorer, mercedes, had a camaro at one point i put it in, and my honda, no problems with any of the cooling systems.... Aswell as every single car tht come into the shop no matter the make or model.

 

[lethal6]

Please tell me you aren't running universal coolant in German cars that require G12...

It's shops like that that keep us in business (I work at Porsche). We have fixed a bunch of cooling systems in Cayennes and Boxsters from owners taking them to chain shops that don't know and don't care and they put the universal stuff in. That universal stuff destroys the aluminum that is used in the coolant piping of the German cars that run them. The aluminum that deteriorates makes it's way into the water pump and usually causes it to clog up and then fail when the trapped coolant eats away at the fins. Makes for one hell of a mess. Fine for you guys cause you just dump what ever and send them on their way. Car fails 10,000 miles later and we get to fix it.

 

[stcopley]

Please tell me you aren't running universal coolant in German cars that require G12...

It's shops like that that keep us in business (I work at Porsche). We have fixed a bunch of cooling systems in Cayennes and Boxsters from owners taking them to chain shops that don't know and don't care and they put the universal stuff in. That universal stuff destroys the aluminum that is used in the coolant piping of the German cars that run them. The aluminum that deteriorates makes it's way into the water pump and usually causes it to clog up and then fail when the trapped coolant eats away at the fins. Makes for one hell of a mess. Fine for you guys cause you just dump what ever and send them on their way. Car fails 10,000 miles later and we get to fix it.

Lol at the goodyear guy...^ what he said. Some systems require different coolants

 

[takeachance]

lol people take their cars to a tire shop to get work done? dafuq?

 

[SpeedTechnik]

lol people take their cars to a tire shop to get work done? dafuq?

I know a couple of people that do this, that's why I do my own work and work in legit place where you can get paid more for doing things right the right way with all specs and etc.

 

[rpfn140378]

My coolant was done 3 years ago when I had the cam belt and water pump changed. I already done 20k miles in it since and no problems. My dilemma now is I don't know if it worth spending money in some sort of tester or just buy straight away the coolant and change it, as long I buy the right one. The garage I had the work done was a Bosch authorised garage so I hope they put the right coolant in.

 

[Billy.]

I ran a 30/70 mixture of Peak to water for years in an aluminum Mishimoto radiator. It never really freezes where I live so I got the benefit of a higher water content . I also added a splash of Water Wetter, but don't know if that really did anything beneficial.

 

[btiller11]

I never done a porsche so idk what they take... Im talking about like well.... The normal cars? We dont see many porsches where im from

 

[lethal6]

I never done a porsche so idk what they take... Im talking about like well.... The normal cars? We dont see many porsches where im from

VW, Audi, Mercedes, BMW all take G12 and most definitely shouldn't be mixed with chain store universal coolant.

 

[rpfn140378]

Hi guys. Thanks for your help and advice.
Whatever I will be doing, either changing the coolant or just testing it I will do it just after next week because from today I'm off on holidays. Thanks to you all.