Prestone coolant

[Michael75]

Need to top up coolant on T6.1. Local garage and Tesco only sell Prestone, the container information states that its suitable for all engines, whether petrol or diesel. Is it ok to use?

 

[Sasquatch]

Probably. Prestone is supposed to be cross compatible with all other types of coolant, bit I've never been brave enough to risk it myself.

 

[BeardedRocket]

What colour is it?

Blue glycol for plant
Yellow for French
Pink for Ford/VW
Green for BMW and Merc

 

[Dave A]

Need to top up coolant on T6.1. Local garage and Tesco only sell Prestone, the container information states that its suitable for all engines, whether petrol or diesel. Is it ok to use?

I've used Prestone from Tesco. It was yellow. I haven't put it anywhere near the fleet. Only used it winterising the toilets and u bends in the static caravan where it has been very effective in very cold Yorkshire winters. Not much help I know but as I said Tesco Prestone seems to be just yellow.

 

[Sasquatch]

What colour is it?

Blue glycol for plant
Yellow for French
Pink for Ford/VW
Green for BMW and Merc

Sadly mere colour is no longer a reliable indicator of a coolant type.

 

[BeardedRocket]

Sadly mere colour is no longer a reliable indicator of a coolant type.

I work in the industry and my mate is a specialist mechanic in all of those manufacturers. He advised me this is the case still. ‍‍♂

 

[Sasquatch]

I work in the industry and my mate is a specialist mechanic in all of those manufacturers. He advised me this is the case still. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯‍♂

I have no reason to doubt your chum. Nevertless, I have high level training a technical environment where such coolants are also used for thermal manage,emt (spaceflight)

For example, both glycol and OAT are available in green and they can be dangerously incompatible to an engine if mixed. Also OAT is safer in a wider range of applications and materials than glycol.

Pink can be either IAT or OAT, and theyre not always compatible. Both, broadly speaking, can be used in pretty much any engine provided the cooling circuit has been flushed properly.

And so on.

And certain types of blue glycol coolant are very widely used in motorsport because of the extent to which they raise the boiling point of the water, so are rather more useful than simply in plant.

It's all out there on the interweb.

 

[BeardedRocket]

I have no reason to doubt your chum. Nevertless, I have high level training a technical environment where such coolants are also used for thermal manage,emt (spaceflight)

For example, both glycol and OAT are available in green and they can be dangerously incompatible to an engine if mixed. Also OAT is safer in a wider range of applications and materials than glycol.

Pink can be either IAT or OAT, and theyre not always compatible. Both, broadly speaking, can be used in pretty much any engine provided the cooling circuit has been flushed properly.

And so on.

And certain types of blue glycol coolant are very widely used in motorsport because of the extent to which they raise the boiling point of the water, so are rather more useful than simply in plant.

It's all out there on the interweb.

That’s very informative, thank you. I like to learn more and more. I’m going to look more into this .