12 replies to this topic

[profmatt]

I've been worried about my temperature gauge reading often being very high, so tonight I checked the radiator. I couldn't see any liquid in it, so I guessed it must be low. I topped it up with blue anti-freeze. I didn't know how far to top it up so it's about halfway between being full to overflowing and just covering the grilles.

 

I noticed that the liquid looked orange when it started filling up, so I'm guessing the existing mixture was that orange antifreeze that someone told me on another thread you're not supposed to use.

 

So my questions: is the fact that I've now got a mix really bad? Have I topped it up to the correct level? Is the car safe to drive?

 

Forgive me but I know nothing about cars. I still call it the start pedal and the stop pedal and the going roundy wheel.

[Gremlin]

The 'coolants' don't mix, the orange coolant is bad for old cars including mini's, and you,ve filled it up to a good enough level. Drain the coolant, flush it through then fill with blue coolant, check for leaks when cold and hot, and just keep an eye on that gauge!

[profmatt]

I've got a 60 miles round trip to do tomorrow. Am I safe to do the run and sort this all out when I get back?

[KernowCooper]

What hapens is the to dont mix and it forms strings of like a mastic slime which clogs the rad and causes overheating.

 

Needs to be backflushed and the heater matrix done the same,  if left can do al sorts of damage to headgasket and copper rad tanks, but if you dont have time to do it and no other options for the trip? no1 job as soon as your back as its in a very short time hopefully it wont have time to do its worst. Me I'd be out with a hose pipe and heater pipe off and backflush it which is a 15min job before I went.

[profmatt]

Is it possible the orange coolant is the same as the blue? When I had the Mini serviced I think the guy sorted out the coolant and he's really old school and has done a great job on the car in general. Why would he have put the bad orange stuff in? I'd better call him tomorrow morning, I think

[KernowCooper]

Question you need to be asking is it Organic Acid Technology” (OAT) whixh is normally orange or yelllow in which case its not suitable for Older Cars like the Mini. You need ETHYLENE GLYCOL type and I use Bluecol in mine, which as per the name is indeed Blue

[Artful Dodger]

Just to note- you can actually use the orange (OAT) coolant in mini engines, but it all
Must be new and be completely free of the older blue stuff. So all brand spanker cars with a new engine build and new rads rtc can use the new stuff:)

[bigtony]

what shade of orange was it bright orange or a rusty orange

[KernowCooper]

OAT antifreeze attacks Copper = headgaskets and Radiators, and Solder which the radiators are constructed with

 

Its not recommended for cars without a alloy and plastic radiator and cars which use copper based head gaskets as lots of the minis have fitted

Edited by KernowCooper, 24 October 2013 - 12:21 AM.

[The Otter]

As bigtony mentioned, are you sure that the orangeness isn't just rustyness? Are you sure the guy that serviced it actually did a coolant change? If the coolant is left in there for longer than it's supposed to be (a couple of years I think), and/or if somebody hasn't used anti-freeze in the past, the coolant will be mostly water and will just start eating away the engine block/head. This makes the coolant/water in the radiator a completely opaque rusty/orange colour - I'd say this is much more likely than someone using the wrong anti-freeze.

 

Either way, you need to do a coolant change and a backflush of the system.

[Carlos W]

Ax above I thought the other stuff was more pink than orange!

Either way, give it a good flush, fill it up with the correct blue antifreeze check for leaks and enjoy you car!

Now is a good time to make sure the cooling system has the correct amount of antifreeze in, frozen engines can cause lots of damage

[profmatt]

If it's just rust, presumably it's been like that for a while and I'm OK to do my drive this morning and I can sort it out later. (I live in a top floor flat, so doing the flushing out at home isn't really an option.)

[profmatt]

Well, it survived the journey to and and from York and the temperature gauge registered lower than it was the other day. It was above halfway but never went very close to the red zone. I stuck my finger in the fluid after the drive (and after it had cooled down) and it was still very liquidy.

 

I'll probably do a full flush out and replace, but I think I'm OK.