[Camery]

Hello all,

In the coming weeks I want to fix my leaking oil filter housing and thought of it as a good time to also change my coolant.
I had the car for over 2 years and never changed it, only topped it off occasionally. I do not have any history about when it was last changed by the previous owner.

The thing is, my coolant is red.
I know most BMW use blue coolant, so the question arises if I am better off to drain the old, and just put new diluted Red coolant in, or try to get all the red out with distilled water, and replace it with the correct Blue coolant.

I never had any problems with overheating etc. And I don't know if it really makes a difference by now since the car is 13 years old and already has 125k miles.

Engine is a 4cyl. N46B20B.

So;


1) Try to get all/most red coolant out by repeatedly filling with water and draining until water is as clear as I can get it. Then fill with recommended Blue 50/50 mix

2) Leave the red as is since it has been fine for as long as I have the car, drain and refill with Red 50/50 mix

Thanks!

[nsjames]

color doesn't mean much.

you have no idea what's in it.
so it's best to flush it and replace it all.

[ryan stewart]

Same. Probably dexcool but since you dont know you dont know. Always safest to have a starting point. Flush, reflush, then refill with a known entity. Its even easier on these cars since you dont need to run the engine.

[Camery]

Hi,

Thank you for the reply,
Yes, completely draining and refilling is the way to go, but should I refill with Red or Blue, that is what I was wondering about.

The internals, (gaskets, hoses, etc) have been soaking in Red coolant for years now. Even if i flush with water, the remains of Red coolant would probably still be present I believe?

Does it hurt, (or is it even better maybe) to pour Blue coolant in, or should I just refill it with Red, since that is the coolant that these components have 'adjusted' to?

Hoping that the question makes sense,

Thanks

[AoS810]

If I were you, I'd follow nsjames' advice and flush it. Do multiple cycles with distilled water, I had to do about 4-5 drain cycles to get the coolant coming out of the radiator fairly clear. Then after it's clear, just dump in blue bmw coolant into the expansion tank and it'll mix with whatever distilled water is currently in the system for a roughly 50/50 mix. I can't imagine having to consider if the cooling components "adjusted" to the red coolant, I'd use the blue BMW coolant.

[tlow98]

The risk is too high to consider when the cost of the right stuff is so low.

[nsjames]

just flush it and then put in the appropriate BMW coolant.

[Ash-WP]

Hi all

I bought a 335i n54 I threw coolant in about month ago and now I had to throw again coolant in my car I checked for any leaks and couldn't find any leaks I have a catless exhaust with a valve to open and close it and in the morning there's a white smoke when start up could that be the cause of using so much coolant or does these cars just generally use a lot of coolant

[nsjames]

Originally Posted by Ash-WP

Hi all

I bought a 335i n54 I threw coolant in about month ago and now I had to throw again coolant in my car I checked for any leaks and couldn't find any leaks I have a catless exhaust with a valve to open and close it and in the morning there's a white smoke when start up could that be the cause of using so much coolant or does these cars just generally use a lot of coolant

no car should use or lose coolant.

you have a problem.
you should start a new thread for help in diagnosing it.

[Ash-WP]

thanks will start a new thread

[lowrydr310]

Surprisingly the BMW coolant is relatively inexpensive. I bought a few jugs of the real BMW branded concentrate from a dealer for $18 each, one jug makes two gallons of 50:50 mix. Not bad when you consider the generic ones are $15-20 for a gallon of the prediluted stuff.