Antifreeze

[AwesomeIsLuke]

Another BMW marketing secret: The blue stuff is chemically almost identical to the green stuff. You won't have any problems running Prestone, as long as you get the undiluted mixture and read the label to make sure it contains no phosphates.

[billyfiction]

If you live in Europe you use Blue if you live in North America it doesnt make any difference between blue or green. It has to do with our water not the antifreeze.

[tlamm]

Yeah i use the Green stuff. My Bro runs then Orange stuff. I want to convert it to Green though.

[AwesomeIsLuke]

If you live in Europe you use Blue if you live in North America it doesnt make any difference between blue or green. It has to do with our water not the antifreeze.

You should be using distilled water, regardless of whether you use green or blue coolant. Distilled water is exactly the same no matter where you get it.

[DJCarbine]

Green is fine, just use no phosphates formula

For the love of god never put dexcool(red) in there

[odm4286]

eh Im sure I still have some green residue in mine after the flush I did yesterday. Hopefully it plays nice with the bmw coolant im about to put in.

[LockDots]

eh Im sure I still have some green residue in mine after the flush I did yesterday. Hopefully it plays nice with the bmw coolant im about to put in.

It's the same stuff anyway. BMW's just has a blue dye in it.

[Toby B]

Oh NOOOO!!! All of my BMWs will dye soon!

(hee)

Ok, I'm done now.

t

[choffa]

This has been bashed to death for many years. G05 spec is a perfectly acceptable alternative.

Here's an excerpt from a BMW technical journal:

From BMW's TECHDRIVE volume 3 Number 2, May 2006 "A publication for independent BMW service professionals":

Coolant
BMW is fairly liberal on coolant use, requiring only that all cooling systems be filled with a "reputable brand name ethylene glycol long term antifreeze having corrosion inhibitors that are compatible with aluminum radiators"...

The exclusively formulated antifreeze that BMW specifies & makes available through its dealerships' parts department is an ethylene glycol based, silicated OAT (organic acid technology) formula, which contains no nitrates or phosphates, and has been chemically designed to prevent excessive silicate drop out. Also, the silicates leave an anti-corrosive coating on metal that remains even if the coolant level should be allowed to drop...

It goes on, summary:

50% mix, max 60% for severely cold climates to -65degF
Use only distilled or deionized water
BMW does not approve of any coolant additives, including those intended to improve corrosion resistance or seal minor leaks

Long story short, any ethylene glycol anti freeze with AOT corrosion inhibitors, phosphate & nitrate free. This is not magic, BMW's specs are nothing special. Their blue coolant meets the spec (obviously), but it's one of many.

[borderruffian]

Excellent and authoritative response. Thanks!

[Chris323ic]

Just to clarify from an earlier post in this thread...Zerex is not the OEM for BMW coolant.....the OEM is Pentosin and available locally from Napa and other outlets.

[JDStrickland]

Excellent and authoritative response. Thanks!

Almost 5 years for you to agree.

Something to keep in mind is that there are coolants that do not play well with one another -- they should not be mixed. Ass pointed out in Post #34, the spec is pretty liberal on what can be used, all you really need to be careful of is that you do not mix types that do not like to be mixed.