Peak Long Life Antifreeze/Coolant

kn0x47 · Mar 6, 2014

you have "universal" coolant. just buy the advance brand stuff. if you're just topping it off then buy 50/50 cause otherwise you'll need to buy distilled water to go along with the full strength. don't use tap water you'll rust out your cooling system

xci.ed6 · Mar 6, 2014

They always say 'distilled'

At dealer's we used tap :dunno:

kn0x47 · Mar 6, 2014

^glad i don't go to a dealer

mossberg · Mar 9, 2014

Turbo5upra said:
Honda has their own blend of coolant... It's anybody's guess as to what's in your car- standing there or in a pic. As I stated before if you have no idea what it is or how old it is- dump it....

Really simple process- go to honda but 2 jugs of coolant. Or if cost is a factor go to any parts store and pick up a gallon of straight coolant and a new radiator cap. Stop by a drug store and get a gallon of distilled water.

Get a drain pan- there is a plug towards the driver side of the radiator on the bottom remove that... While you're at it remove the upper and lower radiator hose- remove the 10mm bolts holding the radiator in and the couple clips/wires attached to it. Spray the now removed radiator with a hose and gently brush it top to bottom as the fins can bend and inhibit cooling.

With the drain pan under the lower hose take compressed air and a rag and blow the lines out- not too much pressure but enough to get all the coolant out... You could even take the hoses off the heater core and blow that out.

Pull the overflow bottle and scrub that- reinstall everything- fill it with coolant- run the car with the cap off and heat on low until bubbles no longer appear in the radiator.

Now you know what coolant is in your car and that the old potentially contaminated coolant isn't causing buildup inside your engine.

This will set you back 20 bucks and an hour of time.

The timing belt and water pump was changed on this car about 30k miles ago, which is one reason I'm not in a rush to change the coolant. The second, more important, reason is that I live in an apartment building and can't really do a coolant replacement there. But next time I go to my folks' place, I can do this. Just wanted to add some coolant in the meantime to keep it above the MIN level.

xci.ed6 said:
Or get it hot, pull drain plug, fill with water

Get hot again, drain again, repeat until water clean.

Put in coolant, check mix. Can get 50/50 & 100% coolant from honda. Cause blue is cool 8)

Thanks, this seems pretty quick and easy. I assume the water used for flushing can be tap/hose?

I was doing some reading (always dangerous!) and it seems there are several types (http://www.skycrestauto.com/pages/antifreeze.htm):
- standard green
- Extended Life OAT Formula
- Extended Life Hybrid Coolants
- Universal Formulations

Seems nobody uses the old 'standard green' (ethylene glycol?) anymore, which makes it seem probable that when the water pump was replaced, the coolant used was a universal formulation (guessing here).

xci.ed6 · Mar 9, 2014

Old green stuff was trustworthy

Racing only allows water

New cars have odd stuff, organic acid, stuff like that.

I don't trust universal. Our , car is old, green stuff is fine, I just like blue.

001Stunna · Mar 10, 2014

Do not put tap water in the radiator/cooling system. That would be pretty dumb and even though it may not affect you in the short run, it could eventually catch up to you in the long run.

For starters, if you lost coolant...find out where it went. Also if you have never changed out the coolant, you probably should.
If you want to top up, first you find out what you have in there(which you did and it was the green stuff).

Now you can go wherever you please any buy either a full concentrate jug and mix it with a full deionized water jug 1:1

or

Buy a premixed 50:50 jug.

From what i've noticed buying a full concentrate and a deionized water jug in the end makes you double the coolant and costs less if you do the math...but if you need it just for topping up make it easy on yourself and get the premixed.

Either one of these would work in your car..
Peak Global Lifetime 50/50 (phosphate-free and silicate-free)
Peak LongLife 50/50 (phosphate-free and silicate-free)
Zerex® Asian Vehicle Antifreeze / Coolant (silicate Free, phosphated HOAT)
Prestone® Premixed LongLife (phosphate, silicate, and borate free)

Slowfinger · Mar 13, 2014

What Igor said!

You can't beat the Honda coolant! That stuff is designed specifically for Honda's and you may even notice you car running cooler as I did last year when I got my changed.