old coolant is nearly clear

[Psyklops]

yes thats right... I checked my coolant the other day, and it was basically friggin clear....about 8000 ks ago i put in Nulon coolant/anti freeze/anti boil...it was green...after the 8000 odd kms it went nearly clear, but wasn't overheating ..I changed it today for peace of mind, but are there any explanations for this....average brand of coolant perhaps? anyone had this happen to them too? whenever I have done coolant changes, the old coolant has always had greenish colour to it still, maybe with a tinge brown from rust in the system..but clear? anyone have ideas? (other than some smartarse replacing my coolant with tap water!)

[ECU-MAN]

moral of the story, use Honda coolant :)

[PhatSol]

I never had a problem with the nulon long life stuff...

[Psyklops]

phatsol...how long did you leave it in for, and what colour was it when you drained it?
ecuman....might look into that....

[PhatSol]

Mabey 10,000km? I haven't had the sol that long. But I ran it in the mirage much longer than that. When I drained the sol it was the normal colour, prehaps a little dirtier, but certainly not clear. Are you sure somone didn't top up your coolant with plain water?

[wynode]

Just stick with the Honda stuff IMO :)

[panda[cRx]]

at least it didnt look like THIS... this came out of my mates EVO3. u'd think if u had an evo3 that u'd at least look after it! :rolleyes:
(ben would be proud of the coke bottle, diy styles yo)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v472/panda_crx/thehut031.jpg

the photo doesnt show just how BROWN it was

[PhatSol]

Ewww yuck :p

[Psyklops]

yeah I am the only one to have done coolant flushes on this car...maybe a bad batch of coolant?....I might email Nulon about this....it was pretty wierd, and unnerving to have put green stuff in...and then have clear stuff come out...makes me wonder about the stability of their product....metinks OEM will be the way to go...

[PhatSol]

Yeah I guess I will keep an eye on mine and see what happens.

[garett]

im about to change my coolant i was thinking of using the nulon consentrate
i have a b16a2 does anyone know if or where the bleed valve is cos ive looked a few times and cant find anything???

[ECU-MAN]

96 on Civic and Crx had the bleeder canned from the top hose housing

[SPEEDCORE]

Yeah I currently use Motul coolant.
I did a fair few track days last year and it turned clear. The coolant properties checked out ok though, ie. still active.

After doing lot of reading I found out that there is a possibility that some dyes used in coolant (which is just there to distinguish the coolant from other fluids such as water) are prone to breakdown with long exposure to heat.

It has happnend to alot of the new Mini Coopers S in the states, where they have absolutely flipped out at the dealers and accusing them of putting water instead of the BMW coolant which I am sure is a blue colour similar to the motul.

One tends to think that if you spend good money on coolants in my case Motul (not nessicarily any better than OEM Honda stuff mind you), that they would use a better dye in the coolant so as to withstand such temperatures and not degrade after approx 15,000km - 20,000km of regular daily driving with about 7 track days thrown in the mix.

[Psyklops]

ah now that makes sense speedcore...as I got back from two days of twisties in the mountains just north of apollo bay, and I was enjoying myself :D ...I checked the coolant when I got back to Melbourne, and it had turned clear...have you any references for us to read where it states the breakdown of the dye is possible from sustained high temperatures and spirited driving?