Hi polo people. Hope you're all very well. I'm after some xp with a claim from a coolant. Prestone coolant claims it can be safely mixed with any other coolant. To confirm, i have not done this. I'm literally just trying to find out if it is true or just marketing. Opinions are of course welcome, i am very much aware that coolant should not be mixed with other coolant. I am interested in whether anyone has tried it and what happened. Especially in the older cars.  Thanks for stopping by. Take it easy.

dont know but for the sake of what coolant costs , dump it out and flush it through then refill with something you believe in  

I HAVE used Prestone Ready to Use yellow coolant to top up a 1984 Polo using blue (Triple QX ethylene glycol) and to top up a 2002 Skoda diesel using genuine VAG red with no cooling issues on either.

 

Perhaps 1.3 litres into the Polo over 18 months and some Radweld vegetable  matter, before I finally found a split silicone blanking cap on the water pipe for my deleted auto-choke. 

I'm fairly sure an over-tightened Jubilee clip was the cause.

 

Antifreeze is bad for the environment, poisonous to animals and you have to collect and dispose of it properly, which can be a chore.

 

I replaced an occasionally sticky thermostat on the Skoda, collected, filtered and re-used the original (maybe factory original) red coolant - as no rust.  I topped up the small amount lost when I drained the system using Prestone  - say half a litre. The coolant I could not collect I wiped up with the newspaper, bagged into household waste and washed surface onto a weedy bed using fresh water. It'll filter through to ground water at low concentration eventually. 

 

That engine reaches and stays at 90 degrees faster and is more economical. That's due to the thermostat rather than the Prestone, but it's been as good as new for the last 2000 miles. I will monitor

for corrosion (tap and tube at bottom of radiator) as the inhibitors are likely degraded,  but that car has already exceeded 1/4 million miles. 

 

However, Prestone would be costly for a full system fill compared to 4 or 5 litres of blue coolant. Red HOAT coolant is even more expensive. Never mind that Evans Waterless liquid.

 

Not touching evans waterless. I did look into it but it's way too expensive to warrant putting in a daily drive polo. Mine anyway. Also i don't think it improves performance of the cooling system any.