Omega Owners Forum
Omega Help Area => Omega General Help => Topic started by: less on 10 March 2016, 13:10:46
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Hi all
I have a slow coolant leak somewhere which is a minor irritant. I have changed HBV and header tank cap but has made little difference. Never any visible signs of leakage so I will probably put up with it, and top up as necessary.
I can't always get to my nearest stealers when open as they tend to work same hours as me. Question is are all 'red' antifreezes compatible? I have seen red, blue and purple on eurocraparts for instance - would their red mix with mine without issue?
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Any smell of antifreeze / water when the engines hot ?
I could be coming from the oil cooler plate and evaporating off ?
Any damp / wet patches in the footwells ?
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Not noticed any coolant smell and no damp patches found.
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No, all antifreezes are not compatible. I heard a tale of precipitation and clogging of an engine by mixing the old ethylene glycol antifreeze with the more modern organic acid stuff. Best to use the same again to top it up.
Check for drips and coloration at the bottom front of the engine. It it's water pump leaking that is where it will appear.
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Any pink residue on the bottom of the radiator or the radiator drain plug ?
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Genuine can be bought readily on ebay for sensible money :y
If you can't see or smell it then it's most likely radiator related... Either one of the sensors or the drain plug ;) Have also changed a couple with cracked radiators...
Basically, start at the drain plug looking for residue, if any visible, follow the trail and fix/replace the leaky item...
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Could be leaking under the header tank
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If your worried about mixing antifreezes, drain the system, flush through with clean water, drain and replace with OAT compatible antifreeze. As long as its OAT compatible, it won't matter what colour you put in to top-up... :y
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Omega doesn't require OAT antifreeze - specified for more modern engines. Just stick with the red GM antifreeze as specified.
It is NOT recommended to mix older antifreezes with OAT, particularly the old glycol based products as a gel will be produced!
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Omega doesn't require OAT antifreeze - specified for more modern engines. Just stick with the red GM antifreeze as specified.
i though the GM red was OAT. isn't it?
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Omega doesn't require OAT antifreeze - specified for more modern engines. Just stick with the red GM antifreeze as specified.
i though the GM red was OAT. isn't it?
No its not ;)
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i think you might be wrong ;)
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from the astra owners manual 2012 (and others)
"Coolant and antifreeze
Use only organic acid type-long life
coolant (LLC) antifreeze approved for
the vehicle."
isn't that GM red or are they recommending some new GM colour, or a non GM coolant?
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from the astra owners manual 2012 (and others)
"Coolant and antifreeze
Use only organic acid type-long life
coolant (LLC) antifreeze approved for
the vehicle."
isn't that GM red or are they recommending some new GM colour, or a non GM coolant?
OAT antifreeze is NOT gm red. OAT is for engines more modern than the Omega V6. Yep its recommended for the more modern 2012 Astra, not for a 2003 or earlier Omega V6.
Try googling it re mixing oat with other antifreezes - it will answer your query and confirm my posts ::)
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OAT is recommended by Jaguar for my XJ, and in the handbook it states OAT should not be mixed with non-OAT antifreezes.
GM, and other car manufacturers, don't make antifreezes, just supply "a n others" antifreeze to a specification with their own label applied.
OAT is coloured orange by the way, not red ;)
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ok resorting to mr google, agreed it's not very clear but it does seem to me that GM red antifreeze aka dex-cool is OAT
"The OAT formulas approved by GM, called DexCool, contain 2-EHA and in most cases, sebacate, but there is no specific composition formula, only a performance test. "
"However, GM DexCool, a purely organic acid type, also has orange dye, and this has been a source of service industry confusion. "
http://articles.sae.org/11284/
One of the new types is "organic acid technology," or OAT. It's orange. General Motors pioneered this chemistry starting with 1996 models in the U.S. and using the name Dex-Cool. Ford changed a few models to OAT, then backed away from it. VW, Audi, and Porsche are OAT users, too, but most others have resisted.
http://www.caranddriver.com/columns/top-it-up-with-green-or-orange-which-antifreeze
"Certain cars are built with organic acid technology (OAT) antifreeze (e.g., DEX-COOL"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifreeze#Organic_acid_technology
also oat can be red or orange see
see http://www.eetcorp.com/antifreeze/Coolants_matrix.pdf for the colour codes
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I have both GM Longlife Red antifreeze and GM Dexcool antifreeze in my garage (5 lits of each).
The GM red longlife antifreeze contains Ethanediol (basically ethylene alcohol), whereas the GM Dexcool (which is more orange than the standard red longlife) is based on 2-ethylhexanoic acid (2-EHA) and other organic acids and indeed is an OAT (Organic Acid Technology) antifreeze.
Read the tales of woe, and litigation, on the net, re the use of Dexcool in older (more than 10 years old) GM engines. As I said for an Omega use the standard GM Longlife Red, not an OAT antifreeze!
HTH and clarifies.
Have a read of this http://www.reuters.com/article/gm-settlement-idUSN2735011520080327 (http://www.reuters.com/article/gm-settlement-idUSN2735011520080327)
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And to really confuse matters, GM sell all coolant under the tradename Dex-Cool. In much the same way all there hydraulic fluids are Dexron.
So Dex-Cool can be OAT or (non OAT) Red.
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Just to confuse you even more is there is is also a h-oat coolant which is mixed with a silicate
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Thank you gentlemen, most informative. When I changed the head gasket on daughter-in-law's Rover Streetwise January 2015 the handbook demanded that I use only organic acid antifreeze, so I bought some specially from Halfords. It was dyed red. I now know I could have used Dex-Cool, had it been the right variety.
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Thank you gentlemen, most informative. When I changed the head gasket on daughter-in-law's Rover Streetwise January 2015 the handbook demanded that I use only organic acid antifreeze, so I bought some specially from Halfords. It was dyed red. I now know I could have used Dex-Cool, had it been the right variety.
You need to slap you Son!