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[Varche]

I am off to buy stuff for my car tomorrow. The nearest Opel parts dealer is an hour and a half away!

I am looking to change my coolant in the next few weeks and maybe the HBV. How much liquid will I need to replace and what strength is best? The temp here gets down well below freezing each year. Maybe minus five. Two years ago it was minus 14 and the car survived!

I remember a thread on this recently but cannot find it. It told you how to drain most of the liquid out. Any tips/suggestions appreciated. Thanks. 8-)

[Allenm]

You need 5 litres of VX Anti-freeze - Part no : 93170402 Retail £2.07+Vat per litre
Another 5 Litres of water.

The mix is 50/50.  So in all 10 Litres of coolant.

[Tony H]

I am off to buy stuff for my car tomorrow. The nearest Opel parts dealer is an hour and a half away!

I am looking to change my coolant in the next few weeks and maybe the HBV. How much liquid will I need to replace and what strength is best? The temp here gets down well below freezing each year. Maybe minus five. Two years ago it was minus 14 and the car survived!

I remember a thread on this recently but cannot find it. It told you how to drain most of the liquid out. Any tips/suggestions appreciated. Thanks. 8-)

You need a 50% mix of anti freeze and water not just to prevent frost damage but to optimize the prevention of corrosion internally

[Auto Addict]

It is advisable not to put 'hard' water into your radiator, so if your kettle scales up, ordinary tap water is not advised.

An alternative is to use 5 lts of distilled water, whilst not ideal, is better than hard tap water.

[Varche]

Great , thanks. The water here is ridiculously hard so Distilled is a great idea.

Does anyone have the part number of the HBV? - god only knows what that is in Spanish! If they haven't got one I will mail order one from Megavaux or similar. I seem to remember they are about £25.  

[TheBoy]

The system is around 9l. A drain from rad only gets about 5l only.

HBV for V6:
VALVE ASSY., HEATER BY-PASS    90566947 18 20 014 1  

[rpont]

Vauxhall have changed from a blue to a pink coolant and the two don't mix so if you have the blue you need to flush the system out well before putting in the pink, if that's what you are supplied.

Now a question:
The instructions say pre dilute the coolant. Why can't you pour the antifreeze in and then top it up with water, surely they will mix once you start the engine up to get any air locks out?

[Del Boy]

50/50 mix VX anti-freeze as allenm said  

[EddieX]

Vauxhall have changed from a blue to a pink coolant and the two don't mix so if you have the blue you need to flush the system out well before putting in the pink, if that's what you are supplied.

Now a question:
The instructions say pre dilute the coolant. Why can't you pour the antifreeze in and then top it up with water, surely they will mix once you start the engine up to get any air locks out?

Done mine last week, made up a 50/50 mix, only got half of it to go in as the 'bottom hose' is half way up the engine and therefore the block don't drain fully. Didn't think before re-filling did I! .
Is there a block drain plug I should have used? If not, the way to go would be to pour in the right amount of neat anti-freeze and top up with fresh water.

Eddie.

[TheBoy]

There is no block drain (thats a lie, its called the water pump  ).

I tend to premix mine, rather than half fill water then antifreeze etc - ensures it is truely mixed.

Vx state clearly that their Red can be mixed with blue without issue, though still only get 2 yrs from it whilst blue still present.

[rpont]

There is no block drain (thats a lie, its called the water pump  ).

I tend to premix mine, rather than half fill water then antifreeze etc - ensures it is truely mixed.

Vx state clearly that their Red can be mixed with blue without issue, though still only get 2 yrs from it whilst blue still present.

My bottle says if you have blue in that they recommend you drain and flush for maximum protection (or words to that effect). That's where I got the idea that you have to drain and flush. It's useful to know that not doing so only affects the life of the coolant though and won't block the radiator or anything drastic.

Mine has been well drained, new waterpump, but I didn't want to fill her up with antifreeze before making sure it'a watertight. It's got new head gaskets and I redid the seal on the oil cooler cover. I'm going to fill it with plain water at first and then add 5l of neat antifreeze, after draining as much out as I can, once I'm happy I've done the job properly.

[TheBoy]

dont run for too long without antifreeze, as it starts to corrode quickly....