hessteh@aol.com

The Audi stealer says one must use their G12A8D red coolant and that it is unique to Audi. Prestone has a 5yr/150k miles red coolant that meets GM Dexcool and Daimler MS-7170. It is silicate and phosphate free. Someone makes the coolant for Audi. Anyone use this Prestone red?? Comments??

PaulW

I don't know how much coolant you are looking for, but at $20/gallon at the stealer (and you shouldn't need more than that), I would go with it.

German cars can be very specific about what type of coolant they want......I personally would play it safe.

hessteh@aol.com

Sorry, I wasn't a participant then. Thanks. How often do you flush the radiator and replace coolant? 150,000 miles is probably a stretch.

ryoung

.
<A HREF="https://forums.audiworld.com/a8/msgs/15634.phtml">Coolant Type</a> along with <A HREF="http://popularmechanics.com/popmech/auto3/9903AUSMM.html">Popular Mechanics on Coolants</a>.

Like G12, Prestone 150 Extended Life is also silicate and phosphate free. They're probably interchangeable, but I don't believe we never got a definitive answer.

SWiseman

When I was dealing w/ a coolant leak, an independent Audi mechanic asked me if I had changed the coolant. He said that it needed to be changed periodically. It was not a life use product. He said that you could take a good digital multi-meter and place the + lead in the coolant and the - lead to ground. If the reading was over ~100 milli volts then it needed changing. I did not test this on my car because I had already essentially changed my coolant a little at a time. Without testing, I would consider changing every 3 years. I think it should last 2 years easily and may be good for 4 years with no proplems. If any of you have not changed your coolant and have a good multi-meter, I would be interested in what readings you may get vs. the age of your car(coolant). We might get a large enough sample to tell us something.