coolant type question
 

just wondering about coolant, i just rebuilt my coolant system, and i want to know if any of you use any other types of coolant besides oem bmw coolant. i was going to pick some up from autozone, but i know certain cars only run good without gunking up with oem coolant, any thoughts?

I guess it kinda depends on how you feel about your car. Other coolants wont destroy your engine (maybe not while you own it at least), but sometimes there's the stuff that's "supposed" to go in it.

If you find a decent deal, a gallon of BMW coolant is about $17-19. Then mix it 50/50 and you have 2 gallons. That's enough for most cars. For something you only flush once every 2-3 yrs, a few more bucks for a little more peace of mind seems worth it... just knowing it's right. If it were a beater car, I wouldn't care, but most euro cars, I try to stick w/ the proper brand coolant... if at least to keep the proper color coolant in the tank :wink:
(BMW= blue, VW/Audi= pink or purple, but a Honda... regular green stuff is fine.)

If you can't get the BMW coolant, the orange prestone works fine. It comes in a grey container.

Just stay away from anything "Dex-Cool"

If you switch the coolant type make sure you flush the system so that there is no old coolant in there. You don't want to mix different coolants.

Zerex produces BASF G48 under license for BMWNA. What many also know is you'll pay whatever price your local BMW dealer wants for their coolant, usually some bend over price like $25/gallon. Zerex also happens to produce another blend called G05, which is essentially the same as G48 except for the color, it's a gold color vs blue.

NAPA Auto Parts is a Zerex dealer and MSRP is $14.99/gallon, but they sell it for as little as $10.99/gallon.

Tischer BMW has the BMW blue stuff for $15.40 most of the time.

great info! thanks!