Coolant question
 

Hi everyone,

I went to my local Porsche dealer and talked to one of the parts guys and I was going to buy a gallon of coolant since my water pump broke and all of my coolant leaked out, however, there was an issue.

The parts guy told me that all Porsche coolant is either red, pink or blue if its an older model.

My coolant is green when my water pump broke and everything spilled out. I was told that I need to drain and flush my whole system before putting the red/pink Porsche coolant.

Do I need to flush the green coolant before putting in Porsche's coolant? I've read online that the 2000 Boxsters came with green coolant, but I would like some additional confirmation on what to do before I mix colors so I can prevent any problems. Can you guys provide some insight for me on what I should do? Thanks in advance!

If you don't know what's in it, top off with distilled water or do a complete flush and change.

Apparently the (new) pink is compatible with the (old) green ... http://986forum.com/forums/boxster-general-discussions/62823-my-coolant-green.html

However as pwave says, if you don't know for sure it's actually the original Porsche green, do a flush before filling with the pink just in case.

I had Green and only topped off with Distilled water. It is my understanding early Porsche coolant was green, then they went to Pink.
Not knowing what PO's, did I flushed twice with distilled water and replaced with Pink with new WP and thremo. Comforting to know what I have now

Back -flush, flush, back-flush. Then flush again. Combining the coolants is not the biggest issue here. When your water pump went, the plastic impeller had pieces of it (very small pieces) break off and go for a ride in your cooling system. Sooner or later something will get lodged in one of the tiny coolant passages in your cylinder heads. When that happens, you'll get an isolated hot-spot and the head will crack. The coolant temp gauge will never show it. Instead, the coolant tank will overflow in a mess of what looks like chocolate milk and you'll be headed for a very expensive repair. Trust me.

Green has silicates that will precipitate out when you mix it with a modern coolant.

I know it's a lot of work, but I'd flush it with hose water first to get the old coolant out. Then flush it with distilled water to dilute and remove the hose water. Then a couple of gallons of OAT coolant, I'm using Prestone dexx, and top off with distilled water. I don't think a little green in with the blue, red, or orange coolant will harm anything. But getting most of the old coolant out is a good idea.

Lots of coolants are OAT, non silicate formulas. Japanese (Toyota, Honda, etc.) & other european coolants are every bit as good as Porsche brand and can be significantly more affordable. Coolant from the VW empire all probably come from the same plant.