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MG TD TF 1500 - Extended Life anti-freeze?

I noted a comment on the MGA Bulletin Board posted by Keith Morris, Australia. It referenced an article from Car and Driver:

"Top it up with green? Or orange? Which antifreeze?"
BY PATRICK BEDARD
June 2002

"The promise of OAT [orange] is long-life corrosion protection, on the order of six years/ 100,000 miles for the initial fill instead of the two years/50,000 miles that was typical with the old green stuff. The GM Dex-Cool formula works fine in systems designed for it. But it eats old-style radiators with lead solder, and the inhibitors work too slowly to protect against the sort of corrosion that happens so fast it actually erodes metal—for example, the cavitation likely in the imperfectly designed water pumps of older cars."

"Cars born with green coolant shouldn't be changed to orange."

And I thought I was being so careful putting Prestone Extended Life (orange) anti-freeze into my TD. Is there other information that suggests Extended Life anti-freeze should be avoided in our cars?

http://www.caranddriver.com/article.asp?section_id=27&article_id=2334

Larry
Larry Shoer

Larry - I read the same article by Bedard and decided that the extended life anti-freeze, even if it did not promise to remove al the solder from the system was not for me. I have always had a healthy sceptacism about "Extended life" products or products that are "guarenteed for the life of the car". These products are usually designed for the lazy owner of new, off the shelf cars that will be traded in long before these products (or even new OEM replacements) will ever need replacement the second time. From everything I have read about extended life anti-freezes, the less I see anything that I consider benificial to me or the car (and in some cases some things that can be detrimental). I don't figure that an every other year change of anti-freeze, coupled with a good back flush of the cooling system is too much time to spend on the car and it gives me a chance to see if there is anything nasty in the drained coolant that would require a more careful check of the system. I also drive the car year round so I stay fairly well up on all the maintenance items. The only guarenteed for life item I ever bought for the TD was a Penny's lifetime battery some 20 years ago. In that case it was well worth the extra charge. Considering the number of free replacement batteries I have received, the ecost of the battery is amortized at somewhere around $1.00 per year and going down all the time. Cheers - Dave
David DuBois

This thread was discussed on 13/10/2003

MG TD TF 1500 index

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