Which engine coolant - mk3 54 onwards

[Anonymous]

Hi there

I have tried to search through the forums for an answer to this question but couldnt find it. Also i dont have my car manuals with me to read through

I have been told by MrT that i have a small leek on my engine coolant pump. I have bought a replacement, but in the short term (month or so) was wanting to simply top up the pump to replace any lost coolant.

I went into my local halfords and there seemed to be 2 varieties (2 yr and 5yr). The bottle states that its suitable for most cars after 1998 or something. Does anyone know if this will be ok?

[Anonymous]

Just go into your local Toyota dealer and buy their Red coolant. They'll be open tomorrow and it's as good as anything else and fairly priced, too.

[Anonymous]

unfortunately my local toyota dealer who will repair my car is over 5 hour away. it will be cheaper to drive back home than get it repaired around here

[Anonymous]

 s:shock: :shock: s:shock:  Where on earth are you in the country??!!

[Anonymous]

portsmouth now. they quoted me 500 to replace the pump. Yet, teesside quoted 250

[mrzwei]

The longlevity of the coolant is not really the issue, it's the concentration that is important so just buy any brand really and choose the desired strength. When the pump is replaced you will loose the fluid anyway so a 5 year life span is academic.

[Anonymous]

thank you, and can i just check that the standard engine coolant that Halfords sell will be ok for my car?

[mrzwei]

The standard Halfords anti-freeze / coolant treatment will be fine.

[Sepp]

Be careful you use the correct coolant. There is a difference in the chemistry. Can't remember but i think an OAT type for the Spyder? Don't take my word for it - search. Pretty sure it's not a glycol based one for our cars. Using the wrong coolant causes accelerated corrosion. The coolant has to be matched to the metals used in the system.

[mrzwei]

With respect, for the length of time involved before the system is drained anyway then it is the correct anti-freeze concentration that is the important issue (our bloody freezing winter at the moment   s:lol: :lol: s:lol:  ). No damage will be done to the system using Halfords standard anti-freeze unless engines are made from anything other than iron / steel / alluminium / plastics I don't know the name of / carbon fibre / and rubber. If there is a component in the 1ZZ that causes this to be wrong then please advise and I stand corrected and will have learned. (Too late for my motor though because I top up with the Halfords stuff).

[Anonymous]

portsmouth now. they quoted me 500 to replace the pump. Yet, teesside quoted 250

Right, I didn't mean literally go into the one local to your house, more the one local to where you are!

There's one at 1 Elettra Avenue, Waterlooville, Hampshire, PO7 7XW. Go there, buy coolant, put into car. If your car is in Teeside and at a Toyota dealer, get them to put their stuff in for you and charge you for it.

[Sepp]

With respect, for the length of time involved before the system is drained anyway then it is the correct anti-freeze concentration that is the important issue (our bloody freezing winter at the moment   s:lol: :lol: s:lol:  ). No damage will be done to the system using Halfords standard anti-freeze unless engines are made from anything other than iron / steel / alluminium / plastics I don't know the name of / carbon fibre / and rubber. If there is a component in the 1ZZ that causes this to be wrong then please advise and I stand corrected and will have learned. (Too late for my motor though because I top up with the Halfords stuff).

The question was which coolant to top up with?

If it were my car i'd make sure i top up with the same type of coolant. Perhaps, if you do a refill and did a thorough flush prior i suspect that the damage done in the sort term wouldn't be great even if the wrong coolant were used.

Haven't got the technical info at hand but look at wiki for a start.

 m http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifreeze m

[Anonymous]

portsmouth now. they quoted me 500 to replace the pump. Yet, teesside quoted 250

Right, I didn't mean literally go into the one local to your house, more the one local to where you are!

There's one at 1 Elettra Avenue, Waterlooville, Hampshire, PO7 7XW. Go there, buy coolant, put into car. If your car is in Teeside and at a Toyota dealer, get them to put their stuff in for you and charge you for it.

I believe the one in waterlooville that i phoned was charging £500. It would be cheaper to drive to my parents address in teesside and pay only 250.

[Anonymous]

portsmouth now. they quoted me 500 to replace the pump. Yet, teesside quoted 250

Right, I didn't mean literally go into the one local to your house, more the one local to where you are!

There's one at 1 Elettra Avenue, Waterlooville, Hampshire, PO7 7XW. Go there, buy coolant, put into car. If your car is in Teeside and at a Toyota dealer, get them to put their stuff in for you and charge you for it.

I believe the one in waterlooville that i phoned was charging £500. It would be cheaper to drive to my parents address in teesside and pay only 250.

I think there is a little confusion here, you asked about coolant - I'm sure that's what you said, the answer back was go to your local Mr T and buy the coolant - not the pump. Then you can be sure you have the right product until you fix the pump. I don't think you will be charged £500 for a bottle of coolant - do you.  s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

[Anonymous]

Right, I didn't mean literally go into the one local to your house, more the one local to where you are!

There's one at 1 Elettra Avenue, Waterlooville, Hampshire, PO7 7XW. Go there, buy coolant, put into car. If your car is in Teeside and at a Toyota dealer, get them to put their stuff in for you and charge you for it.

I believe the one in waterlooville that i phoned was charging £500. It would be cheaper to drive to my parents address in teesside and pay only 250.

I think there is a little confusion here, you asked about coolant - I'm sure that's what you said, the answer back was go to your local Mr T and buy the coolant - not the pump. Then you can be sure you have the right product until you fix the pump. I don't think you will be charged £500 for a bottle of coolant - do you.  s:wink: :wink: s:wink:

Sorry for the confusion. My mr2 needs a new pump. however in the short term, i am going to top up the level. It is for this reason i am asking about the coolant. The £500 comment that i made was for the pump to be replaced.

[uktotty]

Is anyone else confused?

[mrzwei]

Page 233 of the post facelift handbook (anyone got a pre-facelift book they don't want or to swap?) says; 'add ethylene-glycol type coolant for a proper corrosion protection of aluminium components'.

[Sepp]

Page 233 of the post facelift handbook (anyone got a pre-facelift book they don't want or to swap?) says; 'add ethylene-glycol type coolant for a proper corrosion protection of aluminium components'.

Fair enough. Just thought to give a heads up re. mixing different types of coolant. I wouldn't risk it unless i'm sure the two different types don't react with each other or anything else.

[Smeggers]

Bit of a necro, but just to chime in, try NOT to use any radweld or stuff like that if you have the chance to avoid it (either through garaging the car or being able to replace ASAP) as it clogs the radiator drain. As i have just found out to my detriment.   s:oops: :oops: s:oops:  

About to change the radiator due to a leak and after putting in radweld stuff to mitigate said leak as much as possible until the spare arrived. Undid res cap. Raised the nose of the car, set up catch can, drain tubes, rags, sponges and backup bottle under rad. Undid the rad drain plug a little ... nothing coming out (which was good), undid some more. Still nothing. Undid the rad pepcock (expected coolant to drain), nothing coming out yet (now getting confused). Check the res, which looked empty (had been running the car very carefully after topping up the coolant res daily). I assumed the rad had drained as the car may have been very low on coolant ..... schoolboy error.

I get some mole grips on the hose clips and start to wiggle the clip back and forth. A little coolant came out. Though nothing of it as there would still be coolant in the pipes. As the hose comes off, it's like Moses has just left the scene and the waters are returning ...   s:scared: :scared: s:scared:  Coolant flowing out of the hose soaks the front under tray and runs down the drive way in a mini tidal wave. Manage to catch nothing but a litre of coolant after the mad dash to get the catch can moved, whilst bending the hose up to cause a kink to try and stem the flow and utterly confused as to where the fountain of coolant came from if the rad drain was open. Secured the hose to prevent any more coolant coming out (although i think the car was pretty much empty now   s:evil: :evil: s:evil:  ) and carried on with removing the rad. Once free, i notice that there is absolutely nothing coming out of the rad drain hole, yet dribs and drabs of coolant coming out of the hose breakthroughs. Grabbing a screwdriver and having a good rummage, it seems that the radweld stuff has bunged up the drain hole completely. Grrr!

Managed to get the new rad in fine and found that draining the system was easier than expected, although i haven't gone for a run yet.

Lesson learned. Don't use radweld unless you really need to!

[delhusband]

I know this post was years ago. Paulde2009 asked about suitable coolant, couldn't get toyota fluid, and had asked about Halfords brands. Sepp suggested OAT Type. Just posting to say that OAT type is what Halfords show as appropriate for MR2 MK3. I had to top up yesterday, and was asking same question as Paulde2009. Picture of coolant I bought is below, good match for p235 of FL OM

[Joesson]

Hi there



I have been told by MrT that i have a small leek on my engine coolant pump. I have bought a replacement, but in the short term (month or so) was wanting to simply top up the pump to replace any lost coolant.

In September 2008 mileage 40033 Mr T advised ' Water pump starting to leak coolant. This with previous owner.
In June 2011 mileage 53703,Mr T advised ' Slight leak from water pump'
In May 2014 mileage 57283 Mr T advised ' Slight leak around water pump'
NB. 1. No mention was made of the highly visible oil leak from the timing chain tensioner .
In 2015, 2016, 2017 my car was serviced by myself and no sign of water leakage from pump.
Today June 2017 mileage 62913 I can see no sign of leakage from water pump.
NB 2 . At no time has the water pump been replaced.

There may be a pattern starting to emerge!

Ignoring the fluctuating level in the expansion bottle, can  you see the evidence of the coolant leak in the area of the water pump?

[Chilli Girl]

Toyota also told me that 'Chilli' had a slight leak from water pump!  From memory she'd done around similar mileage around the 50k mark.  When I sold Chilli she was on 70k miles plus and she was still not showing any water leak whatsoever!   s:evil: :evil: s:evil:

[frogger]

A general comment on "which coolant" .

They make compatible types the same colour to make it easy.

Red coolant from halfords is compatible with red coolant from Toyota, or any one else.

Don't use the other colours in the MR2.