Dealership says that I need to do coolant flush every 4 years. Reading on NAM it seems coolant is for life. Any opinions?

 

There's virtually no such thing as a "lifetime" fluid even though manufacturers use it as a selling technique.
Coolant does change overtime and the pH level can change creating a corrosive fluid cycling through your engine.
It is recommended to change it out, but the interval is gray; some say as early as 3-4 years, other say 100K miles.

- Erik

 

IMHO every 2-3 years regardless of mileage. Cheap insurance for your cooling system. Call me crazy, but I've just stuck to Prestone extended life coolant in my MINI.

 

-fullymooned, I have an 07 cooper as well. I just hit 35,000 miles. I was thinking I need to do a coolant flush too since it has been 5 years.

how much did the dealer charge you for a coolant flush?

on a side note, have any of you changed your power steering fluid?

or any other 'lifetime fluids'? I'm all for preventative maintenance!

thanks for your replies

 

Does anyone know if they change the coolant when the dealer does the recall for the aux coolant pump?

 

my dealer just added in the lost coolant from the recall - no coolant flush.

 

I have an early "03 MCS w/about 48k miles. Sorry to say that I just got around to changing my coolent a couple of weeks ago. This December it will be 10 years old. When I opened the system, the coolent was yellow/orange color. New MINI coolent is blue. I guess my PH balance had changed alittle.

 

$160 bucks. I have not changed any of my lifetime fluids.

 

No R56 owner has changed their power steering fluid as there IS NONE; it's an electro-mechanical rack and pinion.

- Erik

 

at my dealer, they do a coolant flush with brake/clutch fluid change, ie every 2 years

scott