I also use RedLine water wetter in my Cooper and in my 1 of 57 built Pontiac STE 265HP 4 cam 5 speed M/T factory sedan w/ aluminum heads. Its awesome stuff and does help with corrosion as well.

 

If water wetter makes your engine run cooler, then your thermostat will compensate.
If you also run a synthetic oil that makes your engine run cooler, your thermostat will compensate.
You may not notice any difference on your temperature gauge, but you actually have better protection.
Protection you may never need.

This really has been a great thread..
So, if you are not the first owner of your Mini, the first thing you need to do is find out what is in the radiator.
Once you know what you have, then you need to decide if you need to totally flush it out.
If you are lucky, and it is the BMW brand, just allow the little bit that remains in the block mix with the new BMW coolant.
If the right stuff costs you an extra $9.00 every time you flush and fill, you will have spent your money wisely.
The best investments you can make are usually simple.
An example of making a wise decision: A fresh new battery is a far better investment than entering winter with an old dying battery.
Your battery may stay charged, but it will wear out a lot of much more expensive parts.

Always have fun.
Protect your investment.

Flush your engine!
Fill it proper.
If not, you will flush away your money instead.
Remember to fill it proper.
If in doubt, do a search.
Obviously, you can fill it wrong, if you do not fill it right.

 

BMW coolant here.

 

This is such a great thread!

I am a first time Mini Owner and love the fact that everyone is helpful with issues. I was curious as to what I should put in my 06 R53 and this has been quite beneficial. I have worked for GM for over 7 years and always used Dexcool in any of the newer age vehicles. I have currently never seen an issue cause by the coolant itself within GM vehicles but still would use the manufacturer recommended coolants in any of my other vehicles as stated by others because some have specific needs in the coolants for those designed systems.

Thanks for the thread, and clarification!

 

Does anyone know what type of Prestone AntiFreeze/Coolant will work? I don't have access to Zerex G-05 in my little town.

 

Duplicate Post

 

[

 

Great thread, I have a new to me 06 MCSa and the first things we are doing is all the fluids and I am sticking with the BMW/Mini fluids. We were trying to get a base line on all that was in it and the only way to really know is to do it. I am glad to see there are alternatives but going with the tried and true just seems for me the way to go for me regardless of the cost for the down the line result.

Great info here thanks

Tracy

 

Do you have a separate water temp needle or do you mean the engine temp needle stock on the speedo? My stock needle (I thought it was engine temp)
has NEVER moved...once the car heats up it stays right on the middle mark, even though I know at times my car has been running a little hot. i don't trust that gauge at all....

 

Don't know if everyone's questions on which coolant to use have been answered but I'd go with the BMW blue coolant. If Zerex G-05 is available, it's the same thing or as close as you are going to get.

 

On the Z3 (which is the car I was talking about), it is a coolant temperature gauge.

Over the years I have had coolant temperature gauges, oil temperature gauges, transmission temperature gauges and exhaust temperature gauges, but I've never heard of an Engine temperature gauge.

 

Without the modifications you did..

If you turned ON the AC, the coolant is constantly being cooled because the radiator fan is ALWAYS on (to cool down the refrigerant). It's actually better this way instead of letting the fan go on and off every few minutes.

If turning ON the AC doesn't decrease coolant temp, the thermostat is stuck close. In this situation, turn the heater and fan to maximum. Roll down the window to let hot air out.

 

Hello, I have a Mini justa 2010 and noticed the coolant bottle was almost empty. I searched this forum and got a gal of Zerex G-05. I opened the bottle and the color was more like green, but Zerex G-05 looks like red. Is it ok to mix this?

Thanks in advance.

jh

 

BMW/Mini antifreeze should be bluish green and Zerex G-05 should be yellow. They are compatible provided you're sure that the current stuff in your Mini is indeed BMW/Mini coolant.

Some people prefer to flush the cooling system to clear out the old stuff first, then add a 50/50 mixture of Zerex G-05 and distilled water. That way you know exactly what color it is instead of a changing tone between the old and new when you top-off. If you don't want to do it now, just add distilled water as long as it's a quart or less. Flushing the cooling system every 3 years is good practice.

 

Picking up a bottle of Pentosin tomorrow along with a bottle of Royal Purple Purple Ice from O'Reilly. And some jugs of good ol' distilled.

 

My wife has an 09 JCW and just had to replace the thermostat housing. So much for plastic parts with approved mini coolant. I have an 04 Z06 corvette all aluminum engine, heads, block, etc... It came with dex-cool and I haven't had any problems with it. That car has 20k more miles than my wife's mini and I didn't have to replace the thermostat housing on that car. It would be nice if one of those German engineers could design a metal thermostat housing so we wouldn't have to replace them every 40k miles or so.

 

If you asked any German engineer, he would say that the thermostat & housing function as they were designed - break down every 40k. Now you know why the German economy is so healthy. German stuff break down but consumers still buy them... that takes brilliance.

 

i picked up some redline water wetter, and im trying to figure out how much to add. i just had my coolant on my r53 drained, flushed, and refilled with bmw oem coolant. i dont know how many quarts the mini holds. anybody have any idea of what the full capacity is, or how much water wetter to add?

 

Both recommended:

OEM MINI coolant or Zerex G-05 is good. Mix with distilled water.

If you do a coolant flush I like either one of those.


http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/82140031133/


MINI OEM cooling chart.




OR



http://www.ecstuning.com/Search/ZXG051/ES2142836/



Thanks

 

I stopped in at O'Reilly Auto Parts last night, and the tech (Anthony) stopped me short from picking up the Peak stuff and punched my MINI into the system. It came up specifically for Pentosin NF, made in Deutschland. I went to their site, and sure enough, they claim to be an OEM manufacturer of chemicals/fluids for European makes, particularly BMW, Mercedes, and...MINI. It's pricey, though...as it takes exactly two bottles to do a coolant fill.


I just noticed in the previous post by ECS Tuning that the volume specifications printed on the MINI-branded coolant are wrong. No way the car takes 5+5 quarts. The Bentley manual specifies 6L total, and that's approximately how much was drained into a 7 qt pan.



Pentosin antifreeze/coolant line:
http://www.pentosin.net/f_antifreeze.asp

O'Reilly Auto Parts (in-stock):
http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/de...0496&ppt=C0059

 

Two years ago I flushed my system with distiller water and refilled it with Preston 50/50 pre-mix. It's held up well in hot Florida. Original water pump, radiator, and heater core @ 168K on 2002 MCS. My next change I'll go back to MINI antifreeze only out of guilt.

 

Let me get this right..2 bottles of pentafrost, which is 3liters and 3liters of distilled water?

 

Yes, you'll use a bit over one bottle. I used roughly about 2.0 L + 2.0 L...aside from the Bentley manual strangely stating three different capacities (5.3 & 6L on page 020-23, and 5.2L on page 170-8), but I ended up with about 4 added. The residual fluid stuck in the car is probably 1L, so the Bentley spec of 5.2 L seems the most accurate. I used the bleed screw during the initial fill, then burped at idle, then a short drive & burp, and two long-distance drives, twice cooled & burped...and topped off.

Use those capacity figures as a rough guide, the level in the tank is more important. The Pentosin bottles make convenient measuring devices for the water...oh, and Pentosin is a lifetime coolant.

 

I know others have reported using Water Wetter along with traditional anti-freeze....but I don't think that's how it's typically used. I've never used it personally but this is a fairly common topic in the bike world....particularly with guys that run on the track. the advantage of WW is that it allows you to run basically straight water in your system without losing the lubrication and anti-corrosion properties of anti_freeze....water is a better coolant than glycol...but you run glycol because you need freeze protection in some cases, boilover protection, lubrication etc. WW gives you some of the advantages of glycol but with the cooling ability of water.....actually it's supposed to be a little better at cooling because I think it's a surfactant so you get better contact between the water and the interior surface if the cooling system. The biggest reason for using it is that glycol based coolants aren't allowed on tracks. Do your own research obviously, but I doubt there is any advantage to running WW in a system that already has glycol in it. If you do run WW and water alone....be aware that you don't have freeze protection. I use a product called Engine Ice in my bikes....track friendly but also gives freeze protection.

 

thanks man. i apprrciate the info. i actually did end up reading a bit about it a while back and you are correct. w+ww= best cooling with no freeze/boil protection. i just took coolant out with a turkey baster, (same amount of liquid ounces in the ww container), then put the ww in. in my experience, nothing drastic, however i do have a scangauge2 equipped and have noticed right around 10*-15* F drops in the coolant temps. so, mixed with regular bmw coolant, it helps, but i wouldnt go crazy with it. it gets cold here in CT and the car is covered most of the winter.

sidenote: i wasnt aware of the word "surfactant" but it makes sense now. i also read that they use "technology" from the little water bugs that appear to glide over the water.