Can i use prestone in my bmw

This can cause excessive heat, resulting in oil becoming too hot and thin and potentially damaging the whole system. Cooling System Hoses. Buildup in the cooling hoses can cause major problems such as slowing coolant flow, reducing cooling and even clogs in the system from loose corrosion. This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners.

All BMw's built since have what is called long life coolant. The technical name is OAT or organic acid technology. Prestone all makes long life coolant is OAT coolant, is compatible with BMW coolant, will not change the color of your coolant. It is a silicated coolant to help prevent leaks.

Originally Posted by motorking. Originally Posted by cb Sorry, but I'm not sure that I believe that you are "the technical manager at prestone. Your main sentence " Prestone all makes long life coolant is OAT coolant, is compatible with BMW coolant, will not change the color of your coolant. Folks - take this statement with a grain of salt. This forum never seizes to amaze me with some of the responses. Glad to have you on this board motorking. Lieutenant General.

I can't imagine a E9x losing coolant for any reason at all. Is it simply a malfunction? There is never any need to top off fluids unless there's a leak. Originally Posted by John Originally Posted by BK. In which case I'll be more than glad to amend my post - assuming that he comes back here. Replaced radiator once, because of a stress crack in the plastic where one of the fan shrouds attaches. Also use Wal-mart oil since I've owned it, changed every miles.

All I can say for sure is that it's worked for me. My dad rented out boats with outboard motors, during the premix days. All Mercurys except one Johnson. Used Wal-mart two cycle water cooled oil. Never had an oil related engine failure. None of us work for Wal-mart or have any stock in the company. The point is that corporate America is full of people that tell untruths in order to sell products in this case, fluids that are overpriced, yet carry ratings similar to less costly choices.

If Wal-mart sold products that caused failures, would that not make news? I've never heard of a case, so I buy the least expensive I can and do routine maintenance. Even the lawn mowers work well. Just beware of using a formula containing silicates in Japanese engines, this can cause water pump seal failure.

Use distilled water. If your car is older than that — beware, the organic acid can corrode away the solder. I have an The partially-redesigned 2. I'm taking my recent cooling system maintenance back to have the unofficial but a correct coolant replaced because some stupid imported coolant amortizes to a whole lot cheaper than a head gasket job. Conclusion: Prestone's arrogant, misinformed advice is wrong by counter-example. Some of you are correct and some not. With a little research you will find Prestone is also an OAT formula, same as the Dextron, and many others, most made by the same parent company.

OAT is the difference you need to look out for, the colours no longer matter as the manufactures of antifreeze have started dying them all colours under the sun. The real problem is the OAT formula eats silicon, a very commonly used sealant on hoses and gaskets pre If you tear down a newer engine you will notice no silicone on anything, just rubber gaskets, unless it was a backyard fix.

Older engines use silicone everywhere, and so do most mechanics. Most answers here are wrong All the formulas will prevent corrosion. The issue is with mixing coolants you can "milk" or "clog" them. That happens because the chemicals they use may interfere with one another. They added new stuff to prolong the life they started to market one coolant flush every If you clog your lines, the least of your worries will be corrosion!

So, the only sane thing to do, as most manufacuters do not even list the contents of their coolants, is to stick with the same that's in there. And do not do that by color. Color means nothing. There are several ones that do not play along and are the same color. For example, i just bought a gallon of the autozone or prestone "goes with everything" though they still write in small letters on the back "does not go with everything, check your manual" which is orange, just to find out my car had some chrysler golden thing in there.

I don't remember the names and details as it was 6mo ago, but after a small research on bob is the oil guy forums, i found out i would clog my system if i mixed them. The bottom line is, if you mix you risk it.

VERY small. If you love the car, write down the coolant you are using brand and chemical contents and use only that type. Also, refuse to buy anything that does not have a list of 'ingredients'. Now, for the performance, they are exactly the same thing. In fact, if you don't live in cold climate, you can use only distiled water and be done with it!

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Learn more. Ask Question. Asked 10 years, 5 months ago. Active 3 years, 5 months ago. Viewed k times. Who should I believe? Will it really result in corrosion if used more than temporarily? Improve this question. For the most part what the manufacturer is saying You can use anything temporarily; any problems that could happen would be long term ones.

But if you use the wrong kind, be prepared to pay to have it all flushed out. Prestone makes more than one type of coolant. Their "universal" or "compatible with all colors" might be compatible with your current coolant, but it might not be compatible with your engine. Some engine components will corrode or otherwise be damaged with the wrong type of coolant. I need to get it there without causing more damage Stop.

Tow truck. Yes, it might be cheaper to just fill the car with coolant. You might also pour in a bunch of expensive coolant only to have it leak out before you get to the shop. It sounds like you deliberately drove your car knowing it was completely out of coolant, and you may well have been driving it with no coolant while trying to figure out what the smell was, so your price-based concerns about what type of coolant to use might be Response by poster: Thanks for all the answers- I ended up just going with the path of least worry and driving the other car to the BMW dealership and picking coolant up from them.

I marked Brockles as the right answer because if I hadn't just decided this problem was getting dealt with on my day off and I don't want anything to go wrong his advice was right on.