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Antifreeze?

J

JOECUBANA

Guest
Hello all,

I am getting ready to renew the coolant on my K75. I see all kinds of various brands of coolants listed in mt Clymer manual, but of course noone of those are available at my local autosupply stores far away from dealerships.

What about good ol' Prestone for aluminum engines? I see it has a corrosion inhibitor and is made for aluminum engines....can't see that it contains nitrides by the label.

Anyone used the normal stuff of should I just do a mail order and try to dispel the "cheapest thing on a BMW" myth?

Joe :dunno
 
I used pre-mixed Spectro coolant for many years on my K75, which was nice because you don't have to mix anything. But now I think I just use Peak 50/50 from the local Meijer/Target store.
 
A while back there was a problem on Honda Gold Wings, which developed with the water pump seals going away. If memory serves, this happened following a coolant change and the owners used the usual Prestone, etc. Seems the coolant used had silicates in it, basically to scour the coolant passages in iron-block engines to improve the heat-transfer. Unfortunately it also wrought havoc with the water pump seals. So, before you change coolant, know what it is that you're putting in. The premixed stuff you can get at your bike shop is OK to use. Spectro and Maxima work well. I read somewhere that the Havoline stuff is OK, too.
 
manic mechanic said:
A while back there was a problem on Honda Gold Wings, which developed with the water pump seals going away. If memory serves, this happened following a coolant change and the owners used the usual Prestone, etc. Seems the coolant used had silicates in it, basically to scour the coolant passages in iron-block engines to improve the heat-transfer. Unfortunately it also wrought havoc with the water pump seals. So, before you change coolant, know what it is that you're putting in. The premixed stuff you can get at your bike shop is OK to use. Spectro and Maxima work well. I read somewhere that the Havoline stuff is OK, too.

Which just shows the superiority of BMW over Honda.

Honda uses a rubber lip seal for the water pump, which is located at the lowest point in the cooling system, so silica additives gathered there and worked like an abrasive on the seal.

BMW uses a metal/ceramic seal - which seals by wearing to the mating part. It is not effected AT ALL by silicates in the anti-freeze. It's not something to worry about on a BMW. I have in the K75S the pink long-life antifreeze. So far (3 years) it's holding up just fine, and no sludge buildup.

YMMV.. and if you want to be really safe - go to the BMW store and buy what they put in the bikes.

Best,
 
Came close to using the long life stuff too, I have it in my car and its good for 15 years or 150,000 miles according to my car's manufacturer. I ended up using the BMW coolant ($17) its not cheap, but you have enough for to changes, I change every 3 years, so $8.50 every 3 is pretty cheap... :twirl
 
I've always used plain old Prestone. It certainly does not produce a catastrophic waterpump failure but I have had the pump rebuilt once and it is leaking a bit again.
 
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