2002 VW Cabrio - Coolant mixed by mistake

Asked by GxG May 17, 2011 at 06:53 PM about the 2002 Volkswagen Cabrio

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

Coolant light came on & I saw the level was less than 1/2.  Went to an auto-parts super store, tech looked up the coolant for my car, said green Antifreeze/coolant would be just fine, sold me the green stuff & he poured it into the reservoir on top of the red to the correct level.  I drove the car to work & home approx 30 miles total.  Now, after doing a little research, I've seen that these should NEVER be mixed and only 1 kind of antifreeze/coolant should be used in my car.  Have I ruined the engine in my little car?  Also, it's too late today to have the cooling system flushed.  How should I proceed?

2 Answers

Your car will be fine. If you mix regular (3 year) coolant with extended life (5 year) coolant you have to treat it as though it is all 3 year coolant regardless of the mix ratio.

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