Quote:
Originally Posted by mplafleur
Were they not making these cars long before G-05 came on the market?
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The cars they were making up to the 1970's had bras radiators and no aluminum parts in the cooling system. They can take the green stuff. The ones that came after that like the ones most of us drive have aluminum radiators and aluminum water pumps. They need the G-05.
Green Stuff vs. Orange Stuff (Antifreeze)
Reprinted from the 500 Section Star, Steven Rae, Editor
Do yourself a favor right now. Go out and look at the color of the antifreeze in your Mercedes-Benz (Make sure the engine has cooled before opening the coolant cap). Is it by chance GREEN?If you have anything other than the pale orange Mercedes-Benz brand antifreeze in your cooling system, please read on because you may be harming your engine! As a bit of background, antifreeze is in many ways a miracle formulation, because it not only lowers the freezing point of water, it also raises the boiling point, assuming the correct 50/50 mix of antifreeze and water.
George Murphy, Chairman of the MBCA National Technical Committee (2000), strongly urges that only genuine Mercedes antifreeze (properly mixed with water) should be used in your car because it contains special additives to keep the coolant from eroding alloy engine components and harming plastic cooling system parts.Mercedes-Benz brand antifreeze contains buffers to keep the pH of the coolant as close to neutral as possible, which then prevents erosion and corrosion of engine parts. pH is a measure of the relative concentrations of acids versus bases in a liquid. Other name brand formulations, while claiming to be specifically formulated for aluminum engines, do not contain the correct pH buffers.
While genuine Mercedes-Benz brand coolant is a little more expensive at $10 a gallon vs. $6 for the "Green Stuff", think of it as extremely cheap insurance to extend the life of your M-B investment. Also note that Mercedes-Benz recommends changing the coolant at least once every two years. Promise yourself you will check your coolant and have it drained and refilled with the Orange stuff. Those of you with the correct fluid, pat yourselves on the back and worry about collecting your 155,000-mile pin.