I'm settled now. My local MBZ guy agrees with your guy, as long as it is phosphorous free we are ok. I am going to use the pink MBZ for two reasons.
1. My local parts guy only sells genuine MBZ products for MBZ cars.
2. MBZ coolant is less expensive through him VS green at Pep Boys.

Paul Lange posts: "Take 3 saucers and 3 steel washers. Pour red stuff in one saucer, green stuff in another, and a mixture in the third. Put one washer in each saucer. Come back in 3 months."

And all of the coolant will have evaporated, Paul... Are y'all sure that this old feller was talkin' about coolant, and not Tex-Mex salsa?.

CJ: Eithah MB coolant is real damn cheap in Ball-tee-moah, or else the pepboys are takin' ya ta tha cleanahs, hon. What would Cal say?

BTW....Do ya listen ta Don & Mike on WJFK? I do...right here in California.

Iham jest longin' fer a soft shell, or sahm creb cakhes...

__________________

Scott Longston
Northern California Wine Country...
"Turbos whistle, grapes wine..."

Just wanted to clear up one thing, aluminum is not aluminum. It's aluminum alloy and every manufacturer uses different aluminum alloys. It's the whole competition of who has the best alloy to make the most efficient and durable engine.
I am pretty sure that there are many that are similar, but none that are identical.

I use whatever Mercedes recommends. It might be a little more expensive, but I know that I am getting the best. Plus, I've seen it too many times people buying aftermarket parts just to turn around and buy Mercedes original because of poor performance.

Vin

Longton.
If I buy MBZ products from my friend's place, I pay wholesale, but I have to wait a day for most items.
If I go to Pep Boys, they have it in stock, but I pay retail for non-MBZ stuff. I do listen to Don + Mike and of course the G Man.

Hey hon, if yous come to Bawlmore, we will have to go get some steam 'crabs.
Adiosous hon!!!

CJ,

Sounds great. Mike O'Maera's put-on Bawlmore accent kills me! BTW, did you catch the G-Man on Don & Mike's show the other day doing his german accents? I nearly pee'd m'self, hon! Especially when he pronounced "Maertsaeties-Bentz", Fah-Vey, and Bay-Am-Vey.

One of my favorite G-Man stories is the one he tells about the former owner of Interarms driving around D.C. in his MB with the license plate that said "OW-1". It seems that the plate was a copy of Uncle Adolf's plate on his staff car, and the OW-1 was for Oberkommander, Wermacht, Eins.

And for those of you who don't listen to Don & Mike, I just want to say that yer all members of the beach towell club, and should go get a tossed salad, a blumpkin, and some gentlemen's relish....preferably from Dennis Murphy! :p :p

__________________

Scott Longston
Northern California Wine Country...
"Turbos whistle, grapes wine..."

Lognston,
Thanks for your advice and not to be off topic, but THE RAVENS ARE GOING ALL THE WAY!!!!!!

TAMPA BAY HERE WE COME

GO RAVENS

__________________
Mike

Yeah, Ravens! But, wadda ya want with the 'skins down fore...

Norv Turner, Good Riddance!!!

__________________

Scott Longston
Northern California Wine Country...
"Turbos whistle, grapes wine..."

The Germans recommend phosphorous-free due to corrosion and the Japanese recommend silicone-free due to waterpump failure. Mercedes recommends only their factory coolant. I have '87 560 SEL and have brought to the dealer for 8 years. The dealer only used MB orange coolant. In that time, I've had to replace 2 raditors. One was only 2 years old. How it affects the engine. Don't really know. However, I believe as long as it is phosphorous free and silicone free. It won't matter much, but change the coolant every year. You will reduce your risks for any cooling problems. Buy the MB coolant if you firmly believe in it, but the distilled H20 issue may hurt more than help. I read two articles about this and actually you add risk for corrosion. I have also used distilled h20 on one of my cars, but I saw that it was causing rust on the top of the inside grills of the radiator. Consider twice about the distilled h20, but the coolant issue is a long debated one. Normal drinking h20, such as bottled drinking h20 is better suggested, if your really that anal, but I use regular tap h20 now. You're causing more trouble for yourself, if you use distilled h20. If you don't believe me, then ask your local MB Service/Dealer and see if they use distilled h20. I am sure they don't

I think someone above said the MB coolant is Glysatin(sp?), I think one of the orange long life coolants are Glysatin, It may be Zerex but dont hold me to that. Just thought you would like to know.

__________________
Adam,
2003 Volkswagen Golf GL 24,000 miles. 1.9L I-4 TDI 5spd.

1986 300E. 115,000+ miles. 3.0L I-6 1st daily ride, around town only. (Gone)

I may decide to use the bottled water today as opposed to distilled. Good point.

Saw it at the parts house the other day, gallon jugs of radiator water. I can't remember from which manufacturer, but I'm thinking it was Prestone, labeled mineral free etc. What's the opinion on this stuff?

__________________
Mike Tangas
'73 280SEL 4.5 (9/72)- RIP
Only 8,173 units built from 5/71 thru 11/72

'02 CLK320 Cabriolet - wifey's mid-life crisis

2012 VW Jetta Sportwagon TDI...at least its a diesel

Non illegitemae carborundum.

First of all, no offence, but I have never heard anything so ridiculous as what s60 claims in his last post. That is, until I read Mike's post about "radiator water".

Distilled water is simply pure water with nothing else in it. The evaporation, condensation cycle that results in rainfall is a natural distillation process. Mechanical distillation is the exact same process. For information on distilled water you can go to : http://www.aquatechnology.net/index.html. Chemically, there is no reason that pure water (distilled) could, or would be harmful to a cooling system in a vehicle.

According to my local MB dealer, distilled water would be the IDEAL type of water for use in your radiator. Distilled water is also used to top off your battery...

I am open minded, and willing to learn new things, so perhaps, s60 could let us know where these articles he read came from, or if they are available online?

The most important thing about coolant is that it is changed at least every three years, or 30,000 miles.

BTW, I called around to six auto parts houses to see if they had "radiator water". Everybody got a laugh out of the question, except for the third one, who hung up on me. Also, I checked Prestone's website: http://www.prestone.com, and they don't show any such product.

[Edited by longston on 01-15-2001 at 02:54 PM]

__________________

Scott Longston
Northern California Wine Country...
"Turbos whistle, grapes wine..."

Actually, s60 is technically correct in a scientific sense. All distilled water is not equal. (just as all tap water is not equal - some is very 'hard' and acidic, others are soft and basic). In scientific labs (don't know about industrial or automotive applications), distilled water is usually specified in procedure write ups as single distilled, triple distilled, or distilled to a specified ohm rating. Pure water is a caustic agent, and the hotter it gets, the more caustic it gets. Distilled water also sets up an osmotic gradient with the surrounding environment, and can leach minerals and materials out of it's surroundings in an effort to form osmotic balance. The page http://www.yorkshirecoppertube.com/advant.htm discusses the properties of distilled water as follows:

"Behaviour of Copper Tubes in contact with different fluids: Deionised water is equivalent to distilled water, both anions and cations having been removed by ion exchange resins. It is to some extent aggressive to all but the exotic metals e.g. gold, platinum etc., and if required as pure water it should be conveyed in glass or other suitable materials. If it is used as a heat transfer fluid, e.g. in air conditioning equipment, an appropriate inhibitor, such as benzotriazole should be added and the inhibitor level checked periodically to avoid corrosion."

The issue is complex enough that there are chemists who specialize just in the field of water chemistry. Too many minerals and the "wrong" pH (acid/base ratio) are obviously not great on systems. I have seen lab apparatus that was destroyed by scale. I have also seen lab equipment corroded out from using triple distilled water in the wrong application. Distilled water can also leach salts out of biological systems. The following page is just one example of the problems encountered. http://dencity.com/bombina/Distilled.html

I would suspect that the "radiator water" Mike Tangas found, if it is a quality product and not a scam, is something that a water chemist has specified as having the correct pH range and appropriately low mineral content for a wide range of iron, copper, and aluminum alloys.

Hope this helps,

[Edited by JCE on 01-15-2001 at 03:37 PM]

__________________
John

2003 Firemist Red/grey leather SL 500
2015 Palladium Silver/black mbtex GLK 350
1987 Smoke Silver/burgundy mbtex 300E Sportline (SOLD)

Click to see 87 300E

To the gentleman who claimed he didn't need to use MB coolant because many of the MB mechanix he knows don't say you have to use it, I give this tale of caution. A couple of years ago, a certain DC area new MB dealer (rhymes with ASC), was found to be adding Slick 50 to EVERY car that received an oil change in their service department. This was discovered by one of us AR types poking around at a DIY Tech Session. Not to dwell on the issue, point blame, or make any un-necessary conclusions, but very soon after, they were recomended (by MBUSA,I believe)to stop adding any non-approved additives to any of their in-warranty cars.

I'm not going to even begin a debate on the merits or sins of Slick 50, but my point is that even "factory" techs err and make unauthorized recommendations. I prefer to follow the official authorized lists from MBUSA and decide for myself what I can and can't substitute. For example, there isn't much difference anyone can tell you between MB Brake fluid and Castrol LMA, but one is $13/liter and the other is $2.59 a pint on your local parts store shelf.

You can decide for yourself, just be aware that MB Techs have their spread on the curve, just like everything else.