Obviously a automobile manufacturer can't list every brand name or company that meets their specification. Neither by Australian consumer laws, are automobile manufacturers permitted to force you, by loss of rights under warrantee, to only purchase "Brand X". Provided you have used a equivalent or better coolant, then your warrantee is still valid.

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• Your vehicle's handbook should tell you.
• The cooling system capacity covers:
• Radiator, all interconnecting Hoses, Engine Block, Cabin Heater.

Examples:

A/ Cooling system with 8 litres capacity and a vehicle manufacturers recommendation of 50% coolant would require: 4 litres of "full strength" coolant plus 4 litres of demineralised water, (8 x 50 / 100 = 4) + (8 - 4 = 4 ) or 8 litres of "pre-mixed 50/50" coolant.

B/ Cooling system with 12 litres capacity, a vehicle manufacturers recommendation of 33% coolant would require: 4 litres of "full strength" coolant plus 8 litres of demineralised water, (12 x 33 / 100 =~4) + (12 - 4 = 8) or 8 litres of "pre-mixed 50/50" coolant and 4 litres of demineralised water. ** ** Although Young's would recommend 12 litres of "pre-mixed 50/50" coolant, exceeding manufacturers specification to 50% coolant. Remember to keep below 60-70% coolant or suffer inefficiency problems see: "Things to look out for"

C/ Cooling system with 12 litres capacity, a vehicle manufacturers recommendation of 50% coolant would require: 6 litres of "full strength" coolant plus 6 litres of demineralised water, (12 x 50 / 100 = 6) + (12 - 6 = 6) or 12 litres of "pre-mixed 50/50" coolant.

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This process can take a day or a few days, depending upon how bad your cooling system is. 
For those with brown coloured cooling system liquid, that should be green, the few days "period" is recommended. 

The brown liquid is a sign all is not well with the system, and your engine probably sounds rough or is hard starting and/or consumes more fuel than normal. This is because the cooling system is no longer cooling efficiently, and the engine's metal components are being slowly eaten away by the cooling liquid. If left unattended, eventually the cylinder head, or some other vital part of the engine / cooling system will corrode and fail, leaving you with a very expensive repair.

To stop this, follow the below steps...

• Pour 250 ml of Clean-A-Core into the cooling system's radiator top tank or overflow tank.
• Run engine for a "period" to circulate the "Cleaner" which will attempt to restore coolant flow.
• If it is working you will probably notice after a while the engine runs smoother.

• Flush the system with "Clean Water" or "tap water".  (See Water Quality if your water supply is suitable).
• Flush until the colour of the water going in, matches the colour flowing out. (Note: Also turn on your cabin heater).
• Now fill the system with "Clean Water" only.
• Alternately, if flushing is not possible, just fill the system with "Clean Water" and do step 3.
• Keep an eye out for leaks, around the engine block, pump, radiator and hoses. ** (any leaks use Young's Super Seal)

• Run engine for a "period" to circulate the "Convertor" which will attempt to arrest rusting parts, water may turn milky white when hot, then eventually clear over the "period".  * Any leaks that develop while using these products are an indication that the cooling system was in a very bad state, and it should be looked at by a cooling system expert as soon as practicable...

• Refill the cooling system with coolant, either "Full-strength" and "Clean Water", or a "Pre-mixed"

If mixing your own, mix in a bucket first to disperse the coolant through the water and then apply to the system.
• Your cooling system is now functional and normal operations of your vehicle can be resumed.

Most automotive coolants are ethylene glycol based due to the material properties of an efficient heat transfer and a water antifreeze agent. 
The bulk of any coolant / antifreeze liquid should be the ethylene glycol with a small amount of corrosion inhibitor to arrest metal ionization / electrolysis. Corrosion inhibitors are not coolant, however bastardisation of the "coolant term" extends to such fliuds, be careful when selecting.
The coolant's container should state on the label the amount of ethylene glycol, usually as a weight per volume percentage or in grams / litre.

Your automobile's handbook should tell you the minimum mixture your cooling system should operate with. A"full strength" coolant is usually around 95% w/v of ethylene glycol with the remaining 5% inhibitors. A"pre-mix" is usually 50% w/v including 5% inhibitors and 50% pure demineralised water, not normal tap water. (Normal tap water contains fluoride, chlorine, and other dissolved metals and foreign biological matter, for water quality tests carried out some years ago, see Australian Water Quality Table. )

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Operational life.
Like all things, there is a usage limit, with coolants the cooling / antifreeze properties are diluted over time and by heat. Coolants are usually formulated to last years or with normal vehicle usage, estimated by distance traveled in tens of 1000's of Km. Distance is used as a rough measure to estimate a vehicle's cooling system overall operating time, once exceeded, the properties may be loosing the beneficial effects.

Checking Coolant life. Coolant Test Strips
With coolants now lasting longer, it is possible to forget when it was last changed or if it really needs changing. Coolant test strips, that use colour change to test the coolant strength are a quick and cheap investment to ensure your coolants status. The colours on the side of the vial indicate relative coolant strength and when compare to the used test strip, dipped into the radiator's top tank, reflect a reasonably accurate measure of coolant strength. However, if you have exceeded the specified life of the coolant, please change it, the test strips are only an indicator.

For more accurate checking chemical spectrometery would need to be undertaken and this process is more expensive than changing the coolant... So err on the side of caution and keep your costs in perspective.

Cautions: New coolant will always be cheaper than a new engine or radiator!
The test strip to the trained eye can also be used to indicate the claimed percentage of ethylene glycol in the coolant, although a chemical spectrometer is the best instrument to use in this type of test.

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Coolant flushed in to storm water drains (street) is undesirable as ethylene glycol has a deoxygenate affect. This is not a big problem, but to the environment at large, it has potentially hazardous consequences in large doses (100's of litres, or dozens of owners in the same area flushing their cars at home) by absorbing the oxygen out of the water ways, it could conceivably suffocate fish and other aquatic life forms. It is bio-degradable and breaks down in to common substances that has no long term effects on the environment, according to industry newsletters in the chemical arena.

Check with your local authority first, used coolant could conceivably be disposed of in the sewage system, it would be the safest, in Victoria, the waste treatment works can handle such substances, but, large volumes may need extra aeration of the effluent and hence seeking advice for your area is a must!

Coolant recycling:
Yet another one of these confusing subjects depending upon the Australian Federal / State / Local government and depending on whether you are in a Capital City or Country or Small Town...
In brief:  It is not economical, it will always be cheaper to use new coolant. Automobile manufacturers would insist that only new coolant be used in their vehicles. To reclaim and reactivate the ethylene glycol, the process is quite complex and requires more energy, than to produce new ethylene glycol.

There are companies in the U.S. that do undertake such activities, interested readers would be advised to search the web for those respective sites use "coolant recycling" as your key search phrase and see what they have to say about the process... it is interesting.

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• Coolants that have no specified glycol content or have less than 33% w/v of glycol - DONT BUY!
• Claim to be a "concentrate", when the majority of the contents is water - DONT BUY!

• Deliberate mis-labeling of glycol content.

Even car manufacturers mislead buyers in thinking their "new" car has coolant in it, when it is just an inhibitor called coolant. If you read your vehicles handbook look at the small print, they clarify what their "coolant" is, and only hint at a more appropriate liquid to use.... 

It is difficult for the public to verify the stated content, you can only assume the product's label or seller's advice as being true. 
You pay a considerable amount for this necessary liquid and can't confirm what it is you've actually bought.
Keep in mind:

Hints to avoid bad applications:

• Never fill your cooling system with 100% glycol, as the cooling system can't pump the fluid around efficiently, creating hot spots, increasing pressures within the cooling system, leading to blown water pumps, hoses, gaskets, radiator tubes. The maximum it should ever be is 60-70% and that is only under special design constraints. (e.g. a formulae one racing car.)

• Read all of the instructions BEFORE use, of all products being applied to the cooling system.  Never assume that one product can work with another, if it doesn't say so, assume it doesn't and seek expert advice. The place of purchase or the manufacturer...

Inhibitor may look the same, do a similar job as coolant but it really is different. Inhibitor is designed to arrest the corrosive action of the cooling liquid, which is usually just plain water in older vehicles (pre 1986). As your water gets hot from cooling down the engine, ionization starts to occur, which can be tiny metal fragments from the engine block, radiator core, inner hose supports, water pump and the thermometer or from particles introduced by adding "poor quality water". These particles create a conductive soup which provides a pathway for the different metals throughout the cooling system to share, deposit or rob the other metals of their material properties, either weakening them or clogging them through the ionization process. (Basically different metals either give up or take on electrons when heated and the cooling system fluid acts as the medium for this to occur, it can never be halted, but it can be severely arrested.)

That is why Inhibitor is designed to arrest or inhibit the ionization process, but it can't do this indefinitely the inhibitor sacrifices its properties to arrest the metal ionization. That is why you must change your Inhibitor every 12 months or 20,000Km, as by the end of either of these measures, the inhibitor is considered spent and no longer able to do the designed job satisfactory.

COOLANT: As stated before a real "coolant" is mainly ethylene glycol because of its properties and can last 2 to 3 years or 60,000Km before needing to be changed and costs around the same price as inhibitor which has a much shorter life. So why not consider using "coolant" in the long run it will save you money!

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1. Water used with the coolant was from a swimming pool, which contained chlorine and other corrosive agents.
• The water may look clear, but that doesn't mean its clean!
2. Customer adds a radiator cleaner, then tops up with coolant but didn't flush the cooling system. Customer thought the cleaner would work all the time and with a good coolant, keep the radiator efficient. (Result was corroded metal as the cleaner killed the coolant...)
• Read & follow the instructions of all products you put into your cooling system, 

never assume anything!
3. Customer under doses the cooling system, customer misunderstanding of weights and volumes.
• The cooling system's capacity, not just the radiators water holding volume, it includes the engine, hoses and heater. Check your vehicle's handbook!
4. Engine over heats and stalls on long runs, coolant is blamed.
• After inspection of the engine block, cast sand was found left in the block, restricting water flow and consequential over heating. The automobile manufacturer was asked and eventually did fix the problem.
5. Racing car engine blows up on test run after filling up with coolant.
• Design fault with cooling system, overheating after engine modification, track mechanic solution was to use 100% glycol based coolant. Unfortunately the viscosity of 100% glycol in a high pressure engine is slow and the coolant in the cooling system becomes compressed and expands from being heated, thus creating even more pressure, eventually the water pump, gaskets, hoses etc. all let go, at about the same time leaving a boiling hot green mess on the ground and in the engine bay!
• No more than 60-70% glycol coolant should be used, it MUST be watered down a bit to allow the pump to move the coolant around the system. A case of 100% is not better!

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