ethylene glycol base coolant?

**kenz88** · May 29th, 2011 02:49 PM

How do you check if a engine coolant is a ethylene glycol base coolant? Cause I went to autoshops and asked for ethylene glycol base coolant, they said there is no such thing and all coolants are the same...
I got the specs for my engine coolant from my car manual, btw my car is a 2010 hyundai tucson

and the car manual recommends:
mixture of antifreeze and distilled water (ethylene glycol base coolant for aluminum radiator)

and also I've read in other threads that you usually replace your engine coolant around a few years but doesn't your coolant slowly diminish and you have to add a little? I am buying engine coolant cause when I check the gauge for engine coolant under the hood of the car, its around the low line...

so should I add more engine coolant or just let it be?

**RustyXIII** · May 29th, 2011 03:03 PM

Prestone coolant is ethylene glycol, so is Castrol. If it's green, chances are, it is. A car that's barely a year old should NOT consume coolant. Have your's checked.

**jick.cejoco** · May 30th, 2011 06:13 AM

Originally Posted by kenz88

How do you check if a engine coolant is a ethylene glycol base coolant? Cause I went to autoshops and asked for ethylene glycol base coolant, they said there is no such thing and all coolants are the same...
I got the specs for my engine coolant from my car manual, btw my car is a 2010 hyundai tucson

and the car manual recommends:
mixture of antifreeze and distilled water (ethylene glycol base coolant for aluminum radiator)

and also I've read in other threads that you usually replace your engine coolant around a few years but doesn't your coolant slowly diminish and you have to add a little? I am buying engine coolant cause when I check the gauge for engine coolant under the hood of the car, its around the low line...

so should I add more engine coolant or just let it be?

there are about six different antifreeze/coolant formulations today. the most common in use are ethylene glycol (usually two years service life) and propylene glycol (five years expected service life). the ethylene glycol comes mostly in green but some like toyota and nissan are pink when new. honda have blue ethylene glycol. the new formulations are low silicates. the propylene glycol is bright orange in color. the containers for these concoctions are, by law, marked as to its contents