Really confused on coolant type for this car…

[AJ97]

I’ve been trying to figure this out for a while now, I’ve been Google’ing and every time I look further I get more confused. What coolant can I / SHOULD I, be using in my 2010 2.0T A5?

I’ve been seeing G12, G12+, G12++, G13, and G12evo all as options for this particular model. I’ve also seen you can’t mix particular ones… I just got the car a few months ago and have no idea what coolant type is already in the system, is there a way to find out? Would doing a system flush get out enough of the old stuff so if there was an incompatible type in there it wouldn’t mess with the new stuff after the flush?

Back when I had my B5 and B6 A4’s I only ever used Pentofrost SF and just mixed it 50/50 with distilled water….

[Mrads]

Maybe this will help

Sent from my Pixel 8 Pro using Tapatalk

[Smac770]

An MY10 would have come original filled with G13. There was no need to think or need anything but G13 and be done with it. Then they replaced G13 recently with G12evo, to handle the new era metallurgy concerns. So G13 is out, G12evo is in. So now there's no need to think or need anything but G12evo and be done with it.


But G12++ is perfectly fine too. G13 was simply a glycerol, aka glycerin, version of the G12++ ethylene glycol. From the wiki page:

Glycerol was historically used as an anti-freeze for automotive applications before being replaced by ethylene glycol, which has a lower freezing point. While the minimum freezing point of a glycerol-water mixture is higher than an ethylene glycol-water mixture, glycerol is not toxic

I'm sure that it's apparently cheaper played no role in VAG's switch. :-)

But glycol is back, and with phosphate now, apparently needed for the new age cooling components.
G12++ = glycol + Si HOAT
G13 = gycerol + Si HOAT
G12evo = glycol + PSi HOAT
Apparently phosphate HOAT was common in the Japanese vehicles, while silicate HOAT was common in the German vehicles, back when HOAT got rolling.


If you do go looking at third-party fluids for whatever reason, color means little to jack. Go by the TL standard:
...
TL774 F - G12+
TL774 G - G12++
TL774 J - G13
TL774 L - G12evo

You'll also see the Porsche names (G30, G40) based on Glysantin products (vs BASF terms):
https://www.glysantin.de/en/faq/what...11-or-g12-mean