florian:

any ethylene glycol based coolant sold at shucks or walmart is "safe" for
the wbx. that said, the oem vw blue, as well as conventional types, may
provide better protection from water pump cavitation erosion than the new
extended life coolants. aside from their extended life, one advantage of
the extended life types is that they do not coat metal surfaces, thereby
facilitating heat transfer.

back in 1998 i took over maintainance on a 1984 1.9 l with about 150 k mi;
it had been using conventional coolant for many years. hearing horror
stories of the then new dexcool gelling in older, perhaps dirty cooling
systems, and problems with water pump cavitation erosion in pumps designed
for conventional coolant, i decided to stay with conventional coolant, and
encountered no difficulties, with now about 200 k mi on the engine. at the
time i took the system to be chemically passivated for conventional
coolant chemistry, right down to the tiniest microscopic level.

to avoid corrosion, the main thing is to keep the ph above about 8 (ph is
7 for pure water, 12 for new 100% ethylene glycol). low ph means an acidic
solution, which is bad.

today i use a 50/50 mix of conventional, green, napa brand ethylene
coolant and distilled water for our 1.9 l.

dan

On Mon, 2 Jan 2006 01:20:35 +0000, Florian Speier
<groups.florian@GMAIL.COM> wrote:

>hi list,
>
>shopping for adequate wbx coolant starts confusing me. shops only seem to
>have the all engines all makes prestone or similar coolant, and when i ask
>if that is phosphate free, i get one of two answers:
>answer a) if it does not say it is phosphate free it contains phosphate.
>answer b) if it says all engines it is fine for aluminum engines and these
>require phosphate free coolant, it follows that the coolant is phosphate
>free.
>
>so, which is correct? or, if we dont know the answer, can someone just
tell
>me a brand that is safe to use and available at schuck�s, walmart or the
>like?
>
>thanks a lot
>florian