so my VW broke a coolant hose and lost a lot of coolant Now

>>16365460
Call autozone and ask them. They tend to know this stuff. But yeah you should be careful with it. I think there's one color that is compatible with any kind of coolant or recommendation.
Fuck VW for having unservicable cars btw

>>16365460
Just put the green stuff in there. Way cheaper than G12 and it's incompatible with whats already in your cooling system unless you feel like doing a complete flush.

Previous owner clearly had no idea what he was doing. Flush the system and top up with G12 rated coolant. Quit being a nigger.

>>16365460
Mixing coolants is bad. Use whatever was in it.

>>16365460

G12 when mixed with regular green stuff will turn into something like peanut butter.

Flush the system and run G12.

>>16365460
>drain coolant
>flush system with water
>pour in $$$ G12 coolant
It's not that hard

Everyone runs G12 nowadays. You can just get any of the red stuff that says it's suitable for aluminium engines. But flush it first. The green G11 stuff's made for cast metal engines. The red G12's made for aluminum engines.

>>16365460
Get rid of that green coolant and use the right coolant. It's not that expensive at 20 bucks a gallon. G13 replaces G12, they are both compatible with your car and I believe the main difference is that G13 is supposed to be less harmful somehow. My jetta uses it too

>>16365460
Just flush it and use the $12/gal green Prestone.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with using it, it's compatible with cast iron, aluminum, brass, and any mix of the three.
And it doesn't turn into cheddar like OAT coolants.

Pretty much anything will work as long as it's been flushed/not mixed with something else.

I ran Dexcool in my VR6 for like two years after a friend's shop fixed a coolant line and thought that the pink G12 was the same stuff. Never gave me any issues.

Do avoid G11, though, that shit will melt aluminum.

>>16365460
use only g12, although youre probably somewhat fucked based on the last owner using green antifreeze. The green antifreeze uses silica to transfer heat, unfortunately for some cars what that means is that the silica creates deposits all around the car-especially the thermostat and waterpump. to prevent catastrophic cooling failure, use g12.

>>16369586
>Silicate: The primary conventional inhibitor for aluminum. In heavy duty coolants, lower (less than 250 ppm) silicate concentrations are generally preferred.

Silica doesn't transfer heat, water does and to a lesser extent, glycol.

Silica is a corrosion inhibitor.