Should I swap out the OEM coolant?
 

I am at 1900 miles, and plan to do my oil change at 2500 by myself. I took a look at the coolant tank recently, and it appears (it's hard for me to tell) that I'm bordering on the low line. I was looking to buy the FL22 coolant, only to find out that FL22 is a Mazda brand product and cannot be found anywhere. Should I just swap out my coolant when I do the oil change so I can top it off to full?

What have you guys done in this situation? My car is a 2006 model, and I've no idea if the dealership had changed the coolant each year (I bought the car this March) as most people advise on this forum.

There is no rational reason to change coolant every year. People used to do that before glycol antifreeze. While glycol (and newer environmentally friendly substitutes) is not permanent as originally billed, it lasts more than just a few years.

You should be able to get FL22 at a Mazda dealer. They may be more familiar with calling it the green coolant, rather than FL22. It's essentially regular glycol coolant diluted to 55% coolant, 45% water. It cost me about $13 for a gallon. If you really can't get any, then buy some name brand green glycol and dilute it yourself. And swap at the intervals the maintenance schedule gives for non-FL22.

Ken

Thank you very much for that answer. I used search on both this forum and google, and pretty much everyone else had said FL22 was unobtainable, should not be mixed with anything else, has to be drained to add anything else, etc.

I will make a trip to my local dealer for this and some other parts then.

yeah if u cant' find/get it just a regualr green coolant mixed about 50/50 will b fine to top it off with

Details are hard to come by. Last year I spent a ridiculous amount of time on google figuring out that it's a Mazda product. The info on what's in it is on this site, posted by members I trust, but I think it would be hard to ferret out with a search.

There's a TSB that warns against mixing in orange coolant. It does no harm, but turns everything black which apparently freaks people out.

Ken

Well, googling gave me the info that it's a Mazda only name, that it's nothing special. Unfortunately, googling brought up like 20-30 different forum threads saying don't mix with the OEM coolant. I guess it's for the reason you said, where they mixed in orange coolant.

I'm glad I asked this question, it pretty much saved me a lot of time and money lol...

You can get FL22 at any Mazda dealer, some dealership's part guy is an idiot so. You can just give him this part number, he will get it. 0000-77-508E-20

the part number above "should be" for a case of coolant (6, 1 gallon bottle), but I dont know, never ordered it before. Its probably just 1. Its around 12-13 bucks.

But I mean there is no magic about FL-22 other than its a 55/45 mix,

Might as well just get some 50/50, flush and refill. be done with it

Or if you wanna save a few bux, You can just grab a gallon of regular 50/50 and mix it.

It wont effect its performance.

For the record, I do my coolant change every year. even when the bottle saids it will protect "up to 150K miles"

I just had a top flight independent Mazda shop swap out the coolant. They put in the green stuff and distilled water.

If your coolant level is low and the car is new, take it to the dealership and tell them. They will probably top you off for free.


You would be surprised how little time and effort dealers put into used cars outside of making them look attractive. I bought a used Acura TL several years ago and figured everything was updated. Turns out I had to replace the tires after about 5000 miles. Fortunately, everything else was OK.