DO WE REALLY NEED A 4WD

Can u fit a LSD to the vehicle, we had one in a holden V8 wagon in the 70's and it took us on beach tracks and we managed, now it's a LC79 (V8)

Gday Gazza,

I don't think anyone would say you cant do some good trips in a 2wd......its just that you are limited in one. There's a lot of places you cant get in in a 2wd where a 4wd will make it easily.......like those camp sites a little bit further up the beach where you get less people and more fish because they cant all get there for eg..........
2wd are usually restricted to the popular campsites with heaps of people.
Also a 4wd on a slippery wet dirt rd is a lot easier to handle than a 2wd, and although not bullet proof they will get you a lot further and generally home, unlike a 2wd in the same circumstances.

Cheers

$200 of genuine Mazda coolant ...... they saw you comming.

What would you suggest then ???

It was actually $151 + gst. Just out of interest I will ring Mazda spare parts and check. I will be very surprised and disappointed in my mechanic if the mark up if any is substantially more than the dealer.

You are aware though that regardless I have to put a pink coolant that meets factory specs or hope like buggery that a very good flush is performed as the dramas of mixing different types is gunna cost a whole lot more than $ 200..

Yep, quoted $157 + gst by mazda dealer for 5 ltrs . So Mr Bantam you don't quite know everything !

Me, I'm still learning everyday, todays lesson was Mazda parts aren't cheap. For love or money no aftermarket wheel cylinders are available for a B4000 as a repo part. Tried Bursons, Repco, Mazparts in Victoria and the brake specialists who machined the drums and source brake specific parts on a day to day basis couldn't source any . So $408 later 2 wheel cylinders from Mazda dealer to be collected tomorrow.

From what I can work out the smaller diesel and 4 cyl petrol run a 9 inch drum and the V6 has a 10 inch . Only thing I can pin it down to.

Instead of your sage advice regards seeing a sucker. I would be being showing sympathy, after all I had to bend over and take it again today ! The rear ( pocket ) is gonna hurt

If only a crystal ball was available .

Greg, you aren't looking hard enough. Aftermarket B4000 wheel cylinders to fit 10" rear brakes are available on eBay Australia, ex-U.S. for AU$33 plus AU$34 shipping.
The seller would probably ship two cylinders for less than AU$50. The only downside is the wait of a week to10 days to get them.

Re the coolant - if it was supplied and installed and the system flushed at the same time, $157 is about right.
Specialised coolants run to about $10 a litre and workshop hourly rates are $100-120 hr.

I buy Toyota coolant additive wholesale and it still costs around $10 a litre.
With the Toyota coolant additive, you add about 40% additive to de-ionised water.

Buying the correct OEM coolant or additive is crucial to protect your cooling system and necessary to save you thousands in corrosion repair costs otherwise.

The Missus' old Camry (2001) model has had regular religious replacement of the coolant every 3 years, with the genuine Toyota additive - and you can eat your dinner off any part of the inside of the cooling system.
In addition, not a single cooling system part has ever been replaced - not even a hose!

Cheers, Ron.

"Buying the correct OEM coolant or additive is crucial to protect your cooling system and necessary to save you thousands in corrosion repair costs otherwise."

What a complete an utter load of crap.

Anybody who is charging $150pluss for coolant is taking a big profit pure and simple.

ALL engines and cooling systems are made out of the same group of materials ...... there are no wonder materials or any new technology in use any any normal vehicle.

You need the correct type of coolant in the correct concentration. ..... most modern vehicle require twice the previoulsy considered normal concentration.

There are pretty much two types of coolant currently in use ...... green coolant and pink coolant ........ Pink coolant has a marginal advantage over green coolant in engines with alloy radiators.

Green coolant will work in engines with alloy radiators just fine ...... but it must not be mixed with pink coolant.......... a very thorough flush is required when changing coolant types.

It IS that simple.

If someone wants to argue otherwise ..... you better be able to show an ingredients list for the overpriced coolant.

One thing you MUST know about coolant is ...... it must be replaced before the chemicals are spent otherwise it becomes corrosive ....... and that means every 2 years.

Many of the coolant manufacturers claim 5 years ........ the car companies changed to pink coolant because it has a longer life in alloy radiators, and it allows them to manipulate their costs of service and environmental impact figures.

change your coolant every 2 years regardless of type and you will have no corroson problems.

cheers

Sorry, Bantam - You're the one full of crap. I've owned 100's of items of equipment and fleets of vehicles over more than 50 yrs, to have enough hands-on experience that showed me, that there's that many variations in ready-mixed coolant and coolant additives - that these variation makes a major difference in corrosion protection performance.

In fact, when I started in business, about the only coolant additive available, was soluble oil!

The basic ingredient of manufacturers coolant and antifreeze, produced since before WW2 is Ethylene Glycol.
However, manufacturers add their own mix of additional additive chemicals to EG, that are tailored to the metals mix in their engines.

There are up to 7 or 8 additional chemicals added to EG to inhibit corrosion and to provide anti-freeze abilities.
Some of these chemicals are - Nitrites, Silicates, Phosphates, Chromate, Tolyltriazole and Mercaptobenzothiazole - and Organic Acids. There are more - these are just off the top of my head.

The green/yellow coolants contains largely silicates and phosphates as corrosion inhibitors - the orange/pink/red coolants contain complex organic acids as corrosion inhibitors.
The colours are added via dyes, for coolant group compatibility identification.

These two colour groups are not compatible, because the organic acids used in the orange/pink/red coolants react chemically with the silicates and phosphates in the green/yellow coolants, to create new chemical compounds, that degrade the coolants ability to protect against corrosion.
Mixing these two different coolant groups can cause coolant gelling, and even accelerated corrosion.

Nearly all engines used to be fully cast iron - today we have engines that are a mix of aluminium and magnesium alloys, combinations of cast iron and alloys - and we have wide variations in the mixtures of metals added to aluminium alloys.
We have aluminium alloys used in heads and blocks today, that contain nickel, or iron, or silicon, or all three, in the aluminium alloys.
We used to have brass and copper radiators - nowadays, nearly all radiators are aluminium or aluminium alloy.

Cummins engines are notorious for cylinder liner electrolysis, caused by liner vibration. If you use off-the-shelf el-cheapo ready-mixed coolant, or corrosion inhibitors, in your Cummins engines, you can expect holes in your liners long before your engine wears out - thus destroying your engine.
Use the OEM Cummins coolant, and you'll find the coolant is tailored with the correct chemical additives (higher levels of nitrites) to combat the liner electrolysis, by coating the liners with a layer of nitrite, that inhibits electrolysis.

I've bought basic, off-the-shelf el-cheapo plain green ethylene glycol, and used it in early Holden V8's - and had the alloy inlet manifolds corrode out within 2 yrs.
I changed to the genuine Holden coolant with the necessary chemical additives for the alloy in Holden engines, and the corrosion problem vanished.

Even Holden had some serious problems with their recommended coolant in early Commodore V6's.
The Commodores had serious cooling system corrosion problems, and Holden had to change their coolant package to defeat the corrosion problem the Commodore V6's had.

The chemical additive mix in coolants is a finely-balanced act - sort of like cooking a perfect cake.
Get the recipe wrong, and you have a disaster on your hands.

I know enough about chemicals to understand complex chemical reactions, and how finely balanced many chemical compounds are - and how quickly chemical compounds and additives can react or break down.
I've owned my own lab for chemical/metals testing, complete with an Atomic Adsorption Spectrometer - and I know how to use an AAS.

Add more chemical compounds to other chemical compounds, without knowing the full and precise chemical makeup of each, and you can create some serious chemical reactions, that produce adverse results.

Controlling corrosion and electrolysis in various engines and cooling systems with the vast array of current modern metals in those systems, is a black art - but the start of that black art, is to use the manufacturers tailored coolant - which is designed in its chemical additive makeup - by the manufacturers engineers - to protect the precise metals and combinations of alloys, used in their engines.

It's that simple. Use an off-the-shelf el-cheapo plain ethylene glycol from some place like Repco or Supercheap, and you're asking for corrosion problems, if you have a current model vehicle, with a mix of alloys in the cooling system.

Below is an interesting SAE write up, about Ford going to one world-wide coolant for all their engines.
However, to move to that one world-wide coolant, Ford have had to do a lot of engine modifications and checks on compatibilities, before they make the move.

SAE - Article 8242 - Ford moves to one type of engine coolant, worldwide

Cheers, Ron.

Darn the lack of editing ability! - that's supposed to be Atomic Absorption Spectrometer!

Now we are not talking about Cummins or Mack or what ever big truck engine worth more than most 4wds just for the engine alone are we. ....... Vehicles with long service intervals and engine warranties so good, retail car buyers would not believe it.

We are talking about snotty little pasenger derived commercials.

Remeber what I said about coolant replacement ...... they are looking for 5 and 6 years out of a coolant ...... of course they will have problems if they don't "taylor" the chemical make up off the coolant because one cehmical will be depleated before another., depending on the circumstance. ..... particularly if the car company had stuffed up in their engine design or has outsourced substandard alloy.

Refeering to the SAE article .......Remember this is a general interest magazine article and not a technical document ............ One of the considerations in europe is an extreeme hardwater test ....... well every source I know recommends using demineralised or distilled water when mixing coolants. ...... If ya gona mix ya coolant with hard water containing iron and other salts .... well ya just bleep half ya corrosion protection down the drain. ...... extreem hard water test .. a rediculous consideration

We keep comming back to two types of coolant commonly used on the small vehicle market in Australia...... Glycol bassed and OAT bassed ....... green and pink.

There is some difference in concentrations used ... Toyota has always used twice the concentration some other manufacturers did ...... and this was more to do with boiling point than corrosion.

As far as all this vitriol toward "cheap coolants" ...... there are modern, good quality aftermarket long life coolants available that will work just fine in pretty much any vehicle as long as the correct family of coolant is used. In fact many are guaranteed in writing.

I actually doubt that you could buy a " Cheap Glycol coolant" these days. If ya going to piss on quality aftermarket products, you better have some evidence.

IF you have a car manufacturer who is trying to sell you pretty much any chemical or fluid for your car at an inflated price ...... and particularly if they are not publishing their required specifications ...... they are setting up to take a profit ...... pure and simple.

If they DO publish a specification, there WILL be an aftermarket product that meets or exceed that requirement.

Now ...... this is interesting ...... check the SAE article.

At the end there is a claim that a given coolant is good for 6 years from the initial fill, and only 3 years after that ........ Either the coolant is viable for 3 or 6 ....... again it occurs to me that the car comapny is tyring to mainipulate its cost of onership and environmental impact figures ........ the coolant probably should have been changed at 3 years the first time ..... Remember many of these vehicles now come with free and fixed price services ........ once the car company is not paying for the coolant ... yeh it needs changing every 3 years. ....... OR is it a different coolant at the factory and the dealer.

I trust these car companies as far as I can comfortably spit a rat... especially the american ones.

We keep comming back to Two dfifferent types of coolant commonly used and that is green and pink, in the correct concentration. ....If you flush & change it every 2 years you will not have a problem.

If you are paying $200 for a fill of coolant in a pasenger derived commercial ...... someone is copping a big profit.

If the coolant comes pre mixed ...... Oh hell, half that price you are paying is for water.

cheers

Bantam, you seem to be fixated on the figure of around $200 just for the coolant cost.
As I previously stated, if Greg paid the dealer to do a flush and replace the coolant with new coolant, then there's labour cost added to the coolant cost - thus resulting in the $157 he paid.

However, if just the coolant cost alone was $157 - yes, I'd have to agree, that's a rip-off, pure and simple.

I just did some searching, and I found, "NEW Genuine Mazda FL22 Coolant 5 litre", for sale on eBay by Berwick Mazda, for $130 for the 5 litres.

In that case, I think you're right - that is a substantial rort.

However, lots of parts prices have monstrous profit levels - it's well-known the manufacturers don't make much money from manufacturing new vehicles, they make their profits from the parts for the life of the vehicle.

The major discrepancy in pricing between the genuine Toyota coolant, and the Mazda coolant, shows up the rorting.
Jarvis Toyota are currently selling the genuine Toyota coolant for $30 for 5 litres.

Greg would probably be better off checking the price of the Ford coolant - because the Mazda B4000 uses the Ford "Cologne" 4.0L V6, and the Ford coolant would be equally suitable for his engine as the Mazda FL22 coolant.

Cheers, Ron.

Now here is some interesting information.

This mazda service document http://www.miata.net/garage/tsb/01-033-07-1830b.pdf

shows a couple of interesting critical pieces of information.

• In the case of older models, the coolant replacement
interval is every five (5) years or 60,000 miles
(96,000 km).
• FL22 coolant is compatible with current (Green) ethylene glycol coolant.
• If FL22 coolant is mixed with existing Orange coolant, coolant color will turn black.
For customer satisfaction, DO NOT mix FL22 coolant and Orange coolant

SO ...

FL22 coolant is compatable with normal green glycol coolant

In older model cars it has a recommended replacement interval that is the same as normal green glycol coolant.

Sounds like ..... its normal green glycol coolant.

But in the current model vehiclesthey claim ist good for 10 years or 190 000km for the original fill ....... But Oh surprise surprise .... subsiquent fills ..... its back to the interval for normal green glycol coolant.

Yeh I recon its normal current spec green glycol coolant that you can buy pretty much anywhere for about $40 to $50 retail, for 5 litres in concentrated form. for a known brand.

cheers

I've just been updating my knoweledge on coolants ....... and yeh thigs have changed, but not much.

We still have standard families of coolant.

Green .. glycol based
Pretty much the standard coolant we all know and love.

Red/orange/pink .... OAT Organic Additve Technology
A newer and possibly the most popular in later model cars.

Blue or BLL coolant
Used in many european cars or cars for the european market.

to put it crudely, the red and blue coolants where driven primarily by environmental concerns...... in particular the blue coolant.



Now the truth of the matter ...... the modern formulations and chemical systems for all these coolants are propriatary in nature ...... in that they are owned and maunfactured by or under licence to a specific chemical company.
That company either makes or licences the manufacture of those coolants.

SO if you buy a modern green long life coolant ........ there is a pretty much 90% chance that it was manufactured by the japanese company CCI, then reconstituted or simply decanted into the bottles you buy it in.
Go an look at the claims and the specs of all the modern type green long life coolants and they will be the same ...... and for a good reason.... they are or so close it does not matter.

The green Glycol coolant that seems to have been around ... like for ever ..... realy has not ..... it has changed several times over the last 30 odd years ........ the green glycol fludu you buy now, is chemically very different to that you would buy 20 or even 10 years ago.

I think you would have a very hard time buying a green glycol coolant that was not of the long life type similar to this fabled Mazda LF22.

The rule remains ...... use the same colour coolant that is in the radiator at the correct concentration and you should be just fine.

OH and if you are thinking about running your coolant for 10 years ....... you have rocks in your head ...... I;ll continue to change mine every 2 years ..... but I won't get bitter and twisted if it runs a bit longer.

cheers