Can you mix different color antifreeze and coolant?

What happens when you mix red and blue antifreeze in your car? This video will show you. You generally shouldn’t do it as different coloured antifreeze and cause a chemical reaction. This can decrease the effectiveness of the antifreeze and can cause a brown gel like substance in your car. This can cause your engine to overheat and it clogs up pipes and can cause engine damage. Your best bet would be to totally drain the system and put the correct mix in.

[leonarundell]

This video didn't live up to its description. All it showed was that when you mix a pink and a blue liquid you get a brown liquid.

[SueBobChicVid]

Color is NOT the deciding factor in coolant chemistry. There is no consistent standard regarding color at this time (January 2016). Your factory coolant fill may be orange, but the correct (chemically identical) service coolant may be purple. BOTTOM LINE: DO NOT GO BY THE COLOR!

[dakrawnikg]

Tip of the day:
Don't go to Mark's Garage.

[DeepPastry]

Hey, guess who's confused by chemistry?

It is fine to mix coolants. All that happens when you mix the green/blue/yellow (silicates) with the orange/red (organic acid technology) is at very worse you've lowered the properties of the orange/red closer to that of the older green/blue; yes the orange/red stuff is better, and the green/blue stuff is not bad. The very specific property is corrosion resistance. Old stuff keeps doing it for ~50k miles while the new stuff does it to ~100k miles. Mix them togeter, and you get better than 50k but less than 100k.

It does not cause engine damage, you've just been lied to by this video. The thing that people use to BS you is the color wheel. Red and yellow make orange, red and blue make purple, green and orange make brown... Oh no, it's brown, and that's a color. Wait, it kinda looks blue and the other looks red, but it's brown... Again, playing with the color wheel, as we aren't talking perfect color but variations that look more one than other.

Main issue was with Chevy vehicles and a minor manufacturing issue when the orange/red first appeared on the scene. Specifically, they had some engine blocks with left over casting sand create sludge. People never put the dealer recall/repair of a coolant flush with the sludge forming together. Also, what you see in the bottle, frothing, does not happen inside the engine, specifically the vigorous mixing of your coolant and air.

[kinserrooffener]

It literally says it on all bottles that you can, this video just shows how to create brown antifreeze

[KitschyCats]

I'm a painter and I'm sure based on color theory that blue + orange will turn brown cause they're complimentary colors. I still don't see how it will affect the radiator

[mazdaabe]

Holy shit!!! So what you are saying is that if I mix pink and blue I get MIND BLOWING!

[sceamson]

All brands says clearly that" this can be mixed with any color any make coolant".Period.

[allent]

Mark, if you want people to take you seriously you need to provide some sort of reasoning for your strong speculations.  We all know that multiple colors mixed together make brown but to suggest that they will turn to gel needs some sort of proof.  Show us the gel that you are referring to.  I have also seen similar blogs that suggest the brown will turn to acid and eat the radiator away.  Of course no proof there either.

[caymanwest]

OMG! Did you see how that stuff turned into a gel! What a chemical reaction. Your car wouldn't make it a 1/2 block before it turned into a jelly roll.

[chasedavis]

Color doesn’t mean anything. You just can’t mix oat and iat coolant

[specializeder]

On the bottle of the Repco premium 100% concentrate coolant I have here in Australia it states it's safe to mix with any colour and type of coolant.
It states that the slight yellow colour of the Repco coolant wont discolour any other coolant colour.

[jesusmejia]

It's only going to gel up if there's not enough water mixture to keep the coolant in liquid form

[mike]

I dont see any gel ....color change is normal . Not saying it's fine to do it that way but no vids show any gel or damaged motors

[marshajoseph]

I'm reviewing each comment, but I'm trying to determine whether everyone decided as a collective group to be sarcastic or whether they're all happy in terms of the of the video in which I've yet to see the beauty of the magic trick. I unintentionally found myself with newly bought (orange) coolant although I've been accustomed to green, altough the ingredient list seems similar. Sigh, I guess, I'll see the results soon.

[rakeshmonga]

Blue + pink/red = brown.
Brown not equal to nasty

[amigachris]

i think gelling was a specific dexcool problem if air got in the system

[ELV]

Carry a old school milk crate in your trunk. Put recommend oil and a jug of coolant. Mix a certain percentage and you're setting yourself up for corrosion.
Quit walking around like a zombie, prepare yourself instead of being a 'shit happens" candidate.

[brandonthomas]

What if it says you can on the bottle?

[SimmeringPotpourri]

What? I do this with Kool-aide all of the time and it's delicious. Might I suggest you have a taste before saying something is bad. Now that I have tasted your QAing, I can say for sure that it's bad.