I recently purchased a 2002 vw passat turbo. The heater core broke, leaking all the antifreeze. I replaced the antifreeze with water to drive to the repair shop. They suggested flushing the radiator now as opposed to waiting until winter, which they did. However, they replaced the manufacturer suggested G12 antifreeze with regular (yellow) antifreeze. Everything I have read says vw’s require G12. Is this a major mistake on their part and I should have the radiator re-flushed and replace with G12? If so, what type of damage could this have caused? Or is this ok as long as I only use regular antifreeze in the future?
If they used something like Prestone All Makes, All Models coolant, then Prestone claims to meet the VW/Audi spec for G12. Do a web search and you can see a variety of opinions. First, check with the mechanic and make sure they used All Makes, All Models type. If not, then there may be an issue, for sure.
The yellow should be the long life antifreeze, you do not need to re-flush your system.
VW is funny about their coolant. I would change it back to G12 now.I don’t know the specs of the different types of anti freeze, but if VW requires a different type anti freeze I’d return it to the shop that put the wrong coolant in it. They should replace it labor free and should credit the cost of the first anti freeze toward the cost of the new unless you specifically told them to use the wrong anti freeze.
“VW is funny about their coolant. I would change it back to G12 now.”
Oh p-l-e-a-s-e, its way past the warrantee so VW has nothing to say about it, and the universal HOATs are at least equal to the G12.