my 2002 fiesta tdci has red antifreeze and was wondering if you can mix ordinary blue anti freeze with it? or should i keep to the red antifreeze? also how can i tell how old the antifreeze in the radiator is?

my 2002 fiesta tdci has red antifreeze and was wondering if you can mix ordinary blue anti freeze with it? or should i keep to the red antifreeze? also how can i tell how old the antifreeze in the radiator is?

No way to tell the age of it.

What i would recommend is a complete dump and replenish with fresh stuff, according to the spec from the owner's manual for your engine.

Different engines (although mostly older ones) need different type antifreeze. It's something to do with certain types of antifreeze which will corrode aluminium cylinder heads (or so i was told by a very knowledgable man recently ;))

So i recommend looking in the owner's manual for the type of antifreeze, go buy that spec and make up a fresh solution :)

By the way, there;s no problem with mixing different colour antifreezes, just as long as they are the same type ;)

:)

From what i can remember about the coolants that ford use/used, Blue is the older, less efficient coolant. Red is the new, more efficient coolant. They are two different types of coolant and should not be mixed...

I agree with FMC that I would recommend you drain, flush, and refill with the recommended antifreeze for your car (will say in the manual which to use, if not then either ask Ford, or use the red coolant). Goes almost without saying that if you are topping up due to losing coolant, then you really need to rectify the leak, else you will be buggered no matter what coolant (antifreeze) you use. GL