The manufacturer VW works with its own coolant standards for the coolants for various car brands around Audi, VW, Seat and Skoda. The standard, which was first introduced in 1994, was launched on the market with the designation G11 and was given the approval VW TL 774-C. This is a firmly defined standard which a coolant must meet. This approval is a firmly defined standard that a coolant must have in order to be considered a G11 coolant.
The first VW standard still used inorganic acids (Inorganic Acid Technology) in its composition to ensure reliable protection against freezing, corrosion and cavitation damage. The corrosion protection was made possible by silicate as an additive.
In the further development of coolants, the subsequent G12 coolants used organic acids for corrosion protection. These also enabled a significantly longer service life for the coolants.
Despite the fact that the G11 release VW TL 774-C specifies which chemical properties a G11 coolant must have, there is no specified color for this standard. Therefore, it cannot be said that a G11 coolant must always be yellow. The color is therefore left to the manufacturers of the respective coolant. When mixing a coolant, therefore, the rule does not apply that liquids with the same color may automatically be mixed together. Rather, the orientation is based on whether the coolant has the same standard.
Coolants are mostly available as pure concentrate or ready-mix (so-called ready-mix). In the case of the concentrate, you have to mix it with distilled water so that you can then fill it into the cooling system. By default, both liquids are mixed together in a 1:1 ratio. However, 1:2 or 1:3 ratios are also possible. The higher the water content, the sooner the coolant reaches the freezing point. At which temperature a mixing ratio is ideal can usually be found in the product information on the bottle.
When buying a G11 coolant, there are several products to choose from. Often, buyers fall back on the coolant that is already included in the cooling system, or is used from the factory. This is no longer possible with the original VW G11 coolant, as VW currently only manufactures the latest standard, the G12evo coolant, which replaced the VW G13 coolant as the most current standard since 2018. If you want to use an original VW coolant, we recommend the VW G12evo, which can be mixed with the G11 coolants.
One of the mentioned alternatives to G11 is Glysantin G48. This has the G11 approval VW TL 774-C and is therefore officially approved by VW as a coolant. The blue-green coolant is available as a concentrate and as a ready-mix and is based on silicate hybrid technology. The special feature of Glysantin G48 is that it is also suitable for other vehicle manufacturers, such as BMW, Opel and many more.
An equally well-known manufacturer of coolants is the German company Ravenol. This is oriented in the coolant close to the VW standards. For the alternative product of the VW G11, Ravenol presented the Ravenol C11 in yellow color. The advantage of Ravenol products is the availability in different containers, such as 1.5L, 5 liters or 20 liters.
As the standards and thus compositions of VW coolants have evolved over the years, the question often arises as to whether a G11 coolant can be mixed. If you would currently use the latest VW standard, the G12evo, this can be mixed with the G11 coolant. If the deviating colors are mixed together, you should note that the mixture can get a less appealing color scheme.
