[zero_gravity]

Dealer supplied FL22 is premixed, I believe. Ravenol-branded FL22 is the concentrate¹ (per attached photos). I would prefer the latter as it allows you to flush the system first with (hopefully soft) municipal water and then introduce, say, 65/35 ethylene glycol/distilled water... which ends up being diluted by the flush water remaining in the cooling system after flushing (despite your best draining efforts) with the system then approaching 50/50. My thoughts, in any case...

¹I believe the Ravenol is the concentrate... However, it may be "concentrated at" 1:1. Does anyone know German?

As always the problem is obtaining these items north of the border. I have yet to find FL22 spec concrete that is reasonably obtainable here. If I can, I'd be all over it. Concentrate is usually cheaper than premix.

Even the stuff you recommend doesn't exist on amazon.ca. sure you can get the prestone Asian vehicle stuff and it is compatible....but I'm really not a fan of multi vehicle specs for fluids. It's kind of like if you go to a restaurant and order toast with butter and then they give you toast with butter and jam. Technically your order has been filled as asked....sorta.

As for flushing it, I'm good there. Last year I did a big and expensive flush. Replaced thermostat but I took the old one and cut the guts out so the system just free flows. Drained and filled with deionized water. Ran 10 mins to mix. Repeat until all water. Then did the same with coolant until I got a good freeing point.

 

[zero_gravity]

Must be nice. I'm on the other side of the country with no such option.

 

[zero_gravity]

whats the odo on it if you dont mind me asking... I'm around 190k.... its alternator failure odo zone for the last car. I hope the water pump will hold a little while longer.

Somewhere around 230k kms

 

[zero_gravity]

Considering that this is the first failure I've had that can't be attributed to some other factor (like the minor accident I had a few years ago) I'm not holding this against the car. Every car out there will have some sort of failure at some point.

Well there was the seizing rear brakes....but that's solved long ago.

 

[zero_gravity]

A person can't generally say that the Skyactiv-G Mazda's are unreliable. I think they give good service. A water pump at 230,000 km is good svce in my books 🙂.

Agreed! My old car had way more issues. Other stuff has been silly small stuff, like a connector on the starter corroded. Cleaned it up and good to go

One that amazes me - I posted about it here some time ago, that accident I had a few years ago resulted in a brief overheating of the motor since I lost all the coolant to a broken rad. This gave me an extremely mild head gasket leak. I've been monitoring it closely for a couple years now and it's a non issue. All that happens is I get a very small amount of oil in the coolant. After a while it pretty well seals itself up - changing coolant makes it slightly worse. Other than that no ill effects. Hasn't deteriorated in all this time. The oil leaking is so tiny I can't see any change on the dipstick between changes. No coolant loss either.

I wanted to try a retorque but I just don't have the time to do the job. Oh well.

 

[zero_gravity]

Yes this has crossed my mind. If I were to do it, I'd buy a new set of head bolts and torque them correctly. But could it make matters worse? Of course.

At this point I think the best thing to do is what you're saying. I can monitor for it getting worse with compression test. If the motor dies, I guess I'll drop in a new one

 

[zero_gravity]

yup it is ... i have replace it

how bad was that job?

 

[zero_gravity]

I have run into corroded connectors myself, some of them are not well sealed if at all. The starter has a small single wire with a white connector. It's practically open, complete joke. Sure fix is easy and free, but I shouldn't have to do it.

Good luck with yours, wiring can be painful.