Hi,

I'm planning a thermostat change without a coolant flush. As my dealer sells the Volvo coolant $21 a gallon, I am somewhat encouraged to top it off with a regular coolant by the parts person in my dealer. He says Volvo coolant is almost the same with the other coolants and if I'll just top it off it should be OK. I don't know how much coolant will leak when I change the thermostat and I'm not sure if I should top it off with an off the shelf product. Any suggestion is highly appreciated. I don't want to flush the coolant because it has only been 10-11 months that it was flushed. However, if it is really detrimantal to mix Volvo coolant with any other coolant I will bite the bullet and buy a gallon from my dealer. Thanks in advance for any input. If especially mastertech and Frank would provide with an insight I'd be grateful.
Ihsan

Here's a link to a thermostat change without a coolant flush

http://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/tstat.php

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Dennis

well, i used to think Volvo coolant was different. My first change in my '98 V70 AWD I used Volvo OEM blue coolant. Now, 2 years later, I bought more coolant and went to change it and found out that the new stuff was now green, just like the American brands. I figure that I just wasted about $15 on OEM coolant.

You should be able to partially drain radiator using drain cock and change the thermostat, losing almost no coolant. If you do lose a little, how about going to the dealer and having them top it off for free. A small thing they could do considering all the things we have to fix on these cars :)
Matt

I may try that, however, for my dealer to do something for free i think I need a cold day in hell :0
ihsan