Antifreeze/Coolant and it is blue. I just got it on Mon. at the dealer I bought my car from.

 

Called the dealer yesterday. Honda changed the color from green to blue. It is the same stuff according to their tech advisor.

 

Honda makes money when you buy it...
I couldn't possibly guess why Honda antifreeze is any better than prestone, but I'm sure they'll void your warrenty if they open up your radiator and blue stuff doesn't come out.

 

While Honda does not manufacture fluids, they do have very strict specifications for them. I work with a guy who we hired from Castrol, and he said it was EXTREMELY difficult to get a foot in the door to be a supplier for some automobile OEM's, because of their specifications. Prestone, STP, etc. sell to WalMart and the likes and need to keep their prices low to compete with the other brands. Honda, Toyota, etc want to keep their reputation of quality and don't want issues with corroded heads, failed water pumps, etc. so they have very stringent specifications for their fluids. I saw a study once comparing the corrosion resistance of various brands of brake fluid (STP, Castrol, SuperTech, etc) to Toyota brake fluid - the difference was very convincing.

For a small difference in price (especially if you do your own maintenance), it doesn't make much sense to use anything else.

 

[QUOTE=txst,May 17 2007, 10:01 AM]While Honda does not manufacture fluids, they do have very strict specifications for them.

 

Marrk:

I agree. There are some exceptions where aftermarket fluids are equivalent if not superior to certain OEM branded fluids. As a consumer, there is very little risk to using OEM fluids compared to aftermarket.

I am the engineering manager over new product development at my comapny, and we specify the fluids for our products. When we do our reliability and life testing, those are the fluids used to qualify components. Another fluid may or may not have better results, it's just that we don't test them. This is why manufacturers recommend their fluids.

Hope this helps.

 

[QUOTE=txst,May 18 2007, 04:36 AM]Marrk:

I agree.

 

After market fluid MADE specifically for racing, sports cars, etc are better than OEM...those include ATE, Amsoil, Motul, etc.

 

Be careful. ATE may be much more resistant to boiling than Honda brake fluid, but it does absorb water at a higher rate and proabably does not have the corrosion resitance of the Honda OEM fluid. On a race car where the fluid is changed often, ATE is superior to Honda brake fluid. But for the average street car where the fluid is replaced according the the manufacturers recomendation (if at all), the OEM fluid is probably superior (as long as it isn't tracked). On the other hand, Amsoil is probably a superior oil than just about any condition, however there may not be any benefit the way a vehicle is used (I have oil analysis data on my car with many different types of oil including dino, Amsoil, Mobil 1, etc, and there is no difference in the wear levels or TBN between those oils - though you can definitely see a difference in the amount of detergents, moly, etc.)

Just because a fluid was designed for racing, does not necessarily make it superior in all situations. While Motul or ATE brake fluid is "better" in a car that is tracked occasionally, Honda OEM fluid is "better" in my wife's Accord. It depends on what you use your car for.

 

I'm not surprised by this statement, but could you go into detail? For instance, no wear difference between a slippery synthetic and a dino? Not even wear caused by cold start-ups?

BTW, what does "TBN" mean?

Thanks.

Marrk