This photos below from their very graphical website show various horror systems. This is what can happen to your cooling system if care is not taken and sometimes can even happen if you take EXCESSIVE care of your vehicle by getting it serviced by different companies. The moral of the story is never under any circumstances mix inhibitors - even different grades from the same manufacturer. A.R.E. don't actually service radiators - they are manufacturers and the radiators shown are from jobs given to them by their sister company Brisbane Radiator Service Pty Ltd. In all cases the unlucky owners have been hit with unnecessarily high costs and we don't know what the cost of fixing the actual motors ended up being.

There is another hidden radiator destroyer maybe already at work in your vehicle. This is "stray current". The maximum allowed by radiator companies before knocking back warranty claims is a maximum of 0.05 volt. According to A.R.E. they have seen a new Barina completely fail in under 7 weeks! They point out that no inhibitor known to man can slow down or prevent the effects of stray current. Jammed thermostats is another potentially dangerous condition caused by a combination of stray current and mixed inhibitors.

Now think folks - has the company servicing your vehicle EVER told you about this? Some of the vehicles pictured here have used the MANUFACTURERS BRANDED product since new, yet have still suffered a catastrophic failure. In our case we intend ALWAYS being present at major services where fluids are replaced and letting them know that we are aware of this problem. It could be good practice to only use one workshop. Yes, this can be difficult, but with a bit of planning you can do this except perhaps for Around Oz trips. The trick here would be to buy the coolant you expect to need from your service workshop. In Queensland for instance we are the first to have the "less sulphur" diesel. Engines using this need new smokeless fuel need much more protection from oils. You guessed it - the oil companies are lagging in this area! To combat this we take along a container to our service guy and he fills it from their bulk supply - we use this for top ups between services if needed.

TIP: Lots of workshops use one grade for many types of vehicles (Pro-blends) - you really shouldn't use petrol engine oil in a diesel. It pays to ask, as oil is cheap - a new engine isn't! If in doubt ring the manufacturer direct and don't be fobbed off. We managed to get our dealer to email us the grade they were using by acting "dumb".