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Since the late 1980's, the market for recycled engine coolant has grown and evolved to meet changing forces in the light-duty and automotive sector. Various recycling technologies and service programs have emerged to serve this market. However, end-user (service/repair facilities) needs are also changing as a result of increased focus on profitability and the emergence of new vehicle service equipment. What started as a do-it-yourself market is evolving into a “do-it-for-me” market with bottom line costs often dictating which programs and recycling technologies succeed. This technical paper will summarize the trends of the light-duty engine coolant recycling industry and present a leading technology that is changing with the times to better serve customer needs. Also discussed is a tiered bulk engine coolant recycling program that produces recycled engine coolant at various economical levels and provides on-site engine coolant recycling service to vehicle repair facilities.

All automotive gear oils must satisfy a series of standard industry or Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) tests. These usually include bench, axle dynamometer, and field tests. However, product development testing must extend beyond satisfying standard test protocols. This is especially true as increased emphasis is placed on extending oil drain intervals and increasing equipment life in the face of greater performance demands through new heavy-duty vehicle designs. End-users ultimately benefit from extended oil drain intervals and increased equipment life. However, the effort to achieve both initiatives will prove successful only through careful development and selection of the proper performance additives and base fluids. Also, a broad focus must be maintained to satisfy all lubricant requirements. These requirements build on a solid base of standard features and include new features that stretch the current envelope of gear oil performance.

Experimental formulations of automotive supplemental coolant additives (SCA) were evaluated for their effectiveness in reducing corrosion in cooling systems with over-extended or additive depleted coolants. The evaluation involved both laboratory glassware and simulated service tests that were modified to produce novel “simulated additive depletion”, which provided a unique approach for evaluation of the SCA's. The study centered on two basic corrosion inhibitor packages. The base coolant used in the evaluation represents a contemporary, high silicate formulation which is commercially available and was purchased directly off the shelf. This unique testing documents that automotive SCA's can provide effective corrosion protection to an automotive cooling system operating on a weak or depleted coolant.