Alternative to Suzuki Super Long Life Coolant (Blue)
If you have a Suzuki motorcycle, you might have noticed that the maintenance schedule recommends you replace the coolant with “Suzuki super long life coolant”.
The benefit of this super long-life coolant is that the replacement interval is twice as long as regular “long-life coolant”.
Take for example the following two excerpts from the two Suzuki motorcycle manuals — the V-Strom 1050XT and the V-Strom 250.
In both examples, the recommendation is that you replace blue “super long life coolant” half as often (i.e. with twice the maintenance interval) as regular green “long life coolant”.
You can definitely use Suzuki Ecstar Super Long-life Coolant if it’s available.
But for those who don’t live near a dealer (or whose dealer doesn’t stock it), you might need an alternative to Suzuki Super Long-Life Coolant.
According to my research, the best alternatives are Motorex Coolant M3.0, Valvoline Zerex G30 or Penrite Blue OEM Coolant, depending on where you’re shopping (Europe, the US or Australia/NZ).
Here’s why.
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Alternatives to “Blue” Suzuki Super Long Life Coolant — In a Nutshell
In a nutshell, the three best alternatives to “Blue” Suzuki Super Long Life Coolant are, according to the specs: Motorex Coolant M3.0, Valvoline Zerex G30 or Penrite Blue OEM Coolant.
These three coolants are all OAT coolants with the same spec as Suzuki Super Long Life coolant, as I’ll explain below.
What is Suzuki Super Long Life Coolant?
Suzuki Super Long Life coolant is also branded “ECSTAR” sometimes. You can buy it as pre-mix or concentrate (to mix with distilled water).
It has a manufacturer part number of 990F0-59J44-EC1, 99000-99032-22X, or 99000-99032-20X, though sometimes that varies with the manual you’re consulting.
First, let’s get one thing out of the way: Apart from branding, color of coolant means nothing. Yes, Suzuki uses blue and green to distinguish between their own two types of coolant, but these colors come from dyes, not additives. They could have chosen red, or yellow, or nothing. And other brands of coolant that are blue aren’t necessarily the same as Suzuki blue coolant (though they might be, if they’re trying to convince you their coolant is compatible).
According to the data sheet, Suzuki Super Long-life Coolant contains
- 48-53% water (purified). This conveys heat.
- 40-50% ethylene glycol. Ethylene glycol lowers the freezing point and raises the boiling point of water. It’s most effective at a 33-50% mix with water.
- Less than 5% organic acid salts (in unspecified proportion). These are corrosion inhibitors that are found in OAT coolants.
- Less than 3% of diethylene glycol. This is a by-product of ethylene glycol production and serves no specific purpose.
What do these mean? Basically, Suzuki Super Long life Coolant is, like nearly every other motorcycle coolant, simply ethylene glycol mix with some organic additives to prevent corrosion.
Additionally, note that Suzuki Super Long-Life Coolant is an OAT coolant. This means it is based on “Organic Acid Technology”.
About OAT coolants (the Suzuki Super Long Life spec)
Suzuki Super Long Life Coolant is phosphate, silicate, borate, and nitrite free; i.e. it’s an Organic Acid Technology or OAT coolant.
The way inorganic salts inhibit corrosion is by depositing themselves on metallic surfaces and preventing oxidation. So they “deplete” over time, leading to shorter (2-year) replacement intervals.
Organic corrosion inhibitors have a very low depletion rate. The inhibitors form a single molecule layer on the metal surface only at anodic sites where there’s a risk of corrosion. They deplete almost not at all, which gives OAT coolants a long service life of four to eight years, or even “permanent” according to some manufacturers.
Other terminology you’ll see is
- H-OAT or HOAT. This means “Hybrid OAT”, and basically means “mostly organic salts, but some inorganic salts[, and possibly the wrong ones for your motorcycle].”
- P-OAT. This explicitly means it contains phosphates (an inorganic salt).
Three easy-to-obtain OAT coolants that are alternatives to Suzuki “Blue” coolant are Motorex M3.0 Coolant, Zerex G30 or Penrite Blue Premium Long Life Coolant.
Option 1: Motorex Coolant M3.0
Motorex is a Swiss company that produces coolants and engine oils (and other things). They’re the brand of fluids recommended by KTM for their motorcycles.
Motorex Coolant M3.0 is their ready-to-use OAT coolant. Here’s what they say about in the technical data sheet:
- Ready to use on an ethylene glycol basis
- Mixture %: 50/50
- Silicate-, nitrite-, amine-, borate, and phosphate-free
Because this is a reputable product made by a manufacturer and recommended for high-end European motorcycles, I feel pretty safe recommending this for everyone.
Option 2: Zerex G30
A good coolant alternative to Suzuki Super Long Life Coolant is Valvoline Zerex G30.
According to Valvoline’s website:
Valvoline ZEREX G30 Antifreeze / Coolant is a premium carboxylate formulation. It incorporates state-of-the-art organic acid technology in an ethylene glycol base for protection of all cooling system metals including aluminum.
Valvoline website
It meets the silicate-free requirements of the Japanese automobile manufacturers and phosphate-free requirements of European automobile manufacturers.
… Contains no phosphates, silicates, borates, nitrates, amines and nitrites
This is the same spec as Suzuki Super Long Life Coolant — an OAT coolant that’s based on ethylene glycol and that doesn’t contain the same harmful salts.
Note: Color of coolant doesn’t matter. The color of a coolant (pink, blue etc.) is a branding exercise. Manufacturers do it with dyes to distinguish between brands and product lines. So it makes no difference if it’s blue, green, pink, etc.
Option 3: Penrite Blue OEM Coolant
In some geographies (Australia and New Zealand), Penrite products are more easily obtainable.
So Penrite Blue OEM Coolant makes a good candidate alternative to Suzuki Super Long Life Coolant. It has the same spec as an OAT coolant based on ethylene glycol.
According to Penrite’s website:
Penrite Blue OEM coolant is an… ethylene glycol anti-freeze anti-boil coolant.
Penrite website
It uses a technically advanced OAT (Organic Acid Technology) based inhibitor system that is silicate, phosphate, amine, borate, and nitrite free.
The Penrite blue coolant is available as both a concentrate and as a pre-mix product. Because of shipping, it makes more sense to buy it as concentrate.
