Kizashi Club

Hey everyone,

We got a good amount of snow a few days ago. After I had pulled into the driveway with the car I had noticed that where the underbody of the car had rubbed on the fresh white snow there was some green spots. I thought there must be some antifreeze leaking from somewhere when I saw it and when I was able to open up the radiator cap the coolant level was a little low. The thing is however....the antifreeze is blue. There are other vehicles that park in our driveway so it is possible that it wasn't even the kizashi. But, are there other fluids in the car that could be green?

ps. windshield washer fluid is also blue

I don't think it came from your car seeing you said you had no green fluid in your car and if the fluid wasn't frozen it had to be antifreeze which rules you out....... sorry other vechicles!

Most likely not your from your car. Other than coolant, no other fluid in an automobile is typically colored green.

Automakers and fluid makers purposely dye their fluids so that leak fluids can be quickly identified. It's why ATF, motor oil, coolant, washer fluid, etc. are all colored differently for most cars.

ATF is almost always red.
I don't think motor oil is purposely dyed a color, but it's typically easy to differentiate from other fluids as it's the only major source of a brown/black colored fluid.
Coolant is typically green, but yellow, orange, and red are used too. I have never heard of blue coolant until now.
Washer fluid is typically blue, but is also offered in other colors.
Brake/clutch fluid is pretty much clear, but yellows/browns with age.
Gasoline has an orange-ish, pink hue to it from what I have seen. Sometimes it's more clear.
Diesel has a very nice clear blue hue to it. I suppose it's why Mercedes calls their diesels "BlueTEC".

Fluids also smell quite differently too. Motor oil and ATF have pretty different smells, especially if you are accustomed from changing them yourself.

when the fluids hit the snow, it's very possible the color would shift gradient a bit. The blue anti-freeze could easily become greenish when diluted and exposed to the elements. I wouldn't rule out that it didn't come from your car, especially since you say it was a bit low. Shouldn't be low at all. My coolant level drops at all, and I'm looking for the cause.

That's another possibility I was thinking of. Would the dripped anti-freeze look a little different in the snow.....I do a lot of the simple stuff myself on the car. changing fluids, brakes, oil changes, spark plugs etc. I thought I might be going crazy because I couldn't remember anything that might be green. I refilled the coolant(It was low but if it was more than an ounce or two I'd be surprised) and I'll keep an eye on it. If it loses more I'll start snooping around under the hood. I haven't noticed anymore green spots in the snow.

I may have missed some detail in your post but the CVT uses a green fluid:

SUZUKI CVT FLUID
GREEN-1 or Shell GREEN-1V

Now that is pertinent information.

yes that is! I forgot all about the CVT fluid being 'green'. Good call nytq.

Had no idea about CVT fluid being green. Then again, I have the manual model and have never even driven a CVT car.

Did you happen to get a car wash? I have noticed green fluid under the car and around the wheels sometimes. The car was that I go to sprays the wheels with a cleaner that is green.