I think it would depend what's in the yellow antifreeze/coolant. The blue coolant from the BMW dealer has inorganic and organic corrosion inhibitors, to protect the aluminium, and does not attack the rubber. Whereas you have no guarantee with unapproved coolants. The blue BMW coolant is also known as BMW Lifetime Coolant 87, or the trade name Glysantin G48, if that helps you find it.

The user country flags on here are very small and I can't quite make yours out. Is it Malawi? I'm guessing you don't have a BMW dealer in every town like we do here, so it's not as simple as just popping out to pick some up from one. I know there are BMW dealers over in South Africa but they must be thousands of km away. Would one of them post to you? Or anyone else selling G48 there who would?

 

Yes, it's Malawi, and we don't have any dealers here.

 

Anything that is aluminum safe. Coolant is just water and ethylene glycol with some additives - and the difference is these specialized corrosion inhibitors. There are universal coolants that are safe for all makes and models. There is no accepted universal "color code" for coolant types, as each manufacturer tends to just make up their own - so do your research. Blue does not necessarily mean "BMW" coolant.

Below are the colors for Prestone - but best to look at your bottle and confirm - do not just go by the color, or add based on color alone. If you are unsure, it is safest to do a coolant flush or top off with distilled water. I'd only add coolant of the same type. Universal coolant should be safe as well, but mixing coolants is not recommended.

 

Just to clarify, I'm not saying the coolant had to be blue. But if you buy the LC87/G48 coolant from BMW it will be blue. I'm also not saying other coolants are necessarily bad, just if they're not G48 (or G48 compatible) you don't know.

Your point to just go with what's on the bottle is fair, as long as you can trust the coolant manufacturer.

Incidentally, since my post I've also discovered BMW have a new coolant, LC12. I still use the LC87 but apparently it is permissible to use LC12 in a cooling system originally specified for LC87 (but not the other way around). BMW LC12 is green. I don't know the trade name for it. If anything that'd probably be even harder to find for the OP though.

 

This may help:

 

If you've got time to wait, this company ships European-sourced BMW parts globally. But it sometimes takes them 3 weeks to ship to UK so Malawi would be even longer.

https://www.lllparts.co.uk/

The American selles like FCP Euro might be willing to also.

Or anyone selling a G48 compatible coolant who'll ship to you.

But that doesn't help you if your car's off the road and you need it now, sorry.

 

without lights it dont matter what color it is as long as its a little sweet. thats how you can tell it apart from oil in the night.