Originally Posted By: old1
I have kinda been following this thread, and you know what I would do? NOTHING, I would just drive the car, and totally forget that it ever happened. Back in about 1965 I had a 1964 chevelle with the big 230C.I. 6 cylinder engine. I was adding some antifreeze and for some stupid reason opened the oil fill cap on the valve cover instead of the radiator and started to pour antifreeze in. After about a cup full It dawned in me what I did,(guess I woke up), and I stopped. Thought, what will I do, and said well probably won't hurt anything, so just put the cap back on and drove it till the oil was due to be changed, probably about 1000 miles. Never seemed to cause a problem. Of course cars were probably not as touchy then as today.
Thanks for your reassuring words.
Well, I definitely am getting a strawberry milk shake effect. After I drove the car for a second time yesterday night, I opened the radiator cap this morning to find a pink and white fluid mix in the neck of the radiator, but no green residue this time thank goodness. Hopefully all the blue Scott shop towels I used yesterday soaked up all of whatever that green crud was, and there won't be anymore.
This morning I did notice a greenish color on the inside walls of my reservoir overflow tank/bottle, so I'm going to open the bottle and use some kind of flexible tool (a hanger wire?) attached to shop towels or a sponge or something to wipe the internal walls of the plastic overflow tank. Do they make a special tool for that? Even if I dump all the coolant in the overflow bottle, I would still like to wipe the internal surfaces with something. Does the bottle detach from the side of the '06 Camry in some way so you can pull out the bottle?
Will buy lots of distilled water at Walmart today. Do you recommend I get a flush at the Toyota dealership this week? How likely is it that the flush might damage the cooling system in some way? If I do get a flush, should they use some kind of cleaner chemical?
By the way, the blue shop towels are thick and strong enough that I think they haven't ripped yet--kind of like cloth. I appreciate everyone's advice.
So just 1/2 to 3/4 ounce of Toyota Type T-IV ATF in the radiator caused a strawberry milk shake effect visible in the radiator's neck. How serious is this? This car is only 9 years old with 70,000 miles, and I am hoping to keep it until the wheels fall off. Thanks.