Coolant recommendation - 99 Cirrus - 2.5 v6

[901Memphis]

Going to do a cooling system flush for a friend with a severely neglected system. It's a 99 Chrysler Cirrus with a 2.5L v6.

About 1 year ago he noticed something leaking in his driveway and i checked it out for him and turns out it was leaking at the water pump. The coolant was probably the factory fill and was like mud. Either way the system was flushed by carx and had a new water pump put in. After the work was done i re-checked his coolant and it was still extremely dirty. Their notes said it would need another flush because of how neglected it was. I agree with them and am going to do the flush this time since the weather is warmer.

Now to my question. What type of coolant would work well in these systems? I am thinking about using Peak Global after completely flushing the system wtih some prestone radiator flush. It needs to be something i can buy locally. Like at az, aap, or walmart.

 

[901Memphis]

Going to get zerex G05 if I can find it in stock or peak global as a second choice. I found some prestone super radiator flush thankfully it's getting hard to find.

 

[ac_tc]

i would avoid peak since it seems to be a dexclone.
FF was "old green" or G05
Motorcraft gold is the same as G05

 

[901Memphis]

I went to 3 auto parts stores and both walmart and meijer and i couldn't find any Zerex G05 or Motorcraft Gold. Even if i was going to use peak global they didn't have that either. It seems everyone is stocking the Prestone/Peak all makes all models and then the Prestone Dex Cool is about it.

The auto parts store are the only ones who have conventional green available and i went with Oreillys brand. Do they make as quality of a product as Havoline conventional green or should i try to find something better?


According to old research i found, all the conventional green except Zerex is bottled by Peak. If this is true i will probably stick with the oreillys jugs.

 

[HTSS_TR]

My local O'Reilly has Zerex G-05 concentrate at $18 a gallon, Pep Boys also has Zerex G-05 concentrate at $17 a gallon.

 

[UNC017]

Most parts-store conventional that I've found is made by Old World Industries (read the fine print on the back...) including O'Reilly's. That means its basically the same as old-school Peak conventional. Its perfectly fine for applications where conventional coolant is needed.

That said, the 'Chrysler' 2.5 v6 is really a Mitsubishi 2.5, so it may not have used what the real Chrysler engines of the time were using.

 

[dishdude]

My '98 Cirrus used old fashioned conventional green. I have done a drain and refill every 2-3 years since new, however the one I did around 2009 I couldn't find conventional and used Peak Global Lifetime. I drained that in 2011 and put in conventional.

I am not so sure I'd recommend using the flush, you don't want any of it to remain in the system, and I am not sure you want to clean it too much. Personally I would just drain and refill the system.

Good luck finding the draincock on the radiator. I have been told there is one on the right side of the radiator, but I have never been able to find it. When I drain it, I just go through the left foglight and pull the lower rad hose off.

 

[Malibuman]

To get to the radiator drain remove the right fog light then the horn assembly and you will find the petcock. It will still be a tight spot.

 

[901Memphis]

Yeah it was a debacle. I found the drain plug and successfully opened it but upon closing it the thing knob broke off with it in the open position. We ended up using the two part epoxy stuff to jam up the hole to plug it and my friend understands he may needs a new radiator if it leaks again. I couldn't use the hot screwdriver trick to close it because it's such a tight space.

That job didn't get done right but he wants to get a new car anyway. The system is still pretty rust colored but it doesn't have any over heating issues and no leaks since April. The vehicle only has about 60k miles on it and it's lived a very hard short trip life with no maintenance except random Walmart oil changes. I change the oil for him now but that's about it. The transmission fluid is still bright red, probably the only thing the short trips helped, keeping the heat low on the transmission. The fill hole shows a good layer of varnish but it's got max life full synthetic and a Bosch filter on it now, I'm tracking it's appearance to see if it gets cleaned up.

The thing is seriously neglected though as you can tell that it got driven about 13 years or so til the factory coolant fill sprung a leak. I can't imagine how far it would have gone without the leak. It's taught me to be more careful working on others vehicles. I'm lucky he didn't hold me responsible for the petcock damage, but I warned him prior to the job that they can be brittle at that age and his was non replaceable.

I'm in the process of trying to convince him to replace his EXTREMELY dry rotted tires but he doesn't want to put any money into it. I tell you they are pretty bad. They have tread but so much rot. If anyone's interested I can post some pictures!

 

[EricF]

my nephew has a 99 Cirrus with the 2.5L, I put the G-05 in it. Whatever was in it wasn't green.,