Going with Prestone All Makes in a 01 CL-S

[The Critic]

My buddy's 01 CL-S has 75,000 miles on the original Honda Type II coolant.

I'm planning to dump two gallons of Prestone All Makes All Models with two gallons of tap water into our RobinAir 75700 Coolant Exchanger and "run it" through the system. The system holds under eight quarts.

I shouldn't need a separate water flush or a chemical flush, right, as I'm using the machine to exchange all of the old coolant?

Thanks.

 

[nicholas]

why are you going to use tap water ?

why not just use distilled water ?

 

[bdcardinal]

most coolant manufacturers say to NOT use distilled to shops. they tell shops that the coolany is formulated for tap water. its what ive always been told in any auto training.

 

[The Critic]

Prestone and GM both state to use drinkable water.

Toyota's SL and SLL coolants contain phosphates, hence their sensitivity to water quality, thus the SLL comes premixed. Ditto for Honda Type II.

Water quality is a bigger issue for phosphate containing coolant.

Thus, the Dexclone type fluids (i.e. Prestone Universal) is more tolerant of lower water quality.

 

[Drew99GT]

I can't find it now (surprising, eh!), but I found an article somewhere online that also said not to use distilled water for various reasons.

But if you shouldn't use distilled or demineralized water, why do 50/50 pre-mix coolants use them!