o8 vibe pink coolant full change or a drain/fill

[lucerne06]

should I just do a drain/fill every year from now on or just do a full flush and fill every five with the pink??

 

[Donald]

I would just do a drain and fill of the radiator with the correct coolant every other year. And if you forget one year you will still be good. You are changing about 1/2 the coolant so you need to only go 1/2 the service life.

 

[lucerne06]

the car is now 4.5 years old and has 37,000 on it. 60/40 city /highway. less then 8,000 per year.I run 1 year oci's with a quality syn.

 

[JTK]

Good question. I maintain my Mom's 2008 Pontiac Vibe and I hate the fact it's got GM coolant in it. I'm not sure if I want to go through the trouble of flushing it out for another coolant.

Everything else is a snap on these babies. Rear drum brakes (no ABS on this one) Transmission drain/fills are as easy as changing the engine oil.

Joel

 

[lucerne06]

surprised you have the gm coolant in it, every vibe from 06 up I have ever seen has the pink in it.

 

[JTK]

Hmmm.. Now that I really think about it, maybe it's not? I just *assumed* it was dexcool given the looks of it and the fact GM has to be able to support/service them.

Joel

 

[Rhymingmechanic]

I have a '10 Vibe. The owner's manual says Dex-Cool but the coolant in the overflow is bubblegum pink, so I think it's Toyota. I'll be using Toyota pink when I drain and fill.

The manual also says to use 5W-30 and, I think, T-IV atf, while the oil cap says 5w or 0w-20 and the dipstick says WS. It seems like one hand didn't know what the other was doing with these cars.

 

[tinmanSC]

Originally Posted By: JTK
Hmmm.. Now that I really think about it, maybe it's not? I just *assumed* it was dexcool given the looks of it and the fact GM has to be able to support/service them.
Joel

I've seen this come up in a few discussions. The engine is Toyota made (Vibe is a clone of the Toyota Matrix and the Voltz)and most people report coolant that is Toyota's pink color, but the manual says Dex-cool. One wonders if this is a misprint. I don't think I've ever seen a resolution to this issue. People just pour whatever they want in and hope for the best.

 

[MarkM66]

I have a '04, it originally had pink in it. I did a couple drain and fills with good old green. Started doing this years ago, and just drain and fill once a year. No problems. It's got about 160k miles on it.

 

[JTK]

Originally Posted By: tinmanSC

I've seen this come up in a few discussions. The engine is Toyota made (Vibe is a clone of the Toyota Matrix and the Voltz)and most people report coolant that is Toyota's pink color, but the manual says Dex-cool. One wonders if this is a misprint. I don't think I've ever seen a resolution to this issue. People just pour whatever they want in and hope for the best.


Yep, I'm well aware it's a rebadged Matrix. Like I say, it looks like Dexcool and I'll need to check, but I do believe the Vibe's owner's manual specifying GM Dexcool.

 

[kschachn]

I agree it is old but what makes it good, especially compared to Toyota pink?

Originally Posted By: MarkM66
I have a '04, it originally had pink in it. I did a couple drain and fills with good old green. Started doing this years ago, and just drain and fill once a year. No problems. It's got about 160k miles on it.

 

[SOHCman]

You can get practically all the Coolent out if you also open the block drain. It's a small spigot thing on the front side towards the passenger side.

My 04 came with what looked like Toyota red, and I just recently did a drain/fill with fresh Toyota red.