Originally Posted By: Or
Originally Posted By: Gokhan
There is no such thing as "green coolant" as a well-defined chemical. They widely differ in composition. Their protection on your system could be a hit or a miss.
Toyota Red cannot last for the long maintenance interval of newer Toyotas, which specify Toyota Pink.
Toyota Red is compatible with any coolant system that doesn't call for a specific coolant. It will also outlast so-called green coolants. However, always flush the system before you switch from one coolant to another.
There's a lot wrong in this post. Traditional "green" coolant is indeed a known quantity, not a hypothetical dream-mix.
Red and Pink are interchangeable; Pink has a listed, longer service life. Which is highly debated since it's made to meet political and marketing goals, not to prolong engine life. It is designed to last 100k miles and no more, and thus reduce TCO figures; it is not designed to maximize system life. Red changed more frequently is widely considered a better care system to maximize system life.
Red will probably work just fine in a prior green Ford vehicle, but it's a) triple the cost, and b) requires a double/triple system flush to get the old fully out of the heater core so no bad reactions happen. Way to ridiculous a cost/benefit/labor equation to bother with.
I don't want to sound harsh, but, unfortunately, your claims are entirely false. This forum is meant to be educational. If you aren't sure about something and you haven't done a thorough research, you should not contradict people with knowledge on the subject and who have done their research. Otherwise, the thread becomes full with needless false information.
Green coolants differ in corrosion-inhibitor package. The only thing they have in common is that they don't have organic acids in the corrosion-inhibitor package. The inorganic corrosion inhibitors still vary widely. Different OEMs specify different inorganic corrosion inhibitors. For example Toyota requires silicates while some other OEMs forbid silicates.
Toyota Pink has a completely different organic acid than in Toyota Red, sebacic acid vs. sodium benzoate, respectively. The organic acid in Toyota Pink will damage brass/copper/solder heater cores in 1995 and earlier Toyotas. A leaking heating core is a nightmare, as your entire dash as well as the A/C system needs to be disassembled to replace it. Do not use Toyota Pink with sebacic acid, DEX-COOL with 2-EHA, and similar super-long-life coolants in cars with brass/copper/solder heater cores. Toyota Red should be used in 1995 and earlier Toyotas.
Regarding flushing, you should flush the system when you switch from any variety/brand of coolant to another variety/brand of coolant. Corrosion-inhibitor-package chemistry widely differs even among green coolants as I explained.
To claim that Toyota, which is the No. 1 in vehicle durability/reliability, doesn't care about the durability of their engines... Well, I won't even get into that.