Toyota Coolant - is it differant?

[Bill R]

I live in Ft. Lauderdale, FL - so keeping my engine cool is important. I change coolant every 2 years in my Corolla and RAV4.

Is there a good subsitute for the Toyota Coolant at $15/ gallon?

 

[JohnBrowning]

Not really. I would not replace the whole capacity any way. The Toyota long life coolant is good for 5 years. If you simply drain and refill the rad. with 50/50 Toyota coolant and distilled water every two years you should be good forever! Other coolants will work just fine if you flush out all of the Toyota Red or Pink long life. Most of your coolants today do not work well if mixed with different chemistrys. If I was going to use another chemistry and was going to flush I would use G-05!

My Dad has been useing GM Dexcool in his 1995 Tacoma for at least the last 5 years and he has not had any issues. His engine does not pass any coolant through anything plastic though either. i know some will say that I am being ignorant but every company that has passed Dexcool through plastic has had issues and has since developed their own coolant.

G-05 is easy yo come by since Zerex has it available all over the usa and thanks to those crazy Germans it works ok with hard water. I would still use distilled or at least filtered water with it!

 

[JHZR2]

Nothing thats cost effective IF you swap right and do MULTIPLE COMPLETE flushes... You end up wasting a LOT of time and water, to swap from a $15 to a $8 coolant. Worth it no.

There is a lot of good said about toyota red coolant. The overall price difference for a gallon of the stuff is minimal, no reason to scrimp, comapred to the cost of any of the system components. I still have the original alumium and plastic radiator in my 20 year old, 228k mile MB... How many can claim that? My secret? Yearly OEM coolant and citric acid flushes.

Go OEM with ATF and coolant. Cant go wrong that way.

JMH

 

[Ray H]

So, DEX-COOL and plastic are incompatible? Funny that DEX-COOL and other brand related products come in plastic jugs . . .

The incompatibility issue between different chemistries is way overblown in my opinion. What I've read from online industry sources boils down to don't mix conventional, heavily silicated antifreeze solution with long-life antifreezes because the precipitation-prone silicates will limit the working life of the mix to that of the conventional antifreeze. Even Prestone, ST, and Advance Auto state on their long-life products that their syrups are OK for the long haul when used to replace or top-up other long-life products. G-05 is a special case of silicate containing antifreeze/coolant - the reduced levels of silicates are much less likely to bail to the bottom of the radiator. The essential thing the Japanese (any Japanese OEM long-life chemistry apparently) are doing different from G-05 is using high doses of phosphates as a substituion for silicates as companion corrosion protection along with the orgainic acid technology. That the Japanese technologies work well and that the European model (G-05) also works well is reasonable testimony that there's more than one way to skin the proverbial cat successfully.

Finally, the cost of water - even bottled distilled water - is inconsequential at less than 60 cents/gallon [WallyWorld's "finest"]. For a mid-size car such as an Accord, Camry, etc., four gallons is more than enough to complete the flushing task. It actually only took about three gallons of DW to drain water-white clear* in my Sonata aluminum V6. I was in more danger of succumbing to boredom during the repeated idling warm-up cycles to open the thermostat than depleting my savings account . . . That's way less than $2.50 in water. (The slop Hyundai installed during assembly at Asan, Korea had turned ever-so-slightly murky in less than two years. Rather than wrestle with my angst over whatever real or imagined consequences of the minimal but visible turbidity, I decided to change out a year+ early. That was ten months ago to the day and the ST long-life juice, diluted to 50% with distilled water, is still bright green and perfectly visibly transparent.

)

*Once you're "there", you're down to very low single digit percentages of remaining old chemistry, if even that much.

 

[Al]

Well..say what you want about DexBrick. I used it in my 01 Nissan sentra. (I did a flush after a year and used it) After 2 1/2 years the Heater core started leaking and the heater core had a lot of gunk in it. Coincieence..maybe..but there are lots of DexBrick horrow stories out there.

I for one will never use the stuff again..period.

 

[Al]

quote:

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Originally posted by Ray H:
Sorry to hear about your experience, Al. Do you recall the mileage on your Sentra when you substituted DEX-COOL? How many miles on the old coolant at that time - or was it the original factory-fill? Did that model Sentra have a cast iron engine block? (If so, it likely would've been filled with conventional, highly silicated antifreeze originally.) How thoroughly did you flush? If there was still 10% or more of the original coolant present, especially if it were conventional antifreeze, it would've "soured" any OAT extended-life product if run beyond the usual two year span suggested for conventional antifreezes. While DEX-COOL has had a spotty record at best in GM products with certain engines, there are many more success stories than complaints when used in other make vehicles. Yours was one of the few of the latter - thanks for sharing.

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I had the origional coolant in for around 15K to 20K nukes. Perhaps I didn't do a thorough flush. My heater core went bad within 25K miles.

The engine is all aluminum. One additional point is that I used water pump lubricant..who knows. I now run the Genuine Nissan Coolant. I have been told that it is a really good product product..but who knows

 

[Ray H]

The Japanese antifreeze/coolants are definitely really good products.

 

[Ray H]

Sorry to hear about your experience, Al. Do you recall the mileage on your Sentra when you substituted DEX-COOL? How many miles on the old coolant at that time - or was it the original factory-fill? Did that model Sentra have a cast iron engine block? (If so, it likely would've been filled with conventional, highly silicated antifreeze originally.) How thoroughly did you flush? If there was still 10% or more of the original coolant present, especially if it were conventional antifreeze, it would've "soured" any OAT extended-life product if run beyond the usual two year span suggested for conventional antifreezes. While DEX-COOL has had a spotty record at best in GM products with certain engines, there are many more success stories than complaints when used in other make vehicles. Yours was one of the few of the latter - thanks for sharing.

 

[The Critic]

I'd run Toyota Antifreeze at least until the warranty runs out.

Although I'd stick with Toyota OE Antifreeze, Supertech Universal wouldn't be a bad choice and it's priced at gallon.

Michael