Which antifreeze for my 2001 Ford Windstar?

[seapea]

I have a 2001 Ford Windstar. I’d like drain and refill the antifreeze, but I’m a bit unsure about what to use. My main concern is making sure I use something that is compatible with what I already have, since about 20% of it will remain behind after I drain. It hasn’t been changed since 2014, although it only has about 20,000 miles on it since that time. Here’s what my records show for the 3 most recent coolant services:

10/7/10 159,034 Thermastat and flush
3/30/12 189,324 Thermastat & 40% replaced
3/21/14 226,151 50% replaced

I looked at the actual invoices for each above services, and they all have line items for “Type G” antifreeze. I’m not exactly sure what “Type G” is. Google search turns up G11, G12, and G13, not all of which seem to be compatible with each other.

The coolant is a light orange in color. There’s a small label on the reserve reservoir that seems to indicate that green is good and orange is not, so I can only assume that the original green was replace with orange at some point.

One other point of confusion is that the service manual shows two choices for the coolant:

• Motorcraft Premium Gold Engine Coolant (yellow colored)
• Ford Premium Engine Coolant (green colored)

But mine is neither green nor yellow. Possibly it was yellow and with age it is taking on more of a light orange color due to slight rusting or other contamination.

Any suggestions?

 

[brianl703]

According to the Motorcraft coolant chart, this vehicle takes the original green antifreeze:

https://www.motorcraft.com/content/dam/ford-motorcraft/en_us/motorcraft_global/products/lubricants/quick_reference_charts/antifreeze_coolants_english.pdf

 

[Lubener]

I use Zerex G05 in my Ford. It's much cheaper than Motorcraft and meets the Ford spec.

 

[Kira]

I'd get it clean and use G-05. "Original green" as a second choice.
My brother's '98 Windstar had green.

 

[seapea]

According to the Motorcraft coolant chart, this vehicle takes the original green antifreeze:

Yeah, but that's obviously is not what is in it now (it's light orange, not green). I need something compatible with what it currently has.

 

[seapea]

I'd get it clean and use G-05. "Original green" as a second choice.

I'll do a drain and refill, but I don't want to do a full flush myself. I'd rather just bring it in and have the shop drain and refill. At least they will know what coolant to use.

 

[Kira]

Your light orange could easily be diluted Dex-Cool.
I'm not being an alarmist over the known thickening D-C can make in open-to-air systems.
If the reservoir is open to air I'd endeavor to remove all the old D-C I could to be sure.

...but if your cooling system is clog free now, maybe you're safe.

Bro's '98 was among the very smoothest driving vehicles I've ever experienced.

 

[seapea]

Your light orange could easily be diluted Dex-Cool.
I'm not being an alarmist over the known thickening D-C can make in open-to-air systems.
If the reservoir is open to air I'd endeavor to remove all the old D-C I could to be sure.

...but if your cooling system is clog free now, maybe you're safe.

I'm not sure what an "open to air" reservoir is. The reservoir has a tightly sealed cap, but there is some air in the reservior.

 

[Kira]

As long as it's sealed and pressurized. Some systems had just a bug stopper flap on their reservoirs.
I read Dex reacts with air and, I assume, some types of coolant to make goo.

After seeing loads of mixed looking coolant, I'd think people would want to remove all doubt by doing a complete job. That's all.

 

[Snagglefoot]

I would not bother with the 12 year old recommendations. Prestone recommends their All Vehicles 10 year yellow coolant.

 

[BigShug681]

The label on the reservoir is simply warning against the mixture of different coolants, hence the orange and green bad and the green and green good to go

 

[seapea]

I've read through the posts, followed up on some of the links, and did other research. Now I simply feel stuck with what to do here. Let me summarize here, repeating some of what I've said in the opening post and elsewhere:

The car is a 2001 Ford Windstar. It has about 246k miles on it. It currently is driven under 1000 miles a year, and that won't be changing. It's worth next to nothing blue book, but as long as it keeps running fine, I plan on keeping it. Any major repair and it's going to the dump.

The most recent coolant servicing consisted of:

10/7/10 159,034 New Thermastat and flush
3/30/12 189,324 New Thermastat & 40% replaced
3/21/14 226,151 50% replaced

So it's been a while since the last service, but only 20k miles. The coolant color is a light orange (or maybe a dirty yellow). The owners manual says to use:

• Motorcraft Premium Gold Engine Coolant (yellow colored)
• Ford Premium Engine Coolant (green colored)

However, it also says "use the coolant type originally equipped in your vehicle", but I'm not sure what that type is. The current color makes me think it had the Premium Gold, but Motorcraft says it had green:

https://www.motorcraft.com/content/...erence_charts/antifreeze_coolants_english.pdf

However, Ford did transition to the gold the next year, and I know the engine didn't change, so maybe some cars got the Gold in 2001, or at least Gold is ok in 2001 as long a full flush is done first. Who knows. I just know what's in there now, and it's not green.

So rather than a drain and fill with a possibly incompatible coolant, I figured it would be best to do a full flush, and then add the Motorcraft Premium Gold. But on its label it states:

The Gold from the above referenced Motorcraft chart is WSS-M97B51-A1. The Green from the same chart is ESE-M97B44-A. So it looks like if my car originally had the Green, I'm not to use this Gold coolant in it. Maybe it's ok with a full flush first. Once again, I just don't know.

There was also a suggestion above to use the Preston All Vehicles coolant, but Motorcraft throws some shade at the All Vehicle coolants, making me wonder if they are worth the risk:

https://www.motorcraft.com/content/dam/ford-motorcraft/en_us/motorcraft_global/products/pdf/faq/Ford%20Motor%20Company%20Position%20Statement%20on%20Universal%20Antifreeze%20Coolants%202020.pdf

And the Motorcraft coolant is about $30 per gallon!

So given all this, just don't know what to do.

One more monkey wrench to add. If I'm doing a full flush, should I also use something like Prestone Radiator Flush and Cleaner to clean out the system? I've read that for old cars with a neglected cooling system, it could do more harm than good, dislodging sediment that ends up blocking the smaller passageways. Is it worth the risk in my case?

Thanks!

 

[brianl703]

Motorcraft Premium Gold is the same as Zerex G05 and you can get that for $20/gallon as a concentrate (add another $1.99 for a gallon of distilled water, you have 2 gallons for $22--mix 50/50)

If you fully flush what was in there, the G05 coolant should be fine.

After you've flushed it, you'll still have water in the system, so take half the capacity of your cooling system and add that much undiluted Zerex G05, then fill the rest with distilled water. This leaves you with a 50/50 mix of water and G05.

 

[nwjones18]

I’d do a full flush and start over with Prestone all makes/models

 

[seapea]

I'm finally getting back to this. Trying to do a full flush. I removed the two hose where they connect to the radiator on the lower right side of the radiator. I got about 7qts out. Specs say capacity is 16qts and I've read elsewhere about 80% should drain. Any idea why I'm getting less than 1/2 of the coolant to drain? At that rate I'll need to refill with water and drain 8 times to get to the point where there is less than 1% of the original coolant is still present. And then when I drain again and add coolant, I won't be about to get it up to a 50% mixuture without draining some of the new coolant/water mix.

And just a reminder, it's a 2001 Ford Windstar Limited (3.8L w/ rear heater).

 

[dumkid]

One way to flush (not professionally though) is to disconnect the heater and radiator hoses, hook one to the garden hose and let the others drain into a pan/bucket of considerable size, or onto the ground. Use the hose to push water through the engine and radiator until it comes out clear, and then drain and fill with coolant. You will have mineral/hose water in your cooling system afterwards but in my experience it takes at least 5 years of straight hose water (no antifreeze) for a cooling system to fail, if it doesn't freeze.
You could also just leave the coolant it has in it if you don't plan on keeping it for a long time

 

[seapea]

Yeah, I've been staring at the heater hose trying to decide if it is worth disconnecting. It's not easy. My plan was to then just use an air compressor to see what I can push out.

 

[brianl703]

You will have mineral/hose water in your cooling system afterwards but in my experience it takes at least 5 years of straight hose water (no antifreeze) for a cooling system to fail, if it doesn't freeze.

I wouldn't do this. I have well water. City water from surface water sources is OK.

 

[dumkid]

I also have well water. I forgot to mention that I drained as much of the flush water out as I could before refilling it but I didn't flush again with distilled water

 

[seapea]

BTW, what % of old coolant is it safe to leave behind if replacing with a different coolant? I believe what is in there now is Motorcraft Premium Gold, but I'm not certain, which is why I want to flush it all. I plan on replacing with Zerex G05, which Brian previously indicated is the same as Motorcraft Premium Gold, but I need to be cautious since I'm not 100% sure that is actually what is currently being used.