ZEREX Asian (Pink) Coolant Observations

[ZeeOSix]

I bought two 1 gallon jugs of the ZEREX Asian (pink, 50/50 pre-mix) formula for my Toyota Tacoma last week. I did the coolant change today, and found some kind of solid white-ish debris floating in the new coolant.

I happened to see it because I transfered the new coolant in to a 2 liter clear soda bottle that I put graduated volume lines on to make it easier to pour and to keep track of the volume added. I held a strong LED flashlight up to the side of the clear bottle, and if I sloshed the coolant slightly this debris would come up off the bottom and float around. It kind of looked like very small pieces of white paper napkin floating around. It would slowly settle back to the bottom in a few minutes. I shook the bottle vigorously for a minute and it seemed to mostly dissolve in to the coolant. So I'm wondering if what I'm seeing is some kind of additive that fell out of solution. I'm going to call ZEREX/Valvoline tomorrow and see what they say.

Anyone hear of, or have seen this with new coolant? This is a P-HOAT long life formulation.

If I would have just poured it straight from the jug, I would have never noticed this.

I bought it at the local NAPA Auto, so I'd think it's pretty fresh. Foil seal was intact on both jugs. The code on the back botton of both jugs is: C1901432476. 13:21

Anyone know how to read the manufacturing date?

 

[ZeeOSix]

Here's a photo of some of the white crud on the end of a dental pick. I filtered some of the new coolant through a coffee filter, then scraped it off the filter surface with the pick. Hard to get a good photo.

It's almost like a crystalline material - kind of has a crystallized sugar consistancy. It's soft and if rubbed between two fingers it feels slightly "gritty", but breaks down easily.

If it's something in the formulation that feel out of suspention, maybe when it gets hot in the cooling system and churned around by the water pump it will dissolve back in to solution (?).

I'll give an update on what Zerex/Valvoline says about it.

 

[Dan55]

Phosphates settling out of suspension ?

 

[diyjake]

I'm interested to hear what Zerex/Valvoline says about it, keep us posted.

 

[njohnson]

I had the same thing with our Zerex Asian coolant bottles, although it wasn't such a white crystalized sugar looking sediment, it was softer sediment in the bottles. Found it after changing the coolant on our SUV. Worried me at first, thought what did I just pour into the radiator.

I called the Valvoline tech line, the gentleman assured me that it was not harmful, it was some of the additives falling out of suspension. He said once the coolant was run in the engine, the heat would dissolve it back into suspension.

Just to make sure, I took a little of the sediment from the bottom and a little coolant and heated it up with the hairdryer. Sure enough, it dissolved back into the coolant and you couldn't tell it was ever there.

 

[Y_K]

Probably harmless, but I never had it with Toyota SLLC or Pentofrost A4 and I am always watching

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

I've used the Zerex product since it became available and have never seen any sediment or anything else in the jugs.

 

[WhizkidTN]

FWIW: I've gotten into the habit of always vigorously shacking up oil jugs, windshield washer fluid, coolant, gas additives, etc. prior to using them. A since deceased BITOG member got me doing this a few years back. I started using the Zerex Asian coolant a few years back with fine results as well. I DO wish they also sold this in a concentrated form (not the 50/50 jugs).

 

[Davejam]

I saw the same thing with Zerex Blue ~6months ago. It did not worry me.
Like someone has already said it is just salts which are intentionally there and they should re dissolve when heated and agitated within the cooling system.

 

[CR94]

Interesting! What happens when it gets cold? Seems that stuff that only marginally stays dissolved in summer temperatures would fall back out of solution then.

I hadn't noticed it in my pink Zerex Asian, because I've poured out only a little for make-up, so far.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted by njohnson
I had the same thing with our Zerex Asian coolant bottles, although it wasn't such a white crystalized sugar looking sediment, it was softer sediment in the bottles. Found it after changing the coolant on our SUV. Worried me at first, thought what did I just pour into the radiator.

I called the Valvoline tech line, the gentleman assured me that it was not harmful, it was some of the additives falling out of suspension. He said once the coolant was run in the engine, the heat would dissolve it back into suspension.

Just to make sure, I took a little of the sediment from the bottom and a little coolant and heated it up with the hairdryer. Sure enough, it dissolved back into the coolant and you couldn't tell it was ever there.


I just called the Valvoline tech line (1-800-832-6825) to see what they would say. The guy I spoke to didn't seem very knowledgeable on the subject, but did say they have seen this in some of their formulations and is probably just additives falling out of solution.

You doing the heat-up test and seeing the solids dissolve back into solution is good verification of this.

I asked how to read the date code on Zerex coolant jugs and got that info. The date code on the coolant jugs is not the same format as what Valvoline uses on their oil jugs.

The date code on my Zerex jugs is C1901432476.

C = Manufacturing plant (C is Houston, TX)
19 = 2019
014 = Julian date (Jan 14th)

 

[Y_K]

Looks like they cut corners and that is one of the reasons they don't list *all* of the ingredients.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

Originally Posted by WhizkidTN
FWIW: I've gotten into the habit of always vigorously shacking up oil jugs, windshield washer fluid, coolant, gas additives, etc. prior to using them. A since deceased BITOG member got me doing this a few years back. I started using the Zerex Asian coolant a few years back with fine results as well. I DO wish they also sold this in a concentrated form (not the 50/50 jugs).
Amen to that Whiz.

 

[nthach]

Toyota pink dries up with a distinct crust. The Japanese seem to favor sebacic acid as their organic acid, while the Americans and Europeans like sodium benzoate or the 2-EHA and a Na/K-bound salt of neodecanoic acid. But Dex-Cool dries up with almost no crust.

Sebacic acid doesn't dissolve well in water. https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Sebacic-acid#section=Solubility