35thSLP

Any opinions on which antifreeze to use? I an about to make a run to the parts store and was wondering if any of the brands are better or worse in terms of corrosion / electrolysis than others. any thoughts?

Serge944

Prestone Dex cool is phosphate free. Thats the only thing you need to look for. As far as cooling, the less antifreeze concentration, the better cooling ability. I run about 75% distilled water and 25% antifreeze.

Tony K

Anything phosphate-free. I've been happy with the orange stuff in the silver bottle for years, never had a radiator go bad or any cruddy deposits in any of my cars.

Make sure you thoroughly flush the system if you are changing types of antifreeze - some types form black gunk when they interact with each other.

Cheers,

Tony


Edit: Serge beat me to it! FWIW, I run 50/50 here in Ohio, no cooling issues.

35thSLP

Thanks! it is off to the Parts store.....

Dsalillas

I personally wouldn't use any Dex cool products. A couple of years ago I posted a thread about the downfalls. GM and Prestone are in the middle of many class action lawsuits due to the fact that Dexcoool destroys waterpumps. Do a google on Dex Cool and the frist dozen or so hits will be all negative press on the proiduct.

bleucamaro

my car's had green, plain old antifreese in it, and when I pulled the waterpump, it was imaculately clean inside the pump and in the block.

edit: check out this article for decent info. (backs up Serge's argument)

KuHL 951

The whole Dexcool fiasco was caused by GM claiming it to be a 100,000 mile coolant. Any brand of coolant left in a closed loop system that long will become extremely acidic and attack active metals such as aluminum. I have used Dexcool for over 5 years in all my cars without a single waterpump being eaten or radiator becoming plugged. There is nothing wrong with Dexcool that common sense maintenance won't solve. It was another marketing ploy that went bad, just like the BMW lifetime auto-transmission fluid that will come back and bite them in a couple years.

tifosiman

I don't use anything other than the VW antifreeze from my local VW/Porsche dealer.

Also, don't forget to use distilled water.

Tony K

I think the problem with all the Tahoes and Blazers is the manufacturer and the owners . . .

Tom R.

GM says dexcool should last 100k miles. the only problem is the rest of the car doesnt. they had to replace the intake manifold gasket on my dads minivan. they were kind enough to replace the coolant as well.

i ran the red in the redS2 without problems. the PO put green in the gray S2 two years ago, so it will stay there a bit longer until i replace it with dexcool since the dexcool is red like my interior. must be fashion concious.

xsboost90

whats antifreeze?

Manning

Most important things to remember are:

Do not mix coolant types as they may react to each other and degrade the overall corrosion inhibiting properties of the mix. The articles I have read say there is no real harm in mixing types though, other than the diminished corrosion inhibiting properties. Apparently gelling is caused by inhibitors settling out in stagnant portions of your cooling system, like behind an air bubble or in your heater core.

Do NOT use tap water of any kind, either well water or from your municipal water supply. Well water may have G-d knows what minerals in it and many municipalities add fluoride and chlorine to the water. These are very bad things to have in your cooling system since they will cause "drop out" deposits and corrosion. Use only distilled water.

Do not use water alone long term. You have to add something to the water to break the surface tension and prevent erosion by cavitation. That is the intended purpose of products like Water Wetter.

DO NOT rely on color to tell you what coolant is in your cooling system. If you do not know absolutely what is in the system and want to be safe, flush it and start over.

Never reuse old coolant mix as the inhibitors may already be depleted

AznDrgn

Prestone and a few other's have come out with something that is supposed to be a universal antifreeze. Apparently color doesn matter although it happens to be green it'll mix with anything and be compatable.