What coolant would be compatible with a yellow colored coolant? I'm in the process of replacing my coolant tank. The PO had done a coolant flush & replaced the thermostat in the last 3 years which is why I don't want to do another flush. He had told me "It's the right stuff, just a different color"

After doing a bunch of reading here, I thought they had put the orange Dex-Cool in it. However, when I compared what came out of the tank with the Dex-Cool I bought, the mixture in the car is a lot lighter in color (closer to a pee yellow) than the stuff I bought, even when diluted much more than 50/50.

I did read one post here that claimed there is a Porsche coolant that's colored orange/yellow and was supposedly newer than the pink stuff.

I just emailed the PO. Hopefully he'll answer but in case he doesn't or doesn't know, are there any clues on what might be in the car & what would be compatible with it? I obviously don't want it to turn to jello but I really don't want to flush the entire system when it's already been done in the past couple of years.

 

Flush it and get the right stuff in there, you can't be sure if the yellow has the right ingredients.

 

Probably Prestone brand. They manufacture a European specific coolant and then one that says safe for "ALL VEHICLES". Yellow is their most common color.

 

Just went down a Prestone rabbit hole. The cap on the all vehicles coolant is black and they don't say what color it is. I'm guessing it's either this coolant or the Porsche type yellow coolant I've heard mentioned here. I also saw someone mention you can mix the Porsche (or equivalent) yellow and the pink. Prestone also has a pink european coolant that's supposed to be compatible with 1996-2009 models. I assume that means it's compatible with aluminum engines.

From what I can gather, the coolant gelling issue is when you try to add the older IAT coolant to the newer OAT or HOAT coolant.

 

PO emailed me last night. He put in Zerex Dex-Cool. It's OAT or HOAT and made for aluminum so it should be good. I bought Dex-Cool type coolant to top off with when I put the new expansion tank in so I know they'll be compatible. Got the old one out yesterday.

 

Well, that's a relief. It's good to know it's not cat pee.

 

AGREE

 

I'm not sure but I'm guessing cat pee would be pretty hard on aluminum.

 

So i dont really have any data to back this but i have been working on cars for a long time and there is nothing worse then working on a coolant system that had dexcool. Its a gm product thats not really designed for our cars and to be honest im not even sure i would put it back into a gm car.

i would flush and replace with a better product if it were my car.

 

From what I've read, the coolant for our cars needs to be safe for aluminum, OAT and meet US and European environmental regulations. I'll be replacing the water pump in the next six months and I'll flush and put the pink stuff in then. It's been in the car for about 3 years. A few more months won't hurt it.

I got the new tank in today. The biggest pain was actually getting the bracket back on. I couldn't get the tank far enough out of the way to get the socket and extension on one of the bolts! The well nuts that hold the air pump on were both torn. I should get the new ones from Amazon tomorrow. Hope nothing flies out when I start the engine tomorrow!