I just bought another work van, 2000 safari awd. Someone mixed green antifreeze in with the dexcool. Don't know how long ago, or how bad the mix is off. What's the worst case senario if I don't flush it till summer?

 

Basically automakers went with "new" anti-freeze due to the amount of aluminum surfaces that the anti-freeze comes in contact with. The older green coolant, over time would slowly "dissolve" the aluminum.

How much is too much? Who knows but the prestone adds state that it is compatible with all colors. No way to tell though.

Some thing that will help.

Bad News, Good News

The bad news is that it doesn't come down to color matching. Isn't all antifreeze compatible? Sorry, but it isn't. There are a few cases where you can get a fast case of corrosion, some where the water pump can be both eroded and corroded to an early death, and a lot of cases where you can shorten the effective life of the antifreeze. Antifreeze itself (most commonly a chemical called ethylene glycol) doesn't wear out–ever–but the key ingredients are the rust and corrosion inhibitors, and they get used up. The most common inh ibitors, silicates for aluminum protection, are used up faster than others. That's why some new cars (all General Motors, Mercury Cougar, VW/Audi models) have red or orange antifreeze with a new class of inhibitors, called organic acids. Examples of U.S. brands with these organic acids: Havoline Dex-Cool and Prestone Extended Life, both recommended for five years or 150,000 miles. That's the good news.

Fill 'Er Up

How about just pouring orange antifre eze into every cooling system, say, yours? Sorry, but it's not that simple. The new organic acid antifreezes may be used only if the cooling system has an aluminum radiator (rather than copper-and-brass).

However, let's assume the reaso n you're thinking of a coolant change is because you're changing a cooling system part (pump, radiator, heater, thermostat housing) on a system with a conventional coolant, not an organic acid orange or pink. In that case, don't change to organic acid ora nge, even if the part you're installing is aluminum. Use a fresh fill of familiar U.S. yellow/gold or green silicated antifreeze.

The two orange extended-life antifreezes are compatible with each other, with what's factory-fill in GM ca rs and the '99 Mercury Cougar, and with the pink in VW/Audi cars. However, they're not compatible with a special orange antifreeze in 1998-99 Chrysler L/H cars (Dodge Intrepid/Chrysler Concorde and 300M), a special "hybrid" mix of organic acids and silicates. The green in most Japanese cars contains no silicates, so it's not the same as the green in the parts store. The yellow in some European cars contains some silicates, but it's very different from yellow Prestone, the top-selling U.S. brand. And then there is red antifreeze used by Toyota, and blue used on some European and Korean cars.

Freshen Up That Cup For You, Sir?

What about just topping up a system that's low? What kind should you use? If the system (except for Chrysler L/H) has orange or pink, use Prestone or Havoline orange for top-up. All you have on hand is regular U.S. yellow/gold or green? Well, if you're desperate, use what you've got, because it's better than running low o n coolant and possibly overheating. But the mixture is shortening the life of the antifreeze. By how much? It would take lab tests to tell, so the best deal is to do the equivalent of a "retrofit." Can you retrofit all systems? Sorry, the answer is no. What about draining green or yellow/gold from the radiator and refilling with orange? Is that considered a "retrofit"? No, and you'd better not try that, either.

What if the system has Japanese green, Toyota red, Korea n or European blue, or European yellow? As we noted, European and Korean formulas have silicates, so U.S. green or yellow/gold is all right, but it slightly compromises the extended life formulas some have. Typically all that means is: Change at 30,000 in stead of 36,000 miles. The Japanese green and red antifreezes have no silicates, but they are very different from U.S. orange. If you really drain out the old antifreeze from any of these systems (thoroughly rinse the system with fresh water), you certain ly can refill with a U.S. yellow/gold or green silicated antifreeze.

 

I don't have anything close to the knowledge of the Boxcar man, but I will add a couple of comments.

1. It's probably worth replacing the antifreeze sooner rather than later. GM probably has a recomnded process, but it probably comes down to flush and fill ( with a really good flush).

2. As noted, you can't go by color. Some different color antifreezes are, in fact, compatible. If you can find the PO of your truck, it would be worth asking what they did. POSSIBLY it's ok.

Good Luck,

 

Whatever you do, have the cooling system flushed with green.

Some people claim that Dex-cool is good coolant. They're full of it. Dex-cool (the orange stuff in your Safari) is the worst thing to happen since GM oil cooler lines. It's junk. It will erode the aluminum in the intake manifold passages faster than you can blink....especially if it's still the original fill. The "organic acid" is just that...acid. It reacts badly with air (turns to a brown sludge), erodes aluminum, and smells bad. Not to mention, since nobody ever follows the replacement schedule (5 years/150K miles), it's ALWAYS past due for a change and the PH (acidity) is off the chart.


Do your van a favor. Take it to a local shop, have it checked for leaks (and repaired if any are found), then have them flush it with the standard green coolant.

DEX COOL IS THE DEVIL.

 

when i worked at the GM dealership there was a rumor too that part of the reason they also brought Dex-cool around too was because it also helped suppress Voltage across the engine through the cooling system.. and some of these newer cars are coming with extremely sensitive sensors that the smallest shock to them can whip them out... But like i said that was one of the reasons id heard for them switching to dex-cool...

as far as mixing green and red together.. i agree with the other guys.. get that system cleaned out ASAP.. and put in whats actually suppose to be in there...

in addition to what boxcar and others said about it eating away at the aluminum components pumps ect ect..... the change in coolant can also deteriorate the seals & gaskets as well...

Get that system cleaned out and replaced with whats suppose to be there...

 

i always hated having to clean that junk outta the blocks... i always seemed to be the guy in the shop that got the jobs where that stuff had formed....

 

older coolant had silicates in it that literally scrubbed deposits off the passages - such deposits would form insulation and negate the coolant.

some people say mixing the two will produce essentially breast implants in the motor. wrong place to put em I say, but I have never seen truth of this rumor.

the OAT coolant that is 'deathcool' is very high in sodium, get oxygen in the motor due to a low level and it literally melts away.

the new 'mix me everywhere' stuff is prety good and right now prestone has a $5 rebate on up to 2 bottles, which are $10 each at walmart. snap it up.

 

i know from experiance dex-junk + green = a black sludge that will plug up the block. also dex-junk is well junk i flushed the block in the GP and i know run the ethaline glycal in it

the resone dex-cool is not that great in the GM compunity is it likes to eat the intake manifold gaskets. i have fixed numerus cars under warranty for intake gasket related problems and all lead to dex-cool being acidict. there is also a lawsuit agiants dex-cool. i think antother issue is that GM claimed it was good for 150,000 miles this is not true it lasts just as long as ethylene glycal (green stuff) abought 60,000 miles or less

 

back when I had a 96 chebby and was a member of a site like this one for Ford, there was a lot of discussion about dexcool versus regular green stuff. The 94 and 95 models had green the 96 had Dexcool. Every winter when things got cold, there was a spate of reports about dexcool cars clogging up heater cores. Mine did this too.

Then there was a study performed by GM, Texaco and the US association of radiator shops and it turned out Dexcool was sensitve to any contamination and air in the engine. If you had dirt, you got more, like rusty sand. If you had air, it would drop deposits where the air churned around and these deposits eventually went to the heater core.

So the recommendation of the study was to be sure the cooiling system was properly bled and that the system was clean, especially the radiator cap. The radiator cap was usually the tip off that you had dirt in the system.

Now as far as dexcool mixed with green... A lot of guys discovered that this is bad. It essentially turned into gooey Jello and clogged up the system. So, you must use ONLY the green or dexcool and never mix them. Not sure how much was too much. Most guys got fed up with Dexcool and flushed their systems and used green stuff.

I kept dexcool in my car for 120,000 miles/7 years before I sold it. I did not like the dirty look of the coolant and the overflow tank so I flushed and changed fluid every 50,000 miles or less. The 100,000 mile fluid change looked like a poor way of saving a little money on coolant.

Good Luck,

Jim Henderson

 

Thanks for the replies! Taking the van to the garage monday morning to get a flush and refill. I'd do it here but the weekend is booked and it's supose to be in the teens again next week....really need to get my garage up. The way their talking they want to put dexcool back in so I guess we'll wait and see

 

Just watch the front corners of the intake manifold for orange crusties and leakage.