My 1995 coupe seemed to be running hotter than normal. I recently had my mechanic change my coolant and he was told to use Dexcool. Well, he didn't. I have the regular green coolant in the car and he only used 1 jug of coolant and filled the car with tap water. I am leaving on a short trip (100) miles in just a couple of hours and I would like to quickly change back to Dexcool. Would I need to do a complete flush or could I just drain the system at the bottom of the radiator and flush with a water hose until the water runs clear and put in a 50/50 mix of Dexcool and distilled water? Any help will be greatly appreciated. I don't want to do anything that might damage my engine. Thanks

 

relax #1, drive it.
when you come back. flush it real good until it is totally clear water. then swictch back if you wish...

 

Definately make sure it is totally flushed..dexcool breaks down badly mixed with water.

Joal

 

Joal-
What do you mean "Dexcool breaks down badly with water"? Do you mean with the green stuff?

 

What the hell is dexcool? Red or green? Its all sweetner anyway.
Same sweetner that goes into Dr. Pepper.

 

so, is there any problems with the coolants being mixed up??? experts, please clearify.

 

Bad news.

Dexcool and water/glycol are not compatible. It is important that the
system be flushed THROUGHLY, probably with a flushing chemical. Do
not expect to be done with just a quick drain and fill, this will NOT purge
the system adequately.

Check the C4 site for threads on Dexcool and also a recent one on
WaterWetter. The WaterWetter one had posts where people complained
about sludge and believed it was from WW but later determined that
Dex and glycol were involved.

Here are some of the threads

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=560666

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=547593

Some articles by Patrick Bedard (C&D) from last year

http://www.caranddriver.com/article....&page_number=1
http://www.caranddriver.com/article....rticle_id=2264

When everything is clean, use distilled water with whichever coolant
is chosen. Get 3 gal from the pharmacy section of your supermarket
($3.00 total?) and take it in if someone else is doing the work for you.


Do the quick fix if you must, but do not let the brew linger.




[Modified by Slalom4me, 11:31 AM 6/15/2003]

 

Dexcool is red color and regular antifreeze is green. Regular antifreeze can be mixed with water..Dexcool cannot. DO NOT mix Dexcool with anything..it is a stand alone coolant. The beforementioned post goes into more detail. Good Luck!

Joal


[Modified by ncsugreywolf, 7:47 PM 6/15/2003]

 

I just got my car yesterday and was thinking of having the dealer do a system flush and adding new Dexcool. Anything I should be l leery of when taking it to the dealer? I do plan on being there and having a talk with the svce mgr prior to any work being performed. Thanks...

 

I just read the Dexcool container.....says to mix with tap water :cheers: :seeya

 

Read your bottle. If you cannot mix your dexcool with water, it is already prediluted. You are paying extra to get a 50/50 mixture of dexcool and water. My bottle says to mix with water. I used distilled water.


Ron

 

dexcool gets mixed with water just like green freeze.

 

[QUOTE]Dexcool is red color and regular antifreeze is green. Regular antifreeze can be mixed with water..Dexcool cannot. DO NOT mix Dexcool with anything..it is a stand alone coolant. The beforementioned post goes into more detail. Good Luck!

Who told you you couldn't mix Dexcool with water???You should ask them if they smoke there lunch too!!!!!! :lol:

 

Ok for the guy with green coolant in his system.. I drive a 95 and I personally flushed my coolant system 4 times using a contraption to push water through the knock sensors and out the overflow and ran it for around 45 minutes each time till clear.. running cleaner in between flushes with water to get all the Dex_crap out of my car.. also opened the radiator petcock during flushes to flush it out in the same fashion.. Pushing water through the knock sensors out through the radiator.. Finally i was able to put good clean green in the car.. Now you may ask me why did i switch.. Simple this car has never had green coolant in it however every time i did a coolant flush and added new dexcool a week later it looked like brown sludge.. seems strange when i do a complete change why would my coolant system water look like rust.. so I did some investigating and came up with alot of info on dexcool.. First and foremost is that GM is being sued, there is a class action lawsuit against GM for there dexcool causing premature failure of any moving parts it comes in contact with.. they GM claim that this is only if it is mixed with the green stuff.. However I talked in legth with my local radiator shop and they told me as did many many people who are getting in on the lawsuit that he knows for a fact that many of the vehicles that he has done work on have never had anything but dexcool and he has had to replace pumps and radiators after only a few years.. Totally plugged radiators. I trust and know the owner of this shop he told me switch. Here is a link to the Television report on dexcool.. Also for your info the service manager at a local toyota dealership who was the service manager at a GM dealer for 12 years told me the same thing.. He said and I quote for some reason some cars don't like the dexcool. They would regularly switch it out for green stuff. http://www.10tv.com/consumer10/consumerhome.php

 

I've never used Dexcool. Just the green stuff. Heard too many negative things about it. I've noticed a slighty darker color to the coolant in my reservoir after using the recommended GM radiator pellets after a flush and fill, but that's about it.

 

within the Impala community, it is believed that those pellets and dexcool is what causes the problems.

My Impala had 4 heater cores, most likely due to the pellets.

 

So dexcool is a new product that replaces and old product that worked better?
Progress, aint it grand. Its like the upcoming all new C-6 that looks a lot like the old C-5.

 

Hey ProtoLT4,
If you haven't already taken the trip go ahead anf take it with the DEX. When you get back flush it out and go to the green. Our Vettes were never designed to use Dex. See my Tech Tip on how to flush it out COMPLETELY. The two types of coolant should not be mixed! As far as the pellets, no decission on their use. I'm going with out them. Now if I get a leak, in goes the pellets. Please use distilled water.

Enjoy your trip

 

:iagree:
From what I understand Dexcool is the orange or red which is what is in mine. It was NEW for 96 if you have a 95 yours shouldn't of had Dexcool in it to start. Unless you had already changed it yours should have been the old Green coolant. I have had no problems with the Dexcool but the posts listed above about mixing old with the new is correct. That is when you start to have problems.

PS: You do add water to DEXCOOL to optain the proper mix.


[Modified by Corvette1996LT1, 4:02 PM 6/16/2003]

 

If it was the mechanics mistake, I would make them do the complete flush on there $$$$$.