Actually it has worked well in 4 of my cars and in several of my relatives cars. One advantage is the reduction in cost due to changing the coolant less often. In 6 years you will have changed it once and in the same time period you will have changed the green stuff 3 times. It is also better at reducing corrosion in aluminum engines.

I haven't owned a vehicle that had the green stuff in it since 1999 when I sold my 91 Olds Bravada.

By the way I cringe everytime I hear about trusted mechanics saying anything. That is about the time I make sure my wallet is in a hard to reach place.

Bill

 

Welp, there's two sides to every coin too. You simply can't ignore the large number of vehicles on the road over the last few years using Dex-Cool that HAVEN'T experienced cooling system failures either. That is of course unless one refuses to do so. Neither have I seen any (credible) evidence to NOT use it.

Now, do I think Dex is the greatest thing since sliced bread? Of course not. But do I think it is "Dexcrap" (your word)? No, I don't. I also choose not to believe "urban legends" ("stories"/rumors)and "one size fits all" conclusions either. Likewise those that may choose to believe that GM is using/recommending it with ulterior motives i.e. "planned obsolescence", "planned failures" or (most common "reason") "corporate greed". But hey, everybody loves a good conspiracy, right?

I suppose there MAY be something to cooling system issues in certain specific circumstances in the past, but the variables involved in trying to make heads or tails for a specific causation directly related to the use of Dex, and thereby extrapolating from that conclude that it is "bad" or "crap" for ALL vehicles ALL the time is enough to boggle the mind. Too many "stories" and "rumors" and anecdotal comments as opposed to credible scientific evidence with specifics.

To your comment re: "I'm not worried about your car, I'm worried about mine", I would like to point out that there is one thing we have in common. We BOTH own C5s, and I'm just sharing with you and others my experience with MY C5, with the same cooling system structure/design/materials as yours and many others here too and that I have experienced no cooling system issues whatsoever. I experienced no hose/gasket deterioration. So to say that "Just saying it's been OK in my car doesn't hold water with me", well that's your prerogative, but the MAIN reason we all come here is share thoughts/ideas/experiences as it relates to our C5, which have identical cooling systems, not Nissans/Toyotas/Hondas/Fords, etc. Sort of an "apples to apples" thing. See what I mean?

 

Your avatar seems to be appropriate judging from the way you cleverly avoided the question of, WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF USING DEXCOOL. PLEASE, BOTH THEORETICAL AND OBSERVED. And I think longer coolant life should be ruled out since so many guys on here say they still will use dexcool but just change it more often.

But you are right, we both are lucky enough to own a C5. So I will share this image with you. This is what was left after flushing all the dexcool out of my car. I didn't run any analytical tests on it, but it was black, rubbery, and brittle.

[IMG][/IMG]

 

How about use whatever you want in your car?

 

Hmmm, avatar judgements/comments notwithstanding, (and no need to shout BTW) I'd say:

Theoretical: Longer coolant life and very low toxicity (by all accounts several orders of magnitude lower than ethylene glycol based coolants) BTW, don't focus too heavily on the toxicity/environmental thing as I am generally not what you would call a "tree hugger" or "earth first-er". It just happens to be a side benefit as far as I'm concerned and was installed at the factory.

Observed: Good long service life and no hose/gasket deterioration internally.

In my case I drained, flushed, and refilled at approx 90K, using distilled as my water of choice. I chose to perform the service as MY choice, primarily based on living in a very hot climate and the time involved (5 years), not out of any "necessity" precipitated by some system failure. Higher under-hood temps are more common in the Southern climates, impacting both hoses and also belts, etc. and I replaced all the hoses in my system. Kind of a "PM" thing, capiche?

BTW, if that's pretty much all you observed in your drained coolant, I don't see what the major concern is, as the "stories" commonly bandied about seem to focus on "sludge" issues.

BTW, no less than Prestone has signed on to the "Dex-Crap" (your words again) bandwagon over the last few years and I seriously doubt they, along with Texaco, would stake their respective company reputations (and attendant legal liabilities) on a "crap" product. As I stated earlier, I see no compelling reason to NOT use Dex-Cool.

YMMV

 

Thanks for the answer, and well put too.

BTW I've also heard it called death-cool.

 

Why, thank you sir.

I DO find it sad, but a fact of life nonetheless, that once an "urban legend" (so-to-speak) starts, it tends to propogate throughout society and often grows larger in it's "allegations" thereby becoming so distorted over time that it's usually hard to figure out truth from fiction any more.

As they say: "Oh well"

 

I cant believe in all of these posters infinate wisdom and unbelieveable (purported) knowledge of all things c5 related, that no one will tell you the advantages of using dexcool.
There is only one - Dexcool is a non silicate coolant, this means it does not have silicate particles in it. Which translates into longer rubber seal life, particularly the water pump seal. That is all.

 

Does that translate into longer service life too? Thank you.

 

I suppose since at a molecular level, dexcool is "smoother" (if that makes sense) without the silicate in it, then it should take longer for it to become contaminated from scraping the insides of the hoses and coolant passages. That being said, it would be logical to assume that the service life would be longer since coolant dosent ever really "wear out", it just gets dirty.

 

For whatever its worth - I would recommend using the green coolant in any car that came with green. I also would recommend using dexcool in any car that came with dexcool. Whatever happens, dont mix them, that causes some weird reaction and it turns to a nasty sludge. Its for this reason i dont even try to convert from one to the other. I know you can, but even a very small amount of mixing between the two causes problems.

 

FYI, there was a class action lawsuit settled with GM concerning Dexcool in March. Not to say it proves anything but still not a good sign.

Overall, it works for lots of cars. When it works, it's a good coolant. When it goes bad, it goes very bad. Everyone here should be aware of this stuff and keep an eye on their Dexcool in all their GM just in case. If it turns bad enough there is very likely no fix that will clean it out of the cooling system. If it happens to go bad on you and you catch it soon enough you can replace the coolant and be OK.

I won't put it back in my S-10 because it will most likely start turning to sludge again. And, since I'm sure many are thinking it, I owned it since new, never mixed coolant and never had to add any until I flushed it out. I also only took it to a dealer once for warranty work so, it's very unlikely someone else topped it up with green on me. No-one has a reason for it turning other than just because it does.

Peter

 

As for some of the dis advantages on the green stuff, how many times have you seen a COMPLETELY CLOGGED radiator due to the corrosive build up around the cross tubes in the radiator. Ive seen radiators fail as low as 50,000 miles! It allows a corrosive hard white deposit to form on areas where theres a change in flow rate. Ive seen the same deposits around the smaller coolant passages inside the head.

So,,,the green stuff is NOT immune to problems! If you have a coolant reservoir tank on your cars with green coolant, take a look at the bottom of that tank! It will normally be full of sludge. I work on a LOT more cars that use green stuff than cars that use DEXCOOL and I can HONESTLY say that I see a LOT more cooling system issues with the green stuff. Of course, those care are not serviced and cared for as much as our C5.

I drained my 98 and 02 ZO6 around 50-60k miles and the DEXCOOL other than being a little darker was pristine. No, dirt, sludge, rubber or sediment. So,,dexcool went back in. NO PROBLEMS in my c5's and C6.

DEXCOOL USER HERE!

Bill C

 

A while back, I read an interesting tech note (believe it was in Engine Builder magazine), that stated that most of the GM Dex-cool related issues were due to air ingestion into the coolant. They specifically stated 2 issues:

1. If the cooling system is allowed to ingest air into the radiator (from a leak in the recovery tank or cooling system allowing the recovery tank to run dry), then that air will mix with the coolant and cause a sludge type of "mix". This could also be caused by a poor seal on the radiator cap (allowing air to be drawn into the radiator).

2. Radiator caps that have the vacuum valve (little valve that is in the center of most caps, on the inside that allows fluid to be sucked back into the radiator when it cools down) that is not spring loaded shut, can cause additional issues. They recommend only to use radiator caps with the spring assisted vacuum valves (if you remove the cap, and see the valve hanging down, it is the type they recommend not be used. If you pull on the valve and it snaps back closed when you release it, that is the recommend type.

I do not remember why they preferred one over the other, but I checked our 99 Jimmy, and found the "wrong" valve on the cap, with the beginnings of a sludge type mix (this was in 2002, so the Dex-cool was only 3-4 years old). I found the "wrong" type of radiator cap, flushed the system and replaced it with a good cap and everything appeared fine. Unfortunately the Jimmy was totaled in a rollover while my wife was driving, and daughter was in the vehicle (no real harm to them, and the Jimmy did it's job of protecting them), but I can not report on further results of the Dex-cool "experiment". And we replaced the Jimmy with a non GM vehicle (Dodge Hemi Magnum) with a lower CG and great cargo area, plus a whole bunch more POWER.

This was the only vehicle we owned that used the Dex-cool until we purchased the 03 C5 recently. Up till then, always used the green stuff (Peak brand mostly) mixed 50/50 with distilled water, and flushed it at 2 year intervals with never an issue. I will be flushing the 03 system shortly (just have to finish some other small projects first), but the system looks like new (from what I can see) and will continue the Dex-cool "experiment".

Note that I was always told that antifreeze does not wear out, but the additives get used up (with time).

Edit: Here is an article that describes the issues and radiator cap:
http://www.imcool.com/articles/antif...l-macs2001.php

It also indicates that the Blazer/Jimmy cap location is worse due to the angle of the cap bung on the radiator:
12. In ST Blazer applications where the radiator cap is mounted at an angle to the ground, the vehicle is more susceptible to radiator cap contamination and its related problems. The Stant 10230 is a wise choice for these vehicles.

Plasticman

 

Already said that one in this thread smart guy. Why don't you purport back to the dexcool factory.

 

I know, BUT in the very same paragraph you also said you owned a Nissan.

 

Try Pentosin phosphate-free. Available at Napa.