Quick help with Green Coolant
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 46
Likes: 0
From: College Station/Dallas
Quick help with Green Coolant So my car starts to get pretty hot today will sitting in traffic. (On my way to get a tune checked). Its getting to that last white hash mark and then some. When I tell the guy at the shop he checks the coolant and its green. Well 2 months ago I had my water pump replaced and thus the coolant flushed as well. Ive been out of country for 2 months and the car has only been started and ran a handful of times. It started getting hot then too I was told. I know this is the coolant my mechanic put in. So I immediately go and see him. He said that the green is better than the orange and that It causes less deterioration cause it carries less electricity. He said either my fan is not coming on or thermostat isnt opening. My question is that I'm seeing mixed reviews about the green coolant, am I okay or is this a big problem?
Im not sure if it would cause overheating but from what ive read Dex cool (orange)=aluminum block, Green = iron block, theirs a change it could be causing it but by far the dex cool is a better coolant and is longer life, Id find a different mechanic,
Also it says right under the hood, ONLY use dexcool coolent
Also it says right under the hood, ONLY use dexcool coolent
Originally Posted by Starz T/A 17
Im not sure if it would cause overheating but from what ive read Dex cool (orange)=aluminum block, Green = iron block, theirs a change it could be causing it but by far the dex cool is a better coolant and is longer life, Id find a different mechanic,
Also it says right under the hood, ONLY use dexcool coolent
Also it says right under the hood, ONLY use dexcool coolent
TECH Apprentice
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 349
Likes: 1
From: Scottsdale, AZ
General Motors went to Dex-Cool to extend the replacement interval of coolant, which is roughly 5 years instead of 2. But if you check the Dex-Cool bottle, you can see that you can mix it with any other glycol-based coolant with no ill effects besides lowering the change interval. It makes no difference whether the block is iron or aluminum or magnesium. And from studies done on Dex-Cool (and my own experience) I've seen that the dissolved solids tend to precipitate out and form sludge, sometimes to the point that the radiator and heater core are plugged. I use blue coolant because I don't trust the orange stuff (and I get it for free) but color really has no bearing since it's just dye anyway. Unless the coolant was mixed wrong, the type has no effect on cooling capacity. Tell your mechanic to fix whatever it is he screwed up.
