DEX COOL no good??
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 16
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DEX COOL no good?? So i was at my local Napa auto parts buying anti-freeze for my '98 Z28, and he said he had heard that Chevy discovered the DEX COOL and thought it was a good idea, but now they believe that is almost worse for your engine that the most generic green anti-freeze you can buy. 
Is this true or this guy just talkin out his ***? Thanks for your time. 
Is this true or this guy just talkin out his ***? Thanks for your time. 
TECH Regular
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 408
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From: Hoover, AL
i actually heard about a lawsuit from someone against GM, claiming the dexcool corrodes the head gaskets and causes them to blow. the green stuff is not bad if it is properly maintained. i use the prestone all makes and models in mine. i drained the dexcool out after i heard about it just to be safe.
I've heard both ways and I don't know which to believe. Gotta make up my mind before winter hits though, I need to flush my system (the mix isn't right, previous owner put more water in it than there should be so there is a risk of freezing in the winter).
TECH Fanatic
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 1,259
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From: Lexington, KY
There was a good thread on this a while back. I'm not a fan of it but the all makes/all models stuff is about the same thing, and it's all I could find last time I went looking. So about all you can do is just change it periodically.
Thread Starter
Teching In
Joined: Jul 2007
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http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news0...m_dexcool.html
check it out, I think this may spell the end for DEX-COOl, at least in my case.
check it out, I think this may spell the end for DEX-COOl, at least in my case.
Trending Topics
Samuel in Bellville, Ohio experienced a similar problem with sludge in the cooling system of his car.
The bright orange coolant often changes into a muddy colored liquid
automobile mechanics are advising that if you have Dex-Cool as a coolant in your vehicle, you should not replace it with another form of antifreeze.
If your car or truck came from the factory with Dex-Cool, you should continue to use that coolant both as replacement and to top off the radiator, the mechanics say.
If your car or truck came from the factory with Dex-Cool, you should continue to use that coolant both as replacement and to top off the radiator, the mechanics say.
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Dex-cool may have some buid-up problems from what i have personally seen but i disagree with the fact that dex-cool eats away at aluminum parts and plastic parts. If you change your coolant and flush it at the recommended intervals. 5 years or 150,000miles. I garrantee you that not a single person follows the intervals that are recommended.
11 Second Club
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 125
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From: Chandler, AZ
Dex-cool may have some buid-up problems from what i have personally seen but i disagree with the fact that dex-cool eats away at aluminum parts and plastic parts. If you change your coolant and flush it at the recommended intervals. 5 years or 150,000miles. I garrantee you that not a single person follows the intervals that are recommended.
How does aluminum and plastic rust??????
If you take care of your car it will take care of you.
properly maintain it and you will have no problems.
If you do switch get all the old stuff out ( IE heater core ), they dont mix well. Been there done that.
This thread has a lot of hearsay in it. Why not get the facts. There were several issues in the 90's with Dexcool, almost all were related to low coolant and systems not properly maintained. I have inspected my radiator and the block with a boroscope, it is as clean as the day it was made. There is not silicate build-up like you get with the green coolant. It was designed explicitly for aluminum, why would it eat it? I have even gone so far as to switch my 89 Suburban and 94 Grand Am to Dexcool, no problems in seven years but I also maintain it correctly. By the way, Dexcool and water wetter have similar properties so adding Water Wetter (which only reduces surface tension) to Dexcool is a waste of money.
I was at a a/c delco seminar last year and the instructor (who seriously knows his ****) says that dexcool gets a bad rep from the gunk you see at the top when you pull off the cap. He said that it is supposed to do that. Those are the contaminates in your system. IMHO all coolant needs to be maintained correctly to work the way it is designed. If you leave it in for many years all of it is going to have electolosis problems. Just try this once. take a dvom put it on volts and stick the pos end in your coolant and ground the neg end, you will get a reading. I cant remember what the spec is, but i have seen as much as 3 volts and that will eat up heater cores and **** real fast. Just my .02
I have used Dexcool on all of my previous vehicles one which has 197,xxx miles before I sold it (3.8 V6 firebird). No problems w/ this type of coolant.
BTW, I had : 91 S10, 98 sonoma, 2K Firebird, and what I have now in my sig.
BTW, I had : 91 S10, 98 sonoma, 2K Firebird, and what I have now in my sig.
TECH Veteran
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 4,055
Likes: 1
From: Hartsdale, NY
My 99 SS radiator re-fill reserviour is a gummie sludge mess but the rest of my cooling system has cristal clear orange antifreeze.
My 95 z-28 was the same way and it ran the green stuff...
I've changed the fliud twice with 57K miles....
My 95 z-28 was the same way and it ran the green stuff...
I've changed the fliud twice with 57K miles....
I use the Prestone all makes all models stuff. I dont like dex cool because it sludges up if there is any other brand of coolant. When i bought my car the momo put green coolant in it so i have flushed the cooling system with Prestone about 3 times. The reason i didnt put dex in is because if there was any green left i didnt want it to sludge.