Antifreeze: brands and underlying theory

[PS78]

Reddish coolant..could be some murky dexcool, could also be old Toyota coolant, or some other unknown cocktail. Advance auto always seems to have the zerex g5 full strength in stock. I was going to go the pentosin route after a full flush myself but after the online code the zerex g5 is half the price along with the distilled water I used for the flush and to cut the g5. Utilizing the savings for something else on the car.Just a thought.

[bmdubya1198]

I was just at Advance the other day and they had a full stock of Zerex G05 in the front window. Both pre-diluted and full strength.

[theWIFES_S70]

Looking at the coolant in the reservoir the color is reddish. I have no idea what the previous owner put in there but I am thinking they may have a mixture in there.

When you drain the system, pop off a few hoses or two and check to see if you have sediment/residue in there... I had a shop "flush" the system on my Altima and I have no idea what they placed in there, but whatever it was, it was reddish/orange. Fast forward a year later, I thought nothing of it until my thermostat went out. Well, when I finally got around to replacing my thermostat, I figured I would replace all my hoses, in addition to flushing the system... Well, there were layers and layers of sediment caked onto the insides of the hoses! And the coolant was absolutely horrendous! I'd say replacing all those hoses was probably a good thing! I don't think any color coolant will do any "metal deterioration" damage in the short run, but I would certainly try to get all of that out of there and get something good in there.

I'm a Pentosin NF fan on my wife's Volvo. Blue is one of my favorite colors...