Originally Posted By: KenO
Originally Posted By: Leo99
Originally Posted By: KenO
Originally Posted By: dishdude
3 years is way too early to drain that coolant, it's a waste of perfectly good fluids.
I'm perfectly OK with that. I'd rather drain it often than have early water pump or gasket or other cooling system issues.
Why do you think you'll have cooling system issues if you follow the manufacturer's recommendations? Just a belief you have?
Manufacturers recommendations aren't always for the consumers best interests. They're more often for the manufacturers best interests. I'm a mechanic that owns my own shop - 95% of the cooling system repairs that I do are due to lack of maintenance. Degraded hoses aren't really a big thing anymore. Degraded water pumps, thermostats, head gasket or other gasket failures, radiators, stupid quick connect fittings on hoses now that only use an o-ring to seal (which are 1-time use - they leak far too often when re-installed for a reputable shop like mine to risk our reputation on reusing those things). A simple coolant flush keeps the pH in check, electrolysis in check, and anti-wear/seal conditioners in the coolant fresh.
That all depends. If the coolant in use has an additive package that depletes over time (silicates, phosphates, nitrite all fall into that category so G-05 and the so-called "Asian-formula" coolants are affected), then yes changing coolant refreshes depleted additives. Changing coolant more often doesn't really hurt... probably. I say probably because changing coolant DOES introduce fresh dissolved oxygen, which tends to gradually get driven out of coolant as it ages and goes through temperature-cycles. If nothing else, it gets consumed by oxidizing engine parts, and so long as fresh oxygenated water or coolant isn't introduced, the dissolved oxygen level stays low.
With pure OAT coolants, there is no depletion over time, so changing coolant early can really ONLY serve as a way to potentially introduce fresh oxygen into the system. So I'd argue against changing OAT coolants prematurely.