Good morning, guys! First time poster, here.
I have a 2012 Ford Focus, it currently has 63k miles - though, I've had this issue for over a year. This Focus uses the VC-3-B Ford Specialty Orange coolant (AKA re-branded Dex-Cool?) I noticed the coolant reservoir was a little low, so I topped it off with distilled water. When I removed the cap I saw that it had some build-up on it. A quick search at focusfanatics showed that a couple of other people on the forum had the same issue. A few said it was caused by a (vapor) leak in their radiator, but a few people also said it was normal. They said it was leftover stuff from assembly or the engine block wasn't immaculately clean, etc. I figured I'd come here and ask the experts.
After another year, this is the third time I've had to top off the coolant reservoir (which should be a closed system....) and this is what my tank looks like:
It's hard to see the particulates sitting on the bottom in this picture, but they're there.
So now what?
1. Keep going dealership to dealership until they find the leak that the first dealership couldn't find?
2. Clean the reservoir myself and re-top it off with Ford's coolant
3. Flush and replace the coolant myself every two years until my warranty is up, then switch to a different type
4. Ignore it (Maybe it is normal, after all...?)
I have a 2012 Ford Focus, it currently has 63k miles - though, I've had this issue for over a year. This Focus uses the VC-3-B Ford Specialty Orange coolant (AKA re-branded Dex-Cool?) I noticed the coolant reservoir was a little low, so I topped it off with distilled water. When I removed the cap I saw that it had some build-up on it. A quick search at focusfanatics showed that a couple of other people on the forum had the same issue. A few said it was caused by a (vapor) leak in their radiator, but a few people also said it was normal. They said it was leftover stuff from assembly or the engine block wasn't immaculately clean, etc. I figured I'd come here and ask the experts.
After another year, this is the third time I've had to top off the coolant reservoir (which should be a closed system....) and this is what my tank looks like:
It's hard to see the particulates sitting on the bottom in this picture, but they're there.
So now what?
1. Keep going dealership to dealership until they find the leak that the first dealership couldn't find?
2. Clean the reservoir myself and re-top it off with Ford's coolant
3. Flush and replace the coolant myself every two years until my warranty is up, then switch to a different type
4. Ignore it (Maybe it is normal, after all...?)