Green VS Orange

[TxRonnie]

New to the forum and need to ask a question. I have a 06 Dodge 5.7 Hemi. It was low on coolant and I put Prestone 50/50 in it. It said it is compatable with any color and any model of antifreeze. I did some more research and everything I found said yes it is. I have read and heard from numerous people to not mix colors but it says right on the jug it is OK. What is everyones opinion? Do I need to change it out or let it go as is. It had orange in it.

Thanks
Ronnie

 

[asand1]

Your fine. Prestone AM/AM is neither Green nor orange, its actually yellow but color is not a real indicator anyway. Mixing old school green and orange Dexcool is bad because the two chemistries will gell.

 

[92saturnsl2]

I don't buy the 100% compatibility with any color garbage spewed by the marketing team of these antifreeze companies.

Your truck is not going to overheat, won't blow up driving down the road, in fact, you will likely notice zero difference between before and after.

However, you're introducing a new coolant chemistry into the system that wasn't intended to be in there. I'm sure Prestone has tested their coolant with all the different types out there to determine that nothing bad is going to happen, but it's still an unknown exactly how it will perform or what service life to expect from the mixture.

It stands to reason that 100% of the recommended coolant would perform acceptably LONGER than an mixture of unknowns.

I would maybe change it out a little sooner, but I wouldn't go out of my way to change it immediately unless you used a ton of the stuff.

FWIW, the coolant used in Chrysler vehicles of that era was G05, which is an extended-life organic acid based chemistry that is low in silicates (which was a component of the old green chemistry). If you buy the Zerex brand, I believe it's gold in color, but you can get the orange (I think it looks more like pink) colored G05 at your Chrysler dealer.

 

[Ed_Flecko]

I'm one of those people that thinks you should use ONLY the antifreeze that is OEM recommended. If it was ME...I'd drain it and refill it with what your manufacturer recommends.

Just my .02

Ed

 

[Rat407]

I'm sure Prestone has done their research on this. Why would they put out a product that would cause issues and then bring lawsuits?

 

[Donald]

I see no reason to use anything other than G-05 in your vehicle. The AM/AM antifreeze is to sell at a Quickmart when you need antifreeze at 11 PM on a Sunday night.

Zerex G-05 is readily available.

 

[Ed_Flecko]

Originally Posted By: Rat407
I'm sure Prestone has done their research on this. Why would they put out a product that would cause issues and then bring lawsuits?


That's an easy question to answer: $$$

How would anyone EVER be able to trace the problem back to a design flaw in their product, and how much $$$ would they have made in the interim.

Ed

 

[3800Series]

I believe orange is dexcool.

 

[901Memphis]

The color of the antifreeze is not an indication of its chemistry in every case. You need to know what you're pouring into but Prestone usually plays nice with most coolants. That being said Prestone all makes all models is very similar to Dexcool so it's highly compatible with dex cool.

 

[doublebase]

Colors basically mean nothing nowadays, I'd just be careful mixing Dex Cool with anything other than Dex Cool. I did it once thinking, no big deal. Well in a week I took my radiator cap off to check the level and it was like cake batter under there. I flushed it all out and it came out in clumps. Once I got the right fluid back in everything was fine...still have the car 200k miles later...original radiator, heater core and thermostat at 275k.

 

[Sayjac]

Chrysler oem 'Orange' is G-05. GM oem 'Orange-ish' is DexCool. So as said, color is a very unreliable indicator of AF chemistry.

Thinking your vehicle had Chrysler G-05 Hoat not DexCool. That being the case, I wouldn't mix Prestone AM/M 2eha Dexclone with G-05. 'If' it was GM Dex, I'd say ok because the chemistry is very similar, without GM DexCool license. But not likely the case here.

So in short, I'd be using G-05 either from Zerex which is yellowish/gold in color, of Chrysler OEM G-05. The Zerex is likely significantly less expensive.

 

[crazyoildude]

yup that dex cool should not be mixed even by itself it cakes up a cooling system and can cause all kinds of problems. When we put a dex cool block in our cleaner sometimes we have to do it twice. I dont like dex cool at all but in some cases it works ok. We use GO-5 or plain green anti freeze unless its for a GM shop!

 

[Subdued]

You really should flush that stuff out of there and use the proper fluid, G-05.

It's superior fluid and not really that much more expensive.

And to the "Why would they put out a product that would cause issues and then bring lawsuits?" guy, how naive can someone be?

Use the proper coolant.

 

[901Memphis]

Also Motorcraft Gold can be used in place of Zerex G05

 

[slomo]

Originally Posted By: 901Memphis
The color of the antifreeze is not an indication of its chemistry in every case. You need to know what you're pouring into but Prestone usually plays nice with most coolants. That being said Prestone all makes all models is very similar to Dexcool so it's highly compatible with dex cool.


I called Prestone tech support. They said their formula is OAT and "similar" to Dexcool. Taking about Prestone 50/50 mix AM/AM. He said the "OLD" "original" dex mixed with silicated green old school was a no-no, again back in the early days of DEX. His words were the new dex was sorta okay to mix with silicated green, if you had to only in a jam. So he validated mixing Prestone with any other would be okay.

If it was mine, I would flush/clean and drain, refill with dex or Prestone, same thing almost.

Prestone tech said OAT's are normally bottled as a 5 year 150,000 mile coolant. If you see the 5/150k on the jug it's probably OAT.

So we have either silicated old school green, OAT or HOAT which is a hybrid mixture of OAT and silicated green. 98% of all coolants are ethylene glycol. Remaining 2% is the corrosion package.

slomo