DITCH the Toyota Super-Long-Life! Says Mechanic

[SumpChump]

A long time Toyota Mechanic tells me this about Toyota Water pump leaks on engines such as the 25L and 2.7 L (2.5L comes in camrys for example)...

QUOTE
If you really want to get rid of water pump problems, switch to red coolant but you'll have to replace it every 30,000 miles and kiss your warranty good bye, but at least you won't have leaking water pump. THE Super Long Life EASTS THE METAL GASKET ON THE 2.5L THATS JUST HOW IT IS.

One note to anyone replacing their water pump on a 2AR-1AR engine which is the 2.5 and 2.7, The gasket is made of the cheapest junk china can make so it's very common to seperate when you take it out and leave residue, enough residue to cause the new gasket to leak. Make sure you scrape the contact surfaces real good before installing the new gasket and pump.

Taking this into consideration... with the fact that member MechanicX has explained in other posts that Toyota Long Life uses benzoate and the newer (more problematic)Super-Long-Life uses sebacic acid, which is related to sebacate. Sebacic is a type of carboxylate and is a plasticizer.

IS IT A GOOD IDEA TO GO TO TOYOTA RED? (Long Life is what they call it)

 

[racin4ds]

I'd drain any red/orange/yellow [censored] out and put regular old GREEN in it and be done! Its been around forever, it works in anything and it doesn't cause all these leaks and other [censored]!

 

[aquariuscsm]

Originally Posted By: racin4ds
I'd drain any red/orange/yellow [censored] out and put regular old GREEN in it and be done! Its been around forever, it works in anything and it doesn't cause all these leaks and other [censored]!


I'm with you on that. Back when I had to replace the radiator on my gfs Olds 88,the Dexcool that came out of it looked horrible! I put the new radiator,thermostat,trans cooler lines,hoses,etc on,and refilled it with conventional green. That's what my Nissan gets too.

 

[Y_K]

Switched all my Lexus LX to G-05 long time ago. BASF/Mercedes formula. Germans have been good chemists for ages.
The old, traditional green one has silicates, and this could be good for the water pumps, but you'd have to be on top of the coolant changes.
My Toyota mechanic told me years ago, that the pink one causes seepage at a minimum.

 

[bullwinkle]

News to me, my 10+ year old xB in my sig, my mom's '06 Matrix, & my aunt's '07 Matrix have had ZERO issues with the SLLC. No phosphates nor 2-EHA in the SLLC, nor the red.

 

[Trav]

Its good stuff i wouldn't change it. I changed it just recently on my MIL 10 year old Toyota and it came like the day it went in. I refilled with OE pink.

 

[JustinH]

Interesting, I got the service history for my 2008 Matrix when we bought it used. It needed to have a water pump replaced at 10k miles. Has not leaked on us yet, and I just changed it out again with the pink stuff.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

My 04 Camry hasn't had a problem with the OEM pink coolant and the Zerex Asian Car coolant I am now using.

 

[Merkava_4]

Switch to Prestone Dex-Cool. That's what I use and it keeps the engine cool.

 

[Chuckinator]

Coca-Cola will keep an engine cool. Myth busters did it

 

[Michael_P]

Isn't most everything out there nowadays low silicate? Even the green stuff? (in comparison to years ago)

 

[wemay]

Originally Posted By: Y_K
Germans have been good chemists for ages.


...and the Japanese are not?

 

[kozanoglu]

My green coolant leaks. Not pink, red or super Red.

 

[BISCUT]

I'm impressed with the purple stuff from Nissan. Granted I don't like the pre mix only (I'm a big enough boy to mix my self) and the cost isn't fun. But so far, about to ht 100k on the Armada and 1 drain/fill. No leaks or seeps.

 

[Y_K]

Originally Posted By: wemay
Originally Posted By: Y_K
Germans have been good chemists for ages.


...and the Japanese are not?


Since Meiji Revolution. They are getting there. Give them a few more centuries.

 

[wemay]

Originally Posted By: Y_K
Originally Posted By: wemay
Originally Posted By: Y_K
Germans have been good chemists for ages.


...and the Japanese are not?


Since Meiji Revolution. They are getting there. Give them a few more centuries.

 

[Y_K]

Originally Posted By: wemay

Spare me your histrionics, no point in taking everything so seriously. Japanese reign supreme in quite a few other departments.

Anybody aside from BASF offers tap water resistant formulation this good at the cost level?

 

[901Memphis]

Originally Posted By: SumpChump
A long time Toyota Mechanic tells me this about Toyota Water pump leaks on engines such as the 25L and 2.7 L (2.5L comes in camrys for example)...

QUOTE
If you really want to get rid of water pump problems, switch to red coolant but you'll have to replace it every 30,000 miles and kiss your warranty good bye, but at least you won't have leaking water pump. THE Super Long Life EASTS THE METAL GASKET ON THE 2.5L THATS JUST HOW IT IS.

One note to anyone replacing their water pump on a 2AR-1AR engine which is the 2.5 and 2.7, The gasket is made of the cheapest junk china can make so it's very common to seperate when you take it out and leave residue, enough residue to cause the new gasket to leak. Make sure you scrape the contact surfaces real good before installing the new gasket and pump.

Taking this into consideration... with the fact that member MechanicX has explained in other posts that Toyota Long Life uses benzoate and the newer (more problematic)Super-Long-Life uses sebacic acid, which is related to sebacate. Sebacic is a type of carboxylate and is a plasticizer.

IS IT A GOOD IDEA TO GO TO TOY OTA RED? (Long Life is what they call it)


So how many water pumps has this mechanic replaced to quantify this large statement?

I think even if it were true that the benefits of keeping the rest of the coolant system spotless for such a long interval between changes including the more expensive components far outweigh the drawback of a possible seepage or leak of a component that is already designed to be consumable and need replaced at some point.

Now if we would see large numbers of head gaskets being eaten then we'd have another story but I don't think we have a dex cool debacle on our hands.

 

[kozanoglu]

Give Germany a Fukushima, you will be able to see if they are good chemists or not.

 

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: BISCUT
I'm impressed with the purple stuff from Nissan. Granted I don't like the pre mix only (I'm a big enough boy to mix my self) and the cost isn't fun. But so far, about to ht 100k on the Armada and 1 drain/fill. No leaks or seeps.

If you're talking about the Nissan green, we've been a bit less than impressed with the stuff. A sizable number of the newer VQ35s and VQ37s will seep coolant externally from the head gaskets if the car has been running the green stuff. On the other hand, you pretty much never see it on the cars that are running the Nissan blue pre-mix. Our friends at the local dealer tell us that they have the same observations.