1996 Honda Accord Coolant

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
May 6, 2006
Messages
4
Location
Virginia, USA
Hello,
Does anyone know what kind of antifreeze is best for a 1996 Honda Accord. The car has Prestone Dex-Cool in it now but I was looking on the Zerex site and it looks like I can use G-05 as well. Any help would be appreciated.
 
Shoot, I've even heard of some owners using Honda antifreeze...
wink.gif
I had a '96 Accord 2.2L I4 and unintentionally allowed the factory fill coolant go four years before I changed it out. (misread the owner's manual recommendation) Even so, it drained perfectly transparent green. (Proof G0D loves drunks and fools - I don't drink.) After seven refills and drains with distilled water to remove visible color from drains into a clean, galvanized oil drain pan, I refilled with Texaco's orange DEX-COOL(tm) ultimately diluted to 50/50 with distilled water. I drove that car another three years until it was totaled. At no time during that time when peering into the radiator through the filler neck did I see anything but bright, scale-free, core tube metal looking back up at me. DEX-COOL(tm) or one of the dexclones works fine in Honda applications. G-05 would work at least equally well. Whether you change out your current fill of Prestone for G-05 really just depends on how obsessive you are.

My replacement car is an '03 Sonata 2.7L V6. It's over a year and a half into a fill with SuperTech 5/150 extended life antifreeze - made by Prestone and virtually identical to your Prestone coolant except for the SuperTech's bluish-green tint. (I wasn't having any problems with Hyundai's OEM green coolant. I just decided to cut its recommended three year changeout interval a year short and I'm glad I did - the factory fill coolant drained out clouded up, though scale-free. It might've been good for another year, but I'm glad I got it out anyway. Someone else posted awhile back that his Elantra's factory coolant went crappo rather quickly, too.)
 
The Honda OEM antifreeze has none to low silicates and borates. Thought I read it here or another site that the silicates wear out the bearing on the water pump etc. I have read the posts on this site but still confused.

Would rather not pay $12.95 a gallon for Honda antifreeze if I can use something cheaper wiht OAT.
 
I've been using PEAK Global EL a/f in my wifes 01' Accord and so far so good. This is an OAT antifreeze and has no silicates or phosphates.
 
quote:

Originally posted by 90lsteg:
The Honda OEM antifreeze has none to low silicates and borates. Thought I read it here or another site that the silicates wear out the bearing on the water pump etc.

None of the Japanese "big-three" automakers anti-freezes use any silicate content. They all use one form or another of OAT and a stiff dose of phosphate for hybrid corrosion protection. Dissolved phosphate attaches immediately like a leach onto bare aluminum. Eventually OAT will displace the phosphate back into solution. It takes OAT several thousand miles to build up to full protective thickness, so the phosphate gives immediate protection in the meantime. Silicates in formerly high levels common to traditional "green-snot-o'-death" antifreeze also render quick protection, but they also have a nasty tendency to fall out of solution as hard particulates after as little as a year and a half in service. (think fine "sand"-like) The result was premature water pump bearing seal failure with outright bearing failure to follow. That problem has largely been alleviated with current lower silicate "standard" antifreeze formulas, but they're still not as long-lived as OAT coolants. G-05 is also an OAT hybrid (and with a two decade track record, generally recognized as a very good one), but substitutes reduced silicate levels for phosphate.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top