Toyota coolant any good? Alternatives?

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From what others have said, the toyota red and pink coolant are very good. I have the pink (super long life) coolant from the factory in my corolla. I am planning on draining/refilling with pink in either 2 years or 50K. Good preventative maintenance
 
like any coolant the key is the change it every 20-50k miles. if you live in severe climats whether cold or hot i would go with 30k miles whether it says long life or not. this will keep from the need of flushing. just drain and fill. its easy...


-- btw you can use the green prestone (any make, any model) coolant in toyotas. its cheaper than yota stuff. just change it out every 30k. it will be fine.....
 
Toyota Pink = 100k (first change), 50k thereafter. I plan to drain and refill every 50k. Prediluted 50/50

Toyota Red = 30k. I flushed it at 30k and 60k. Just plan on drain and refill every 15k here on out. Must add water.
 
Toyota's current red coolant is an OAT (Organic Acid Technology, like DexCool), which like most Japanese coolants contains phosphates but no silicates.

It differs from DexCool primarily in that it lacks 2-EHA, which Toyota seems to believe creates some problems with gaskets.

From what I've seen the current Honda Coolant is about the same despite the color difference.

If you own only Toyotas their coolant makes a lot of sense.

Universal antifreezes, which are usually some version of a DexCool clone, often contain 2-EHA, which is something of a no-no.

In my own fleet, which includes a Toyota which came with the red fluid, a Hyundai, and an '06 Malibu I've settled on G-05, which is factory fill on Ford, Chrysler, Mercedes, and some others.

The slight trace of silicates doesn't seem to cause any problems in years of use, it avoids the low coolant problems that arise with DexCool and its clones, it's long life, and it's pretty much as close to a universal coolant I've been able to find.
 
DexCool and Toyota Red must be pretty close, because Toyota uses the red/pink in the Matrix; and GM uses DexCool in the Pontiac Vibe, which are the same cars with same engine.
 
The phs of Prestone green and Toyota red are 11.1 and 6.8, according to a virgin coolant analysis on this tread. 1-7 is acid, 7-14 alkaline. So there is a basic difference in the chemical composition of the two. Levels of silicon, boron, molydenum, and phosphorus are also quite different. I do not think they are interchangeable and do not think green is compatible with Toyota.
 
dave to your dismay people have been running green coolant in yotas for years and years with little or no issues. the key is the change the fluid regularly 30k miles or less since it isnt a long life coolant.. also use distilled water
 
I have been using regular green in my Toyota Avalon for 8 years (as a matter of fact, I just drained and filled it Friday) and never had a cooling problem- no leaks, no nothing. Thats just my own experience. Car is a 97 Avalon
 
My Dad has been useing Dex Cool in his 1995 Tacoma for a long time. Recently I replaced his thermostat and flushed the system. Since the water here in Michigan is hard I decided to use Zerex G-05 this time around. THe water was softened tap water. So far no problems at all. As long as you do not have coolant that pass's through plastic pieces I do not think their is anything wrong with useing Dex-Cool in a pinch. I prefer G-05 because I am familar with it and know that it works well even with hard water and that it is safe to use even when coolant pass's through plastic parts!

So as long as you are flushing I would think G-05 or Pentosin would be my first choices followed by all others.
 
I would not because I have seen many non-silicate water pumps destroyed by silicates.

If you aren't ready to trust Dexcool, buy some Peak long life coolant. It contains no silicates, but it contains Borates and a proprietary additive.
 
I know that all the Toyota's we have owned expect one my current 2003 Camry have never used Toyota coolant longterm. Not a one of them has ever had a water pump fail not even the ones that have been with us for 300,000 miles or more. I am guessing that the freq. changes trumped chemistry. Right now that 1995 Tacoma is around 200,000 miles and has three coolant in it. The Origanal Toyota Red, Then Dex Cool and now G-05. Most people that decide to go with non-Toyota coolant end up useing G-05 to avoid GM's Dex-Cool chemistry and still have good availability.

I can only imagine how many Toyota's that have had rad.,thermostat, heater core or been repaired due to accident that have some unknown bulk coolant in them. You almost never hear of freq. failures of cooling system on Toyota's. In fact the only engine that seems to have a more routine water pump failure issue is onthe 1.8L's used on the Carolla. Now bear in mind my family has owned Toyota's since 1979 so that is a long time to go with no water pump failures!

On top of the above how would anyone ever know if it was truly the silicates that damaged the seal? I mean if the vechile is already high milage you would never be able to say with 100% certainity that the coolant was why the pump failed as they are normal wear and tear type device that sooner or later does wear out.

In fact the only coolant that has universaly taken a bad rap for being destructive is Dex-Cool. So I find it odd that so many people would worry about silicates when little stink has been raised buy the green stuff we all grew up on! In fact Ford went to G-05 after it had issues with Dex-Cool. Chrysler went to G-05 after they got bought out buy DB. I doubt all those vechiles had their water pumps redesigned and validated for use with the new coolant.

I would also suggest that you take a look at a water pump from say a company useing Toyota Longlife or Ultra Long Life then look at one useing Dex-Cool and one useing G-05. Any part store can open the box and let you take a peak. I doubt you will find much difference in the bearing and seals based on coolant type used.
 
Originally Posted By: artificialist
G-05 is NOT Dex-Cool compatible. G05 uses Silicates and Borates.


G-05 was originally developed for use in Mercedes.

It is a very low silicate HOAT and contains amines for protection against cavitation erosion in diesels.

It is currently used in Mercedes, Chrysler, and Ford vehicles.

In Europe in the aftermarket BASF sells G-48 as its current replacement for G-05.

It handles low coolant levels a bit better than DexCool, doesn't soften plastics, and is reasonably tolerant of hard water.

I work with a mixed fleet of cars, including GM, Toyota, Ford, Hyundai, and Honda, and we've chosen G-05 as the "one size fits all" replacement coolant. We had run DexCool for four years, but ran into some problems with gasket failures on the Hondas which seemed to be coolant-related, and also found that cast iron block engines that ran low on coolant quickly rusted up.

So far we've had no problems at all using G-05.

At home I switched our Toyota Camry, Hyundai Elantra, and Chevy Malibu over to G-05 at the 3 year mark.
 
G-05 is what I prefer to use when Toyota Coolant is not available or it cost more then the customer wants to pay! I have not had a problem either and buy customer I normaly mean realative or friend since I have not worked as a professional automotive technician for a long long time. To date I think it is the best comprimise out their for hard to come buy coolants as long as one is going to flush and start fresh! It is cheap widely available and works great!
 
i think the main key with toyotas cooling systems is to drain and fill or flush the coolant system on a regular basis. if they say 30k miles then by gosh do it then or sooner. if you do that then it really doesnt matter what coolant you use. if you leave any kind of coolant in the system much longer than recommended then you will come across problems no matter what you are using..
 
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